Subscriber Discussion

Does Anyone Work With ZoneMinder (Opensource VMS)? I Need To Compare It With Other VMSes

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Rafael Oneda
Aug 21, 2017

Hello people.

I have seen increasingly many customers thinking to use a opensource VMS like Zoneminder... So, I want to know if anyone already installed and operate thia app and what was your experience.

 

IPVM team.. what about a comparison? I also saw little material about Digifort (they have a big marketshare in Brazil).

 

SD
Shannon Davis
Aug 21, 2017
IPVMU Certified

I have a customer that uses this program with Axis cameras. They really like it and the fact they don't have to pay for the program or any licenses. To me the interface is not very good from what i have seen though but what can you expect for free!

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JH
John Honovich
Aug 21, 2017
IPVM

Rafael,

Zoneminder has been around for a long long time (more than a decade). They had a period earlier in the decade were active development slowed or even stopped, though they are working it on it now.

The main issue in terms of us covering Zoneminder is that low cost DVRs and NVRs ($100 or $200 appliances) have become so predominant that most people who want something cheap are better off buying a low cost recorder than getting free software and loading it on a PC that is typically more expensive than a commercial recorder, never mind the time to set it up and any issues with making it work, etc.

Have you asked these customers why they are using ZoneMinder instead of a low cost recorder? I am genuinely curious to hear the reasons since ZoneMinder rarely comes up.

As for Digifort, we definitely recognize their market share in Brazil but not clear about what specific differentiators are there against global competitors (see a recent discussion on this - Digifort VMS, Competitive Yet More Powerful Than Its Rivals ?)

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Rafael Oneda
Aug 22, 2017

Hi John.

 

Thanks for you answer.

I work with Milestone, Genetec and Digifort, and I'm having difficulty to justify the investment in these softwares versus the free options, mainly in government.. they have a preference for opensourse.

So, I want to discuss technical differentials.

Some differentials that I think:

1 - Anybody can erase video: dont have the anti-fraud or anti-error mechanisms (sometimes shit happens), neither logs of events.

2 - The payed solutions have a pop-up "to do list" that provides instructions to operator. This feature enables to investigate how the operator reacted to certains events (e.g. events treated like "false alarm") and see if the operator is working right.

3 - Free VMS needs more expensives servers.

4 - Doesnt works in multi-site implementations.

5 - Only suport PTZ controlled by serial port (I'm not sure about that)... Only controll PTZ clicking on screen, its necessary to develop the code to controll IP PTZ cameras with a joystick.

Can you help me with more details?

JH
John Honovich
Aug 22, 2017
IPVM

Rafael, I am little surprised to hear that anyone in government would want ZoneMinder. It's not designed for enterprise use.

I think your point (4) is really important because it limits scaling.

Also, you don't mention manufacturer / developer support. If something does not work with Milestone, Genetec or Digifort, they all have people to work on a fix, either to help educate or to issue new software versions. With open source, you are at the mercy of the developers unless you have your own developers in-house, which will cost a lot of money and time to extend / solve problems.

Other questions:

  • Does it support ONVIF? It certainly is not ONVIF conformant, per ONVIF's list.
  • Does it support H.265?
  • Does it support or have any issue with smart codecs?
  • Does it support multi-imagers?
  • How does it handle / dewarp fisheye cameras?

That's just off the top of my head.

I can totally understand why technologists and developers might like ZoneMinder for their own use but ZoneMinder is neither technologically advanced nor well supported enough to be used by governments.

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Neal De Pape
Aug 28, 2017

We reviewed this VMS several months ago with an eye towards using it in a proof of concept.  There were significant challenges with the UI being so poor versus the paid versions.  But the thing that ended our efforts was that all camera passwords were stored in clear text.

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Rafael Oneda
Aug 28, 2017

Neal.

Thanks for help. This is certainly a great argument to refute the use of ZM.

SL
Steve Lewis
Aug 28, 2017

Be sure to consider the terms of open source licensing. Most people believe open source = free software which is not necessarily the case.  It is "free" as in free speech, not free beer. Free to view the source code, free to distribute and modify, and sometimes free to license; however, Open source can have two types of licenses, Restrictive (copyleft/reciprocal) and Permissive.  

Restrictive licensing requires the licensor makes improvements and enhancements under similar terms (licenses establish a specific trigger for sharing obligations). 

Example: GPLv2 - licensee must distribute "work based on the program" and cause such works to be licensed at no charge under terms of GPL

Permissive - modifications/enhancements remain proprietary.  Distribution in source code or object code is permitted provided copyright notice and liability disclaimer.

Example: BSD, MIT and Apache.

Furthermore, open source projects typically use other open source which should be carefully used (i.e. perform security scans and compliance) as your End User could be subject to security risks and license liability.  According to Black Duck Software, 67% of security audits find open source with vulnerabilities (i.e. Heartbleed - OpenSSL, Shellshock - Bash, Venmon - QEMU, Ghose - GNU C lib).

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Neal De Pape
Aug 28, 2017

Steve, those are great callouts and definitely should be considered by anyone considering an open source alternative.  And your post should really be referenced for any open source consideration not just VMS.
Having a commercial software vendor allows you as the end user to leave those responsibilities to the software vendor.  
In addition to the licensing considerations, you need to think about technology lifecycle.  Perhaps your customer requires you to upgrade to a new server operating system patch for cyber security reasons or wants to use a new camera.  If that breaks ZoneMinder, you have to either code up your own solution or wait for the community to provide a solution.  

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Isaac Connor
Feb 02, 2018

Hi Neal,

 

I'm the main developer of ZoneMinder these days. 

 

It does ONVIF discovery, not much else

It does support h265

I'm not aware of any issues with smart codecs

It does handle multi-imagers

It does NOT dewarp fisheye

It is used by a variety of commercial/health/government organisations.

It can scale to thousands of cameras

Supports fully distributed multi-site installation

It does store camera passwords plain text in the db. I've never really considered that a problem before.

 

Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions regarding ZM.

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Moe Alam
Oct 15, 2018

I used to use ZoneMinder and it turned out it wasn't good enough for enterprise use (or any use really, the performance was just bad in all aspects). I searced the web for something similar but kept finding ZoneMinder. I got fed up and started my own.

 

it is released under dual license, one GPL+AGPL and the other a custom license to monetize my work.

https://shinobi.video/features#learn

Check it out https://demo.shinobi.video/

username: demo@shinobi.video

password: demo

 

i am open to suggestions to make it better :) I've read some concerns above and will be addressing them in Shinobi.

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