{"id":3408,"date":"2018-07-28T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-28T07:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.3.4\/?p=3408"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:47:12","slug":"3408","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/?p=3408","title":{"rendered":"DVR Video from Images Captured from IP Cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working with thousands of image files captured from IP Cameras can be problematic. I’ve experienced issues with Caja hanging when simply browsing the folders that contain the captured images. To work around this, I compile video with FFMpeg from the image stock into a separate folder.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First I’ll create a file list using this command<\/p>\n

ls \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726*.jpg > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
The results will then need to be processed so FFMpeg can use the file as a reference.<\/p>\n
Before – Not ready for use as a reference<\/p>\n
\/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726235704.jpg\r\n\/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726235710.jpg\r\n<\/pre>\n
After – Now FFMpeg can reference this<\/p>\n
file '\/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726235716.jpg'\r\nfile '\/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726235722.jpg'\r\n<\/pre>\n
Here are the commands I use to fix the reference file.<\/p>\n
sed \"s\/\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam3\/file \\'\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam3\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Pre.txt\r\nsed \"s\/jpg\/jpg\\'\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Pre.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Process.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Pre.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
Now with the reference file formatted correctly, I’ll issue my FFMpeg command to compile the images into a video<\/p>\n
ffmpeg -y -r 30 -f concat -safe 0 -i \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Process.txt\" -c:v libx264 -vf \"fps=30,format=yuv420p\" \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.mp4\"\r\n<\/pre>\n
I’m greeted with this error<\/p>\n
[concat @ 0x1ed93e0] Impossible to open '\/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726050442.jpg'\r\n\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Process.txt: Invalid data found when processing input\r\n<\/pre>\n
It turns out that some of my image files are empty due to the IP camera being offline. So to fix this, I’ll run this command to remove empty image files.<\/p>\n
find \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/ -size 0 -delete\r\n<\/pre>\n
Then I repeat my commands from earlier<\/p>\n
ls \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726*.jpg > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.txt\r\nsed \"s\/\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam3\/file \\'\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam3\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Pre.txt\r\nsed \"s\/jpg\/jpg\\'\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Pre.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Process.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Pre.txt\r\nffmpeg -y -r 30 -f concat -safe 0 -i \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726_Process.txt\" -c:v libx264 -vf \"fps=30,format=yuv420p\" \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.mp4\"\r\n<\/pre>\n
It starts to churn through all the images, creating the video. The processing took 5 minutes to create the 5 minute video.<\/p>\n
Now I’ll run the commands for IP Camera 2<\/p>\n
ls \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam2_20180726*.jpg > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726.txt\r\nsed \"s\/\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam2\/file \\'\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam2\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726_Pre.txt\r\nsed \"s\/jpg\/jpg\\'\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726_Pre.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726_Process.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726_Pre.txt\r\nffmpeg -y -r 30 -f concat -safe 0 -i \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726_Process.txt\" -c:v libx264 -vf \"fps=30,format=yuv420p\" \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam2_20180726.mp4\"\r\n<\/pre>\n
…and IP Camera 1<\/p>\n
ls \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam1_20180726*.jpg > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726.txt\r\nsed \"s\/\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam1\/file \\'\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam1\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726_Pre.txt\r\nsed \"s\/jpg\/jpg\\'\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726_Pre.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726_Process.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726_Pre.txt\r\nffmpeg -y -r 30 -f concat -safe 0 -i \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726_Process.txt\" -c:v libx264 -vf \"fps=30,format=yuv420p\" \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam1_20180726.mp4\"\r\n<\/pre>\n
Now I can purge the image files, since they are now compiled into a video. This command should do perform the house cleaning function.<\/p>\n
rm \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam1_20180726*.jpg\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam2_20180726*.jpg\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726*.jpg\r\n<\/pre>\n
This can be setup so I can enter in when and what camera I’d like to process. Here is the code I used to handle all of the functions.<\/p>\n
#!\/bin\/bash\r\n# cloudacm.com\r\n# a shell script used to process images from ip cameras.\r\n# this is executed manually and will prompt for when and what to process.\r\n\r\n\r\necho What camera would you like to process?\r\necho IPCam1 = 1\r\necho IPCam2 = 2\r\necho IPCam3 = 3\r\n\r\nread cNum\r\n\r\necho What period of time would you like to process?\r\necho YYYYMMDD\r\n\r\nread dNum\r\n\r\nfind \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/ -size 0 -delete\r\nls \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"*.jpg > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\".txt\r\nsed \"s\/\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam\"$cNum\"\/file \\'\\\/home\\\/local\\\/Videos\\\/Security\\\/IPCam\"$cNum\"\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\".txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"_Pre.txt\r\nsed \"s\/jpg\/jpg\\'\/\" \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"_Pre.txt > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"_Process.txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\".txt\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"_Pre.txt\r\nffmpeg -y -r 30 -f concat -safe 0 -i \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"_Process.txt\" -c:v libx264 -vf \"fps=30,format=yuv420p\" \"\/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\".mp4\"\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"*.jpg\r\nrm \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam\"$cNum\"_\"$dNum\"_Process.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
The process can be fully automated. However, the resulting videos have a higher percentage of non activity in them. Reviewing these videos would require more time than is worth the effort. I’ll cover that in another post. I hope you have enjoyed this topic and look forward to having you back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Working with thousands of image files captured from IP Cameras can be problematic. I’ve experienced issues with Caja hanging when simply browsing the folders that contain the captured images. To work around this, I compile video with FFMpeg from the image stock into a separate folder. First I’ll create a file list using this command ls \/home\/local\/Videos\/Security\/IPCam3_20180726*.jpg > \/home\/local\/Scripts\/IPCam3_20180726.txt The results will then need to be processed so FFMpeg can use the file as a reference. Before – Not ready…<\/p>\n
 Read More  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-vision","category-raspberry-pi","category-rd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3408"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3411,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions\/3411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cloudacm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}