Constatus
Constatus is a digital video recorder and streamer.
Apart from simply recording video, it can also monitor, convert, transform, filter and multiplex video-feeds. Feeds like IP-cameras, "video4linux"-devices, the new PipeWire system, pixelflut, VNC-servers, Raspberry Pi-cameras, etc.
An important feature is checking for motion. If it sees anything moving, it can start recording and stops recording when the motion stops (surveillance software).
While Constatus monitors the camera, you can use the built-in webserver (and VNC server) to view the video stream concurrently.
It runs on most if not all hardware that supports Linux: from Raspberry Pi 1B systems up to AMD ThreadRipper and Intel Xeon systems. Since version 4.2 it also runs on 64-bit windows (using WSL or by using cygwin), FreeBSD 12.1 and MacOS X.
It has plug-interfaces for input-, output- and meta-processing.
features
Note that these lists are not complete. New features are constantly added.
inputs
- video4linux
- PipeWire
- MJPEG cameras
- RTSP cameras
- JPEG cameras
- plugin interface
- pixelflut/pixelflood
- VNC
- gstreamer pipeline
- libcamera
output
- AVI file(s)
- PipeWire
- individual JPEG files
- HTTP (Web-) streaming
- video4linux loopback device support
- built-in VNC server
- plugin interface
- pixelflut/pixelflood
- gstreamer pipeline
- SDL (gui window)
motion detection
- configurable detector
- masks
- motion detection plugin interface (included is an OpenCV based motion detector plugin)
- trigger via GPIO pin - that way you can use e.g. a PIR to start recording
audio detection
- constatus can start recording video when sound reaches a certain level (currently only for ALSA devices, e.g. USB cameras)
filters/effects
- add generic text (also via mqtt)
two versions: fast (low CPU) or scaled (text can be any font, size or color) - boost contrast
- convert to grayscale
- add box around movement
- mirror vertical and/or horizontal
- neighbour average noise filter
- picture overlay (with alpha blending)
- scaling (resizing)
- plugin interface (e.g. some of the frei0r effects plugins)
- chroma keying
views
- alternating source
- picture in picture
- mosaic
- proxy video feeds
manage
- Web interface
- REST interface
github
Constatus is on GitHub.
support
On github you'll find a bug-tracker.
For questions: mail@vanheusden.com or #constatus on libera.chat.
Also the sources has a "examples/"-directory containing example configuration-files.
Tip for mplayer & low framerate mjpeg streams: use the "-nocache" switch or it may not start at all. vlc works fine, of course.
demos
RevSpace is running constatus on 10 cameras
Constatus can also stream 3D video (not a live demo).
links
Somewhat related: motion and zoneminder.
Termcamng streams the output of a terminal application using MJPEG over HTTP.
Via GitHub you can sponsor me and my work: