Hello everyone,

I have a few questions about Frigate and security cameras, and I thought this would be a good place to ask.

I’m new to security cameras and Frigate, so please excuse any basic questions I might have.

I have a PC at home with an i7-8700 CPU running Proxmox, where I plan to install Frigate in an LXC container for device passthrough.

I came across this Amcrest camera on Amazon: Amcrest IP5M-B1276EW-AI. Since Amcrest is recommended, I assume it should work well, but I’d like to confirm before purchasing. If you have any camera recommendations in the $60 range, I’d appreciate them.

I also read that having dual network interfaces is recommended. My router doesn’t support creating new subnets (I don’t know if that would be a problem), and my PC currently has only one network interface. My initial plan was to get a PoE switch and connect the cameras and the router to it, but would getting a separate PCIe network card, and then connect my PC to the switch instead of the router work for creating a separate, internet-less network?

Lastly, I understand that using a Coral accelerator is highly recommended. I’m deciding between the $25 PCIe version and the $60 USB version. Does Frigate benefit from the more expensive USB Coral, or is the $25 PCIe version sufficient? My motherboard is a Gigabyte B365M DS3H, in case that’s relevant.

Thanks in advance for your help!

  • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    If you can use the openvino stuff, you can skip the coral.

    I actually saw a performance improvement moving from the coral to the openvino/iGPU, amusingly enough.

    • TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz
      2·
      3 months ago

      I put a passively cooled GT1030 in mine and its doing the decoding & tensorrt detection for 4x 1080p cameras just fine, based on its current load I expect I could add another 4.

      I couldn’t tell you if that specific Amcrest camera will work, but I have 2 of the recommended ones on the frigate docs (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083G9KT4C/) and they work.

    • om1kOP
      2·
      3 months ago

      I could do that, but I don’t know if the iGPU of my i7 8700 is good enough. Even then, if it means taking load off my CPU I think it would be worth it.

        • om1kOP
          1·
          3 months ago

          I might try this then. How do you run openvino, is it included in the docker container, or is it external?

          • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Just a configuration option for Frigate, https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/object_detectors/

            Other than picking that type, I don’t think I had to make any other configuration changes as I was already passing the iGPU through to the container for hardware acceleration.

            (As a side note, even with openvino, 4 cameras using the hardware decoding, AND jellyfin transcodes, the iGPU basically sits at 5% usage. The openvino stuff is shockingly efficient.)

            • om1kOP
              1·
              3 months ago

              That’s great to hear. I will have the exact same usage you say (jellyfin transcodes, camera decoding and openvino). Thanks for the info!