Motion Release 3.2.4 - Release Notes

Summary of changes since 3.2.3

Features

• New text option text_event and new conversion specifier %C. Option text_event defines the value %C which then can be used in filenames and text_right/text_left. The text_event/%C uses the time stamp for the first image detected in a new event. Default value is %Y%m%d%H%M%S. %C is an empty string when no event is in progress (gap period expired). Pre_captured and minimum_motion_frames images are time stamped before the event happens so %C in text_left/right does not have any effect on those images.
• Added new option track_auto which is a boolean option (on or off) with default value off. This enables people to start Motion with auto tracking enabled. Changing the config value for track_auto and enabling the auto tracking via the httpd track/auto has the exact same effect.
• Added 3 new tracking options: track_step_angle_x, track_step_angle_y, and track_move_wait. The options track_step_angle control the movement during auto tracking and are currently only active for the pwc type tracking. The idea is that they can later also be used for the generic tracking as it evolves. The track_move_wait controls the number of frames after the camera has moved (auto or manual) during which motion detection is disabled. This option should be set so low that the motion detection is re-enabled the minute the camera is standing still again.
• Added new sql_query option. This in combination with convertion specifiers incl the two new %f and %n enables the user to use any database structure they please. Adding fields is now a simple matter of modifying the sql query.
• Added the %t conversion specifier which is the thread (camera) number.
• Added two new conversion specifiers: %f which is filename (full path) and %n which is filetype (sqltype) valid in on_picture_save, on_movie_start, on_movie_end and sql_query. This also means that filename is no longer appended at the end of the 3 on_xxxx commands.
• http control had a number of small improvements.
• Added the debian sub directory so that people can build the deb package.
• Enhanced netcam compatibility with Lumenera and Pixord Cameras.
• Netcam feature now supports both http and ftp.
• Added an infinite retry scheme for netcams that are not available when Motion is started. Instead of just dying, Motion now retries every 10 seconds until the netcam is available. Until the netcam is available Motion enters a mode showing a grey image with a text information which is fed to webcam, timelapse, snapshots, vloopback etc. If the actual height and width of the netcam does not match the dimentions in the config file Motion will perform a quick restart.
• Added a better error handling of a netcam that changes dimensions while Motion is running. Instead of just writing error messages Motion restarts quickly to recover from this change.
• FreeBSD Code improvements including set/get hue, saturation, contrast and brightness, support large resolutions.
• RPM specs file changed as suggested for use in the Livna repository.
• Changed the sequence of events connected with creating files. Data is now written to the databases (if used) before an external commens is on (on_xxxx options) allowing the external program to use the new data in the database.
• Motion is now also works on MaxOSX with similar feature set as FreeBSD.

Bugfixes

• netcam code now waits for the next frame to arrive for a limited period in order to avoid too many duplicate images.
• Motion loop resets its frame timer when the image received is from a netcam. This lowers the actual framerate of Motion to the rate the netcam can actually keep up with.
• Removed all warnings when running ./configure --with-developer-flags.
• Fixed error message with unknown config option.
• Fixed small mistake in allocating memory for cnt->imgs.common_buffer.
• Implemented a speed-up patch of the draw text feature.
• Introduced check for device image size being a multiple of 16.
• Switchfilter feature repaired.
• Fixed small bug where motion was detected when using a tracking camera and the camera moved to center position when gap period expires.
• Implemented fix to configure so that LDFLAGS from the environment are used when making the Makefile.
• Changed configure so that --with-jpeg-mmx is default off as a reaction to known problems seen when using the jpeg-mmx library.
• The lightswitch and switchfilter features have changed to ensure that both algoritms work on raw unfiltered motion pixels which they both were designed for.
• Fixed bug related to init of mutex in netcam code.
• Fixed small bug where the displayed time in the grey error image shown during start with unavailable netcam could show a garbage value under rare circumstances.
• Restored the function sigchild_handler so it contains the same code as before motion-3.2.1_snap9. They is done in an attempt to fix an old problem with zombie child processes that has shown up again.
• Added a work-around so people in FreeBSD that uses a capture card where input 1 is not tuner can use motion if frequency is set -1 in motion.conf or thread#.conf

Known Problems

• See the http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/BugReports for open bugs.
• The pwc-ioctl.h is for pwc version 9.0.1, 10.0.X. If you still use the pwc 8 series then you need to use the headerfile pwc-ioctl.h-pwc8.0 (copy the pwc-ioctl.h-pwc8.0 over pwc-ioctl.h). This is relevant for USB cameras using Philips chips.

Download

• From Sourceforge: 3.2.4
• See http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/DownloadFiles for an overview of binary packages for RedHat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu etc.

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Bug Reports