Recording Video Calls

i had heard the opposite. where did you hear it was possible? the recording format is set to WAV

Just started with my research, and you know how much miss information is on the web, so I would not suggest I know what I am talking about. Here is what I have found that makes me think it may be possible.

This first link is from Grandstream.
http://grandstream.com/support/gxv_series_surveillance/gxv3611/document…

Some additional links that looked promissing.

http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/6466
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+video

I have also joined the Asterisk-Video forum and am getting the idea it may be possible not only to record video but also add video VM and video conferance options. Asterisk may be the platform of choise for doing unique SIP Video applicaitons. I may be just drinking the cool-aid at this point and don't really know the trouble I may be in for.

Thanks for your valuable advise. Take a look at the links I included to see if this approach may be OK to try.

Thanks Erik

I have used video with Asterisk. when you leave a voicemail, it will record the video as well. When the person 'listens' to the voicemail, they see the video as well.

https://www.thirdlane.com/forum/mobotix-ip-cameras-configuration

-Matt

Thanks Matt,

Yes, I work with Henry who posted the responce on the Mobotix setup.

We have been using Thirdlane/asterisk with Mobotix cameras using SIP for a couple years now and have had very good success. Putting smart IP megapixal cameras together with SIP endpoints like Grandstream Video phones, Unidata WIFI Video Phones and Xlite softphones and a flexable solution like Thirdlane/Asterisk, you can really come up with some unique solutions for your customers.

I just tried to leave a VM but only recorded audio. What version Asterisk are you on.
I am using 1.4.24.1 but I know how to upgrade if needed.

Any additional things I need to do? It would be to good to believe that it would just work. I tried my test call using X-lite to an extension that has the video codex defined but when I play the recorded .wav file with MS Media Player from the user portal it doesn't display video but audio plays as expected.

What am I missing?

BTW- I am really hoping to be able to do call recording like normal setting up the portal to record all calls and if the call is video then record the video. I know this is more difficult because you can not just mix the audio before recording to a wav file.

Also want to do video conferance rooms and video IVR, Video MOH, etc but I may be smoking to much of the good stuff and not thinking clearly. I am sure reality will set in soon as I get into this, and I will wake up from my dream of comming up with something unique to offer my customers besides another PBX.

Erik will, no doubt, throw some cold water on my idea, and wake me up to the reality that it is not possible or to much work, but nothing easy is ever good. To paraphrase Kenedy about going to the moon, we chose to do asterisk, not because it is easy but because it is hard..... or something to that effect.

Thanks for any help or comments.

lol, well for a little cold water .wav has no video component, its an audio format. It would have to be a video format like avi with an attached video codec like divx, mpeg-2, h264 etc. As far as just working out of the box, the features rolled into pbx manager (such as 1-touch recording) specifically sets the channel variable to monitor_format=WAV. Your global variable RECORDING_FORMAT is also set to wav or WAV which are all audio-only formats. If the voicemail app is inteligent to recognize a video connected channel and switches over to a video format, well that sounds prett cool.

I am not sure if video conference rooms are even possible. How would a video phone represent a room with 50 other video devices, all of which are transmitting constant video and audio? It seems as though video phones are peer-to-peer devices. Peer-to-multi seems like the job of a huge picture-in-picture flat-panel tv. What codec do you specify on the sip channel for the video phones? I bet there might be some MOH possibility.

I agree with most of your comments and am not sure exactly how or if it works at all but it seems to be someting that is in the works and some have clamed success. I am open to adding some third party components and I am not big on everything is free mind set. Usually 0 cost is exactly what it is worth.

As far as having a 50 user conferance, although this is not abnormal for audio conferances, this is not how video colaboration is typically done. 3 or 4 party video conferance is usually what you see and a perfect fit for most of the small MT customers I am dealing with. Something close to the typicall talking heads you see on CNN every day.

My first step is to just record the video between two grandstream video endpoints. I don't even need to mix the two video streams into one avi or mov file. I do need to keep the audio in sync with the video stream.

I will continue to wade through the forum postings and will keep everyone informed on what I find. If anyone has already gone down this road and know the bridge is washed out 10 miles down ahead. Please let me know.

Thanks Erik for your comments. You are such a valuable resource on this forum and for thoes of us trying to learn asterisk and all it can do. I know you must long to have a conversation with another dCAP certified (grown up) but I am not even close yet.

Ran across this a few min. ago.

http://www.asterisk.org/doxygen/trunk/AstVideo.html

Any more research on the subject?

**Update

I have found a mailing list, Asterisk-Video, and determined that video recording is possible. This type of recording working now is similar to recording video voice mail greetings and playing back video in video IVR type applications. This missing piece is the ability to jump in a active video call and record both ends of the call, much like the call recording in TL under the user portal.

Sergio from the mailing list and the developer of the video capabilities mentioned above said he could develop the ability to record a Video Call for $750 Euro and it word take aprox. 2 weeks of developent and testing. He has most of the pieces developed but just needs to put it together.

This is well within the budget we were considering and my customer is pondering the situation now to see if we are going to pay for the development and take the next step and do a pilot project to test the waters.

If anyone else is interested, please let me know and we can combine or efforts and come up with some interesting applications. With so many new Video phones and SIP softphones including Video capabilities, this will surely be requested more and more and having this options will make your products unique in the market place.

Denis

Dennis,

Failry new to ThirdLane, not so to Asterisk.
Actually part of the mailing list you mentioned above.
would be interested in talking to you further re:Sergio's proposal to "tie it all together".
Let me know if this is still applicable.
Thx,
Karim
GenesisMO.com

Sure Karim,

Give me a call or email.
9728311600 ext 116
denis@abptech.com

asterisk gives us the functionality of recording the voice as a video. and we can see the video as well when we see that recorded message