Confused about storage allocation

[AlKoch]

Hello,

I am confused about how to control storage for clips saved from a Rule and the "ongoing" temporary clips.

In https://www.sighthound.com/support/managing-your-video there is a description of the following settings on the Tools > Options > Storage menu:

- Total amount of disk space used for video. Change the number that appears after the text "To store video, don't use more than."
- Amount of temporary video stored. Edit the number that appears after the text "Temporarily keep all video for up to."

I am using v2.3.2 but there are no entries for these items. I do have "For clips and temporary video, use up to" and a Temporarily keep all video for up to" items but these are very confusing.

Can someone please clarify how I specify the two items at https://www.sighthound.com/support/managing-your-video.

Thank you.

[Devin]

Hi AlKoch,

Sorry for the confusion, I'll try my best to explain these settings:

* "For clips and temporary video, use up to: ___GB" - Set this number to however much space you would like to use for all video that is saved with Sighthound, regardless of whether it is temporary video or video saved by a rule.

* "Temporarily keep all video for up to: __ hours" - Change this number to assign the amount of time you would like Sighthound to keep the temporary video. Temporary video is all video coming in from your camera, regardless of rules or objects seen. This is useful in case your rule missed an import event and you need to search the video outside of your rule filter. Generally to be most efficient it's best to keep this low so that you are mostly saving video that is saved by a rule. For example, if you have this set to 24 hrs and you have 2 cameras, Sighthound will save a total of 48 hours of video (24 for each camera) which will eat up a lot of your storage space

Hope that helps,

-Devin

[AlKoch]

Thanks Devin - that clears that up!

[Bob_Ecl]

Sorry to resurrect this old post, but it accurately described part of my confusion about storage, so it's a good starting point.

I think I understand Devin's answer, but doesn't that mean that eventually the 'saved clips' will consume all allocated Sighthound storage leaving no room for temporary storage? Or, is the temporary storage reserved as part of the total and the clips fill the balance?

Thanks.

[Devin]

Hi Bob_Ecl,

Temporary video is given priority in the storage allotment. For example, lets say I have one camera configured which generates 100gb's of temporary footage in 24 hours. If I set the temporary footage to 48 hours and have the total video storage set to 500gb's I'd end up with 300gb's of space for my saved clips (500 total minus 200 of temporary video). If I added a second camera I would then only have 100gb's of space for saved clips (500 total minus 400 of temporary video).

Regards,

-Devin

[Bob_Ecl]

That clears it up.

Thanks Devin!

[ropedrag]

So, I'm still a bit confused on this.

Lets say I'm on vacation someplace where internet access isn't an option, during this time some event happens at home and is captured by "rule"on two of my cameras. I return from vacation weeks later and need to know wtf happened, am I able to see the clip(s)?

Thanks

[Semper Vaporo]

It depends on a few things... all interrelated.

Of course it depends on how long ago you wish to view videos.

But the major one being how much disk space you have allocated to Sighthound.

That space is consumed by the videos and how big they are, which is a function of the resolution and frame rate from the camera(s)... High frame rates (30 FPS) and high resolutions (720P or more) take more space than lower rates (10FPS) and low resolutions (SVGA or less). Values in between produce exactly that... file sizes in between high and low values. Also of concern is the compression method used... high compressions algorithms consume less space but can severely compromise legibility. And the amount of motion and “complexity” of the scene also affect the ability to compress the data… busy scenes and lots of motion take more space in a compressed file than no motion. (Lots of trees shimmering in a breeze can make a mockery of “compression” capability!)

You have some control over these criteria… if you can accept low rez and low frame rates then you can get more video in the available space, but most folk want high rez to aid in identifying faces, etc. and high frame rates make for a more fluid video… but note that Sighthound requires at least 10 Frames per Second and that is not really very bad to view the video later. A fast moving object might only appear in 3 or 4 frames as it moves, whereas at 30 FPS it would be in 9 to 12 frames, so if you step through the video with a program that allows one to single step the frames you can get a better idea of what you are looking at. (Sighthound does not do single step viewing, you’d have to access the file with another program and that is easiest done by having Sighthound copy the clip to a separate file someplace else, whether to the same computer in a different folder or to some other computer via the cloud or a USB memory stick, etc..)

One more item you have control over is how long you want Sighthound to hang on to temporary video. And that depends on how you want to make use of the temporary video. MOST of the temporary video is totally useless to anybody… might as well just take a picture of the scene and hang it on the wall. For most scenes there will be lots of time where there is no motion at all (empty office overnight, view of a residential street with little or no traffic at any time, etc.). There are times when I want to refer to the temporary video because I may see something in a motion detected video and wonder what was behind the cause of the motion before it showed up. Nice to get a glimpse of that sometimes… Also there can be action in an area outside of the Rule defined area that might be of interest before or after the Video Saved by Rule.

The program will limit how many files are saved in the allotted disk space by deleting the oldest Raw video that was not marked by a rule to save when the allotted space is used up. It will delete the Saved by Rule video if the space is used up AND there are no Raw video files older than the number of hours you have set the program to save them. If you set that number of hours really long, then the program might have to delete BOTH the oldest Raw video at the same time it is deleting the oldest Saved by Rule files and the data being deleted might be relatively recent. Set it to a short time and you can retain Saved by Rule videos a lot longer because the disk will not be filled with the Raw video files.

Note that Sighthound periodically scans through the Raw video and the database that points at the Rule detected video times and split that data out, deleting the video around it. So if the Raw file is, say 15 minutes of data but the Rule saved portion is only 20 seconds (5 seconds before the trigger point of the rule and 15 seconds beyond that) then the file is reduced to only 2.2% of the original freeing up lots of space!

Personally, I like to save as much of the Raw data as possible so I set the time limit to 192 hours (8 days), but in the space I have allocated (850 GB) that means, with 7 cameras with an average of just a medium resolution and as low of a frame rate as they will allow (they are a mix of cheap Webcams and “better” IP cams), with what I consider a low number of Rules triggered, I can see Rule triggered clips as old as a little over 5 weeks. Those days have anywhere from 5 to 150 “events” per day, depending on the day of the week (car and pedestrian traffic... and how much wind there was making the trees mug for the cameras!)

I got a bit too wordy here… sorry.

[edbdfish]

What strange logic. Why wouldn't there be two paths? Allocate specific amount of mem/time to saved clips, and a different amount of mem/time to temporary video. Currently it's unnecessarily confusing and destructive.

[Semper Vaporo]

The logic may seem strange, but the overall limiting factor is available disk space for any video. Temporary Video (that not to be saved by rule) is mostly useless and taking up space that otherwise could be used for long-term storage of video that is of more interest (Rule Saved Video). If the program were to have two disks to put the video, then separate limits for Temporary and Rule Saved Video might make sense, but that would also impose a burden on the system to move video from one disk to the other when it is determined to save a clip. It would also impose a problem playing the video back if the system had to change which drive the video is coming from at the boundaries between Temporary and Rule Saved Video (as long as there was Temporary Video available).

As it is, all video is, from a system standpoint, just one long stream of data. It is not until disk space has run out that it is necessary to delete video that surrounds the clips to be saved. Then, all that is necessary to do is adjust the directory entries to shift the file starting point to the beginning of the clip to be saved and truncate the file at the end of the clip to be saved. This returns the disk space surrounding the clip to the pool for other use.

Look at it this way... Rule Saved Video is saved until all the allocated disk space is used up, then the oldest is deleted to make room for more video. Temporary Video is only saved a limited amount of time, thus freeing up space sooner so that Rule Saved Video can be kept longer.

The Disk Space allocation is basically how long to save Rule Saved Video and the Time Limit is how much space Temporary Video is allowed to consume. (How's that for turning the logic upside-down, inside-out and on its ear?! )