Recording
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FIN13 - Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2015 1:04 am
Recording
Hello - I have the trial version and it seems as though there is continuous recording but then gaps between clips. I need cameras to record no matter what, continuous 24/7. Is this possible? Also, does this software snap photos or just video? Thanks! I had other software that continuously crashed and this seems very stable.
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Semper Vaporo - Posts: 331
- Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:51 am
Re: Recording
The program is continuously recording everything from the camera(s). One folder per camera with a sub-folder for each day. In each sub-folder is one long contiguous data set of the video, but it is broken into 15-minute long files so that if your computer dies, you will only lose the last (up to) 15-minutes (if it was not broken into short files, a catastrophic failure, like loss of power, would lose the whole days worth of data since a file must be "closed" before it becomes a real, accessible, file).
The list of "Clips" that you see on the left of the "Search" view of the main program is just that... a chronological list of the time when motion was detected, but it is just pointers into the continuous video stream (the files in the sub-folder). If the motion did not meet a rule that you set up, then that clip in the list is marked "Temporary video, not save by a rule."; if it is the result of a rule then there is no such mark in the list.
You can watch any of the clips by clicking on the item in the list. Initially that list will include all cameras and all clips, rule-based or not. You can limit that list to just those clips that fit a particular rule by using the "Look for:" list. There are 3 predefined rules at the top of this list and then all the rules you have defined below them. Pick one and you will see in the Clip list only those clips that fit that rule. The predefined rules are to show all motion clips ("All objects"), show only "People" and show only non-people ("unknown objects"). These predefined rules will show all cameras unless you limit the list to just one camera. Your defined rules will only list the camera the rule is for.
If you want to limit the view to only one camera when using one of the predefined rules, you can select the camera from the drop-down list above the rules list.
If you want to see the video "between" the clips in the list (i.e.: where no motion was detected), you must first select just one camera and then go to a clip near the time you want to view "non-clip" video. You can either click on a clip in the list or click in the time line at the bottom of the window near the time you want to view. The resolution of that time line is poor to select an exact minute, but you can get close. Once you have a view on the screen you can fast forward or reverse through it using the -:02 or +:02 button along side the Play (">") button (if your screen is wide enough for the program to show them) or you can use the "Control" menu entries or the keyboard Shift+Left-arrow and Shift+Right-arrow.
USUALLY, this portion of video will just be like a static photo of the scene, except there might be some minor motion that was not detected by the program and maybe slow lighting changes as the sun changes position over the day. SOMETIMES there might be something that occurs that you might want to see but was not enough for the program to recognize as motion, so this is the way to get to it.
Please note that this non-motion video won't stick around very long on the computer! You can set how long it remains by way of the menu: "Tools"/"Options" - "Storage" dialog. Video eats harddrive space like a ravenous ogre! Exactly how much room is taken depends on the resolution, and frame rate of the individual cameras. Higher resolution and higher frame rates take more room than lower. The amount of motion in a video scene also affects the amount of data that is stored (static scenes take less space than a constantly changing scene).
You really cannot save ALL video forever using Sighthound alone! You have to be diligent to capture the video yourself often enough to keep it from being deleted by Sighthound to make room for more video. If you really want to KEEP a whole days worth of video with nothing interesting happening you can export 2 minute segments of it by positioning the time line in the middle of that 2 minutes and right click the display and select "Export..." from the context menu you will get. That takes a LONG time to do to get many clips, but it does work (I have done a dozen 2 minute clips that way to capture a slowly changing scene or to capture what a scene looked like before an event! Like, when did that scrap of paper blow into the yard, and from which direction?) Another way to capture longer periods would be to go to the folders where the data is stored and export a few of the 15 minute files (I have done that also to capture a snowfall event to turn it into a time-lapse using a video editor).
You probably cannot save much this way on the same computer where Sighthound is running because, again, video takes a lot of disk space and you want as much as possible available for more important video where Sighthound detected motion.
I hope this explanation helps.
The list of "Clips" that you see on the left of the "Search" view of the main program is just that... a chronological list of the time when motion was detected, but it is just pointers into the continuous video stream (the files in the sub-folder). If the motion did not meet a rule that you set up, then that clip in the list is marked "Temporary video, not save by a rule."; if it is the result of a rule then there is no such mark in the list.
You can watch any of the clips by clicking on the item in the list. Initially that list will include all cameras and all clips, rule-based or not. You can limit that list to just those clips that fit a particular rule by using the "Look for:" list. There are 3 predefined rules at the top of this list and then all the rules you have defined below them. Pick one and you will see in the Clip list only those clips that fit that rule. The predefined rules are to show all motion clips ("All objects"), show only "People" and show only non-people ("unknown objects"). These predefined rules will show all cameras unless you limit the list to just one camera. Your defined rules will only list the camera the rule is for.
If you want to limit the view to only one camera when using one of the predefined rules, you can select the camera from the drop-down list above the rules list.
If you want to see the video "between" the clips in the list (i.e.: where no motion was detected), you must first select just one camera and then go to a clip near the time you want to view "non-clip" video. You can either click on a clip in the list or click in the time line at the bottom of the window near the time you want to view. The resolution of that time line is poor to select an exact minute, but you can get close. Once you have a view on the screen you can fast forward or reverse through it using the -:02 or +:02 button along side the Play (">") button (if your screen is wide enough for the program to show them) or you can use the "Control" menu entries or the keyboard Shift+Left-arrow and Shift+Right-arrow.
USUALLY, this portion of video will just be like a static photo of the scene, except there might be some minor motion that was not detected by the program and maybe slow lighting changes as the sun changes position over the day. SOMETIMES there might be something that occurs that you might want to see but was not enough for the program to recognize as motion, so this is the way to get to it.
Please note that this non-motion video won't stick around very long on the computer! You can set how long it remains by way of the menu: "Tools"/"Options" - "Storage" dialog. Video eats harddrive space like a ravenous ogre! Exactly how much room is taken depends on the resolution, and frame rate of the individual cameras. Higher resolution and higher frame rates take more room than lower. The amount of motion in a video scene also affects the amount of data that is stored (static scenes take less space than a constantly changing scene).
You really cannot save ALL video forever using Sighthound alone! You have to be diligent to capture the video yourself often enough to keep it from being deleted by Sighthound to make room for more video. If you really want to KEEP a whole days worth of video with nothing interesting happening you can export 2 minute segments of it by positioning the time line in the middle of that 2 minutes and right click the display and select "Export..." from the context menu you will get. That takes a LONG time to do to get many clips, but it does work (I have done a dozen 2 minute clips that way to capture a slowly changing scene or to capture what a scene looked like before an event! Like, when did that scrap of paper blow into the yard, and from which direction?) Another way to capture longer periods would be to go to the folders where the data is stored and export a few of the 15 minute files (I have done that also to capture a snowfall event to turn it into a time-lapse using a video editor).
You probably cannot save much this way on the same computer where Sighthound is running because, again, video takes a lot of disk space and you want as much as possible available for more important video where Sighthound detected motion.
I hope this explanation helps.
Semper Vaporo,