Raw file created/modified dates get changed & 2min blocks

[Kamalas]

When I am deep auditing an event, especially one which was not detected as motion, I go to the raw files.

Using windows explorer search, I enter *.mp4 and sort by date descending. I then open each file and run through them to find out what I need. My video player has a great drag bar in which to fast-forward or fast-rewind.

I have a few issues while doing that.
1. the video files are cut up into a maximum block size of 2 minutes. This makes fast forward and rewind search difficult as you often have to change files. If the motion was detected, you get files as small as 15 seconds. (Do they need to be cut up based on event? Can I have an option to change 2min to 20min, 2hours. Or max file size).

2. Older video files are renamed, to ######-0.mp4, #######-1.mp4, etc. This is fine except that date created and modified are changed. This means older video will appear mixed in my recent date sorted list but are actually from days ago that they were recorded. Can the old date be retained? (Would like to be able to do my deep auditing within the SH software. In the search view, there is a bar on the RHS bottom. However, I can only click on the blue slats which are detected events. I would like to click anywhere and be able to zoom through many minutes footage with the play bar)

/rant: while im sure my requests will be heard, it is well known that this software is supported by features rarely added.

[Semper Vaporo]

SightHound has stated that the raw files are not designed for the user to interact with them. (I admit that I have found times I wanted to play with them, too!) The whole idea of SightHound (and the predecessor Vitamin D Video) was to provide the ability to peruse the videos within the program itself.

The idea of the 2 minute limit of file sizes is because files really do not exist until they are "closed". Such that if the files were to be an hour long and there was a catastrophic failure (power loss or some sort of BSoD) near the end of that hour and SH was unable to formally close the file, then the whole last hour would be lost permanently. It is a compromise between data "safety" and computer resources. As it is now, you would just lose up to the last 2 minutes.

As for clicking in the time-line at the bottom of the Search mode... you can click in the "other" areas if you have only one camera selected in the drop-down list. You can also play the "inbetween" clips if just one camera is selected; pick a clip before or after the desired time (or click in the Time-line to get close) and then play to the end (or pull the Time Marker [just below the playback window] back to the beginning) and then click "Play" or "+0:02" at the end of the clip, to continue playing video that follows (or "-0:02" to go backward to the previous video and drag the Time Marker backwards in that video).

The "inbetween" clips (between "motion detected" [by rule or otherwise] clips) can be many hours long and the time marker can be drug through that long clip to fast forward or reverse the time being viewed. The only problem is that it does not play the whole clip as fast as you drag the Time Marker, it just jumps the time to where ever the marker is and can possibly skip relevant video if you drag too fast.

I wish there was a playback speed faster than just 3X, so that I could view scenes faster, yet not skip possible events when dragging the Time Marker with the mouse (I'm not all that steady moving the mouse slow).

I also wish there was some way to individually select multiple cameras (but not ALL cameras) to be able to watch events that span the views of multiple cameras, but I am not sure how the system would decide when to stop the clip of one camera and switch to another. Still it would be nice to have the list of clips showing, say, just 2 cameras instead of all of them. Same with the rule selections... I'd like to pick multiple rules when populating the list of clips, for the same reasons.

[Kamalas]

Thank you for a detailed answer, I have now figured out how to view the in-between clips. It is useful but still difficult to search in. I will most probably still use my current method.

I agree with your other point about the 2 min clips. I may make a script to do the joining for me as a after process into the allotments I need.

I like your multi camera idea. I often need to see other cameras to figure out events.