Video not Found (after i restart PC)

[Strangr]

Here's the problem:

1. I start this program - vD.
2. All the settings are default, rule is set to "record any object" and "alarm sound"
3. I turn on the camera (green button)
4. I minimize or close vD
5. I hear alarm sounds when the camera sees my face. I work on my PC for 15 minutes
6. Then I decide to test the program, so i just I restart PC without pressing any buttons in vD.
7. When PC is on, I look up the folder for today's recordings and find no files during the period between starting recording and restarting PC, and history shows a blank video with "Video not found" message.

So this is bad, because the program doesn't record anything unless i mess with "mode" and "refresh" buttons once in a while, right?
How to make vD record without constantly messing with it?

What can U say?

[Semper Vaporo]

Your term, "just restart PC" has me thinking that you (or Windows) is not giving the subprocesses of VDV enough time to save all the information into the databases and get the directories updated to record the locations of the files.

My understanding of the way Windows is supposed to work is that it gives each process a notifcation of needing to shut down, and each process then performs the work it needs to do to save work in process and then notify Windows that it is ready to let the computer shut down. But it seems that sometimes Windows just terminates a process whether it is done with its work or not. And that leaves databases and directories in incomplete states and results in lost data.

I would recommend a few things.

One is to never just turn the computer off with a power switch! Always shut the computer down by having Windows do it. But as I said above, sometimes Windows does not give subprocesses time to finish their work before it just wipes them out... So you should deliberately turn off/shut down all the programs that you have deliberately started before you tell Windows to shut down. This is true for Word, or Excel or any other program you might have started. Most programs can recover from such sudden power loss, but if they were busy at the moment of the power loss, that part of their work will probably be lost and VDV is a VERY busy program ALL time time, so the chances of data loss for VDV on a power loss are greater than for most other programs.

To shut down VDV with no data loss, open (or restore) the operator interface main program and Turn-Off all the cameras and then terminate VDV with the File menu "EXIT" entry or with the "X" button in the upper right corner of the window. This will let all the programs clean up after themselves and get the database and directories up-to-date so nothing gets lost. Give them a few seconds to actually do so before you then shut down Windows itself. And let Windows do the power off action, if it can. If Windows cannot cause the computer to power down, then wait until the screen goes blank and then kill power yourself. (Well... I say 'screen goes blank' but I am not really sure what Windows shows when it is done as I have not had a PC that Windows cannot pull the plug on!).

As an experiment, if you wish... You might let VDV run more than 15 minutes (like 4 or 5 hours) and then shut things down like you have been doing and see of the oldest data is present. 15 minutes might not be enough for all the "busy work" that the VDV subprocesses are doing to get into the database for future use. Another experiment would be to open the interactive portion again and view some videos and then shut it down like you have been doing. This might prove that once the database and directories are updated (which your viewing of the videos would force to be done) that the problem is the subprocesses not having time to cleanup after themselves when Windows shuts them down.

[Strangr]

Thanx for fast answer.
Looks like vD doesnt suit my extreme circumstances. It would be good if vD created videos in certain intervals and be ready for shutdowns. And no sound, yeah...All other is perfect.
But there are so little alternatives. iSPY is damn complicated, all others are glitchy.
Good luck...

[ryan]

Hi Strangr,

I'm not sure exactly what you mean that it doesn't record unless you hit "mode" or "refresh"? Do you mean that the search list doesn't update? Or that video is actually not recording? The latter sounds odd and might explain part of your other problem. While it is possible for Vitamin D's databases to be corrupted in certain circumstances (power surges, etc...) it is a very rare occurrence. My computer loses power all the time (the outlet is controlled by the light switch, whoops...) and I've never had any problems. Is your video saving locally, or to a remote drive?

[Strangr]

As mentioned above, vD doesnt have enough time to move the video from virtual memory into a file, so when i interrupt the program, the videos are not saved. Tested on PC and laptop. Nevermind i moved to iSpy but damn it's interface is raw and rough.

+ and i restart PC in a safe way!

[Semper Vaporo]

As an experiment, I set up VDV to use 2 cameras on a laptop PC. I removed the battery so a power loss would be catastrophic.

I left the system to run for a few minutes, waiving my hands in front of the cameras to cause some motion to be detected. I did not switch the program to the Review mode, such as to force the database to update, but just let it run in Monitor mode.

Then I pulled the power plug out of the laptop. Oopsies! (I love the ultimate power I have over the computer! HA! Take that, you miserable machine! )

I restarted the PC and when I ran VDV, it could not find 1 video from each camera from the last 5 to 10 seconds prior to my killing the computer. All the older video was viewable.

I am not sure why your system would not have kept older video upon a power failure or other method of shutting it down.

[Strangr]

theres nothing i can do...i guess the issue is resolved, bye