Question about motion detection and email alerts

[trailrunner]

I just purchased and installed the Amcrest 960h 4-camera system. I'm trying to accomplish two things with this setup:

1. Record motion 24-7, to conserve space and make the video more useful.
2. Receive motion alerts via email only during certain hours.

Is it just me, or are these two goals incompatible? Here is how I've tried to set this up:

* I went to Menu > Recording > Schedule, and set each camera to record Motion (green), 24-7.
* Then I went to Alarm > Motion > Schedule, and set each camera to alert me about motion only during certain hours.

During those selected hours, I receive the motion alerts just fine. However, outside those hours, the cameras don't record at all.

So, my question is, are the motion alarms and motion recording tied together, or can they be separated to accomplish my two goals above?

[joey79]

Not sure if your system is similar to my 720P one, but i think you need to go into Settings>Event>Detect>Motion Detect, and adjust the period for motion alerts. Make sue send email is checked.

[trailrunner]

Our systems must be different. On mine, the main menu has options for Recording > Schedule and Alarm > Motion > Schedule.

I wonder if I should try updating my firmware?

[richardhunter2]

I have the 720p version and just got the email alert working thanks to help from Joey79 the others.

In may system the is an option in Storage > Schedule with two tabs. 1) Record 2) Snapshot. Both have calanders which allow you to select the record or snapshot schedule for the given camera. These settings should allow you to do want you discribed

[trailrunner]

It looks like the 960h and 720p platforms use different DVR software, so this won't work for me unfortunately.

As far as I can tell, with the 960h software, if you set up a Motion detection schedule under Alarm > Motion > Schedule, the cameras only detect motion during those times. So, even though I've set Recording > Schedule to record motion around the clock, the cameras only record when the alarm schedule is active.

This shortcoming in the software really makes motion alerts via email useless because they have to be turned on all the time, which floods my inbox.

[johnnyv]

Not sure if this is helpful because I have the 720p system, but under Settings >Storage > Schedule, I can specify multiple overlapping time periods for the same day. I can set it to record all day and only detect motion during certain time blocks. See the circled day below (Sunday)




Here is a screenshot of the schedule edit screen. I just have to check Regular or MD next to each time block to specify what I want the system to do.

[cpbrock3]

I'm facing the exact same problem. I thought the alarm schedule would control when emails were sent to me, and not the actual motion activated recording. I spoke with a tech support guy today, and he said it was not possible to do what you described.

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? I agree that it is a major functionality flaw of the software. I'm currently looking into writing a google apps script for gmail to handle the emails and which ones make it to my inbox based on the time of day. I wish I didn't have to write my own code though.

The tech guy suggested that I manually go in and turn emails on/off based on when I want to receive them. Doing this several times a day is not ideal. A schedule would be much more practical. I thought this was the whole point of having the motion alarm schedule separate from the recording schedule. I wish I would have known before I purchased the system. Considering boxing it up and returning it at this point.