How am I supposed to setup my cameras?

[Revo2Maxx]

So I thought I would post this to help understand some. My 8mp Dahua semi AI camera don't offer filters. So if I do a search with humans, vehicles and Non-vehicles selected I get no results. The seconds picture is from that camera with those 3 options disabled in the AI search and you can see it says unknown.. where the first picture is from al with filter enabled..

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[YodaVader]

@Revo2Maxx

I don't use the filters at all but it does have them.

@Pogo

I would agree with everything you wrote.

I'm not new to this though I've never had the AI cameras before. I installed our Amcrest 960H system in 2016. This is an upgrade, not a new thing for us.

Motion detection has always been a pain in the front yard since the system doesn't actually detect motion. It detects differences in frames so the shadow of the tree moving in the wind, which changes location with the time of day and the seasons, sets it off which results in recording a shadow all day or nothing at all. The same happens with motion detection on this new system too which is why I'm trying to use IVS only. Actually that's why I chose the AI cams over the plain bullet cams. The main reason for the upgrade is higher resolution. And I don't want to remove the tree.

Like I said, everything is working the way I want it now except for pre-recording. I've got 2 IVS "appear" rules for each camera. A large zone that triggers regular recording 24/7 and a smaller zone inside that that triggers recording with the solid white light scheduled for when it's dark out.

(I did make them a bit smaller and turned off enter/exit like Revo2Maxx said eliminating 2 mistakes I had made.)

It's working as intended. If a car or person goes by at night, that gets recorded in IR. If someone steps in my yard at night, the lights come on and I get what Amcrest calls "color night vision". The lights are actually pretty handy just as motion activated lights. They are bright enough to see by but not overpowering like most lights. And they are a beam instead of a flood so they are only shining in my yard and not my nieghbors windows.

To make the light stay solid instead of flashing I had to get into each camera, set the profile, enable auto day/night, and enable the smart illumination. That can't be done with this NVR.

I do have pre-record setup in the NVR. There's actually no setting for that on the cameras. It's just not working.

For some things the NVR overrides the settings on the cameras, for other things the camera overrides the settings on the NVR. None of the 4 different manuals I have say which takes precendent for any of the settings so I'm forced to use trial and error to figure it out. Don't forget the inconsistent chinese to english translations

Maybe this NVR can't handle 30 seconds of pre-record like the 960H DVR can because of the higher resolution leading to larger data. I'll try setting it to 10 or maybe 5 and see if that makes any difference next.

Thanks for all the replies. Even replies that aren't answers are still food for thought and are helping me figure this out.

[Revo2Maxx]

Might want to look again the camera WebUi.. I have not seen an Amcrest IP cameras that don't offer the setup option for Pre-Record

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[YodaVader]

Might want to look again the camera WebUi.. I have not seen an Amcrest IP cameras that don't offer the setup option for Pre-Record

Hey, I missed that. Maybe it's contradicting the setting in the NVR. As I wrote before, sometimes the NVR takes precedent, sometimes the camera does, none of the manuals say which does what for any settings.

First guess would be that was for recording to the SD Card, which I don't have, but with this system, one never knows.

I've already set the pre-record on the NVR to 5 seconds. I'll check it out tomorrow and see if it made a difference.

[Revo2Maxx]

No, That area is for the Camera only.

Please note, Camera has its own Recording system. disable it or enable it has nothing to do with the NVR..

However if you were to go to the NVR and then go to Ai of the NVR, then the channel for the camera. In the event of your IVS rule or Motion if you disable the event in the NVR it will turn it off in the camera. Same with Motion. However if you turn off record in the NVR with the Event still enabled it will only turn off the recording in the NVR, the camera if setup with MicroSD card, or FTP/NAS setup to record that option will be there. Only if you turn off the Event will it stop recording in both locations. That is because the Recording for each device is Independent of one another...

I have tested my 4108-A2 and it has no issue with recording the full 30 seconds of pre-record. That is my recorder and is running FW V4.000.00AC002.0.R, Build Date: 09-02-2022. I can't say what another FW will act like

One thing that might be important to note! Are you also recording on your NVR Full time? or have you disabled this in the storage setup under Schedule? Also in the Snapshots it to was setup full time record of snapshots, This means if you leave them on it will record a snapshot every second all day long on all channels you have enabled. in a DVR it will fill all channels camera connected or not. So first thing I do when I setup a Recorder is disable full time recording of both recording and snapshots.. This can also be controlled under storage record mode by turning them off down side is that then even in the event it will not save one so better to make the changes in the scheduling..

If you have full time recording enabled it can play into your events when trying to DL/Backup an event.. That is why I change Record Mode on the channels I want to record full time in the sub channel to Manual. It will record full time in that channel and not mess up the Events main channel recordings this way..

[YodaVader]

Ok, this just got weirder.

If I view the recordings using the phone app or ASP, I see a video with the 5 second pre-record.

I set it to 5 (in Webui > Management > Storage > Schedule > Record) last night before I went to bed.

If I view the same exact recording using the Webui for the NVR, I see no pre-recorded segment, the video begins 5 seconds later.

Note: This is the first time I've used the Android app for playback and I was using only the WebUI on the PC before.

One thing that might be important to note! Are you also recording on your NVR Full time? or have you disabled this in the storage setup under Schedule? Also in the Snapshots it to was setup full time record of snapshots, This means if you leave them on it will record a snapshot every second all day long on all channels you have enabled. in a DVR it will fill all channels camera connected or not. So first thing I do when I setup a Recorder is disable full time recording of both recording and snapshots.. This can also be controlled under storage record mode by turning them off down side is that then even in the event it will not save one so better to make the changes in the scheduling..

If you have full time recording enabled it can play into your events when trying to DL/Backup an event.. That is why I change Record Mode on the channels I want to record full time in the sub channel to Manual. It will record full time in that channel and not mess up the Events main channel recordings this way..

For me "full time" = "General" (the green one) because that was on by default and it was recording all main ch's non stop. In half a day I had 500gb of used space. Turned that shite off right away.

(the following is how it was set before I read this post, I have set the Snapshot the same as Record now even though it did not and does not seem to be saving any snapshots)

In the webui > Management > Storage > Schedule > Record - I have Alarm and IVS set to 24/7, General and Motion are off.

In the webui > Management > Storage > Schedule > Snapshot - I have General, Alarm and IVS set to 24/7, Motion is off.

In the webui > AI > IVS I see no options for snapshot.

In the webui > Alarm > Video Detection > Motion Detection - I do see a checkbox "Picture Storage" but motion detection is disabled.

(I just noticed Audio Detection has the "Picture Storage" checkbox too but I'm barely getting into that part. These mics can hear the guy across the street when he's outside talking on his phone quite clearly. The smallest wind sets them off though with the default settings so that is off for now.)

In the webui for the camera > Event > IVS - for both IVS rules the snapshot box is checked, the 1 box is checked, and the 'period' is setup to match the 'schedule' setup for each rule.

When I search for pictures by any means, I don't find any.

Oh, I can manually take snapshots and they are saved in the proper folder on my PC.

[Revo2Maxx]

I am getting old so forgive me if I repeat my self. To see the pictures in full screen right click and see in new tab..

I would look at the first picture here if yours is setup with Snapshot on like where the red arrow is pointing and you have it setup for full time still then you are getting some big pictures every second saved and taking up HDD space...

Next 2 pictures is 1 from my DVR and 1 from my NVR you will notice that the NVR picture size in the NVR is much larger in size then the DVR. That is because a DVR you can pick what size you want your snapshots to be in a NVR it is FULL Size not option to scale up or down..

Also note, I can't find snap shots in WebUI in search, I can from Backup as the 2 picture show. Please don't confuse this with the images being picked up from my local computer this isn't the case. That area in the picture is asking where I want to backup the images to...

Searching in the App is painful but can be done. for me because mine are setup per event and the app only lets you search in a 10min section it isn't fun lol But I will add in a picture showing it playing back in the AVP app..

Just trying to help with things that I have learned myself the hard way along the way.

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Picture of DVR smaller images because you can pick the size of snapshots to save

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[Revo2Maxx]

Ok so had someone send me a message and asking me about the images that I showed in AVP that it was 5108E1 DVR.. So I thought I would also show in my 4108-A2 Again because of only able to use 10 second search it isn't as easy. I did look in one of my other AI cameras and that one was setup for Motion as well so had loads of motion images less IVS. So the one I am showing is from my Drive way with 1046EW-AI using different tripwires for different filter so I can get emails sent of Humans and not vehicles.

Also I can't show any images for Ch1 because that is the DVR and it won't send images in the right size so the NVR doesn't store the Sub Channel image size it is looking for full size that a IP camera does.. That is only reason that I didn't show images in my A2 of my Ch1 because it is running from my DVR as a IP camera and image size isn't supported..

Doing a search in the GUI of the NVR i can find images using backup tab for all supported and enabled channels. in the WebUI can be found also using Backup tab but that tab is most times missing in Chrome or Edge normal mode. So yes very hard to find images on a A2.. That is why it is easy to fill up a HDD if someone don't know that the system needs to be changed in Schedule from full time snapshot because 86,400 images. . I am getting old so my math might be off.. Anyway to any one reading this that has any recorder, If you are not changing your snapshots scheduling and wonder why your HDD fill up that is one reason..

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[Revo2Maxx]

Oh yeah so I am complete in this. You can go into search in GUI not WebUI but in the GUI you can go to search and at the top change to picture and it will list all your images, can only pick 1 camera at a time for play back.. In the type you Choose R/W that is the HDD IO is your thumbdrive if one was in the NVRs USB slot..

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[YodaVader]

@Revo2Maxx

Apologies mate. I was just answering your question, I don't really care that it's not taking snapshots.

At this point, unless your like me and can not resist trying to find the answer to any question you don't already know, you shouldn't put that (posts above) much effort into doing so.

It's all working "within acceptable parameters" at this point. I just can't help but figure out everything I don't understand yet.

The pre-record, while actually working, is still baffling me along with a few other things.

It's still doing the same wierdness. If I view a recodring in the Webui it starts after the pre-record period. If I view the exact same file using ASP, I see the entire thing.

A neighbor across the street normally gets home from work around 00:30 and so I've got good reference videos to look at as it records the car coming down the street up and parking.

Just this morning I downloaded (exported) that 1st of the day recording to my PC as an mp4 and when I play it in VLC I do see the entire video. So, I'll just use ASP to manage recordings. One way works so good enough there.

Other enigmas:

The front cameras record when a cat sneaks by close to the house in the dark in IR. I can see in the recording that it triggers both intrusion zones on ch1. But the light does not go on per rule 2. If I walk out there at that time, the lights do come on.

The IVS rules for both CH1 and CH2 are set to make both 1 and 2 record if either one is triggered. These two are on the front corners of the house looking out cross eyed so I can see down the street in both directions with the center of our front yard in the middle of both views. CH2 seems way less sensitive then CH1. CH1 will trigger on things that are much farther away from it.

The back cameras don't get triggered by our dog when she's running around the back yard. She's a Lab so she's alot bigger then a cat. She's usually in her dog run, the one location no cameras can see.

Anyways, now that I've got it roughly doing what I want I'm thinking of adding some small motion detection areas, I can do 4 per camera, or maybe some trip wires to get the system more sensitive.

Questions: Trip wires record for a set time after tripped correct? And motion detectors record the entire time there's motion in the detection zone?

If recording is triggered by both motion detection and IVS on a single camera is it just 2 reasons for the camera to keep recording or do I get 2 seperate recordings?