Hello and Snapshot config question

CamMan93 · Post by **CamMan93** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 7:20 am

Hello everyone! I've got an Amcrest NVR with 4 Amcrest POE cameras connected. I'm interested in customizing the use of the system with the HTTP SDK. I have the SDK documentation from this site:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/amcrest-files/ ... 3.2017.pdf

I've successfully taken a snapshot and pulled down the image using Python. What I would like to do next is take a snapshot at a specific time in the past (recorded on the NVR). Is that possible using the set snap config command? If so, it's not clear reading through the document how that works. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Re: Hello and Snapshot config question · Post by **Revo2Maxx** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:56 am

Hello and welcome to the forum...

I am not sure about that myself. i know that @longedge has worked with taking snap shots and what not maybe he will have some input that could help make what your looking to do easier..

Re: Hello and Snapshot config question · Post by **longedge** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 1:37 pm

Revo2Maxx is right to say I've been looking at ways to take snapshots but that's from the live stream, not from past recordings. I have actually found a way of taking timed snapshots over an extended period at any interval I wish. I can then use the images to create timelapse videos or animated gifs.

My NVR isn't from Amcrest and I don't know whether the Amcrest NVRs have a similar web interface to the cameras.

All the events recorded by my cameras have accompanying snapshots (I have my cameras configured to take 3 per event) so I wonder if you have looked into getting your images that way.

p.s. - If it's of any interest this is the sort of thing I've been doing - https://youtu.be/50qmKVeLR68

CamMan93 · Post by **CamMan93** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 2:45 pm

Thanks for the responses @Revo2Maxx and @longedge! It sounds like you are doing exactly what I would like to do with my NVR with the time lapse videos. @longedge, I watched your time lapse and that is awesome and what I want to be able to do more easily.

Currently the only way I have to do a time lapse over several hours is to download the entire video stream which ends up being 10 GBytes or more at that resolution, then downsample by 100x-400x and I have my time lapse video. As you can guess, this is a very manual and time consuming process. It works and has produced some good videos, but don't have the time to do this often

Here is my latest video done with this camera system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Glm8NXmD44

If I could snapshot once every 10 sec or so, that would be perfect. However, I haven't found a way to trigger snapshots with the Amcrest NVR by timed event, only by motion or alarm. It sounds as if your NVR allows you to do snapshots based on time intervals? I can use their software and go back and capture a snapshot at any point in the past. Somehow I need to figure out a way to do that via HTTP/Python or via configuration of the NVR.

Re: Hello and Snapshot config question · Post by **longedge** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 3:23 pm

Just to be clear, I'm not using my NVR (that's a standalone separate system).

Quite by chance, I found that a http call to my camera cgi for a snapshot also creates a jpeg in the corresponding hourly folder on my NAS. It's those images that I then use.

I created a small app for myself that does nothing more than constantly load a cgi snapshot. The timing is whatever I want but up to now I've found between 6 to 10 seconds is about right. I haven't experimented with long intervals over several days yet but I will be doing. I just leave the app running in the background and then stop it when I've got what I want. The video I did this morning contained about 1000 collected while I was away from the computer. I guess it took about 10-15 minutes of my time all told almost all of which was in the video editing. Less than 10 seconds to set the image collection process going.

p.s. - Great video by the way. Your camera is far more capable in low light than mine which is also inside looking through a window.

CamMan93 · Post by **CamMan93** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 3:43 pm

You've definitely given me some additional ideas. I can run a Linux app and get the snapshots real time on a periodic basis if I can't find a way to retrieve them from the NVR. Thanks so much!

Re: Hello and Snapshot config question · Post by **longedge** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 3:54 pm

Great. Good luck with that

Re: Hello and Snapshot config question · Post by **longedge** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 4:12 pm

Just another thought - one thing I found is I needed to disable everything in the camera settings that would trigger a recording e.g. motion events. That way I get only the images I want and not a mixture at irregular intervals.

CamMan93 · Post by **CamMan93** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 5:27 pm

Yes, good point. Thanks for all the tips!