BI Clip Viewer (playback interface) confusing...

[pozzello]

Hi Guys, new here and to IPcams and BI, so please bear with me.

I've got BI (version 4.2.x) running on my i7-based Dell (3 Cams so far,
with more to come) and am very impressed with the functionality
and value of this software, but aspects of the playback interface really confuse me.

I play a clip by double-clicking it in the clips list, no problem.

However, if I use the red-line slider in the timeline to pick a time and hit the play button, the clock in
the timeline advances, but the video windows don't seem to show any motion, only whatever static image
(i assume) was at the start of that time clip. Occasionally, one of the camera windows will
show a few frames of motion then stop again, but it's not what I'd expect compared to the colored bars in the timeline
(indicating recording for each cam - I did go and give them each their own color)

Am I expecting too much for BI to playback multiple cam recordings simultaneously for a given timeframe?

Or if this is possible, can someone explain how a luddite like myself can make that happen in this GUI?

Or maybe there's something wrong with my setup that's not allowing this?

Windows 10, Dell XPS 8700, i7-4790 processor w/ 12GB RAM

using the add-on video card (in[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]VIDIA GeForce GTX 745 with 4GB DDR3)[/FONT] to drive 24" display via hdmi,
since the onboard video came disabled from Dell and i haven't figured out how to re-enable it...[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]


Thanx for any tips, Paul.

 

[hltljohn]

It is a bit confusing, but what you described is normal for the timeline view. Think of it this way, It can't playback something that it did not record. When the timeline playback is running, it does not skip times when no camera has had an alert recording. So what you see as a static image means that nothing had happened at that particular time on the timeline and no recording was made. You will notice that the time above the timeline red bar and the red line marker continue to move forward in time, at whatever speed you have selected for the playback.

When you do a normal playback it jumps from one alert recording to the next, so it looks continuous.

When I am using the time line view I use the next alert command (the big clockwise arrow at right of controls). This skips to the next alert recorded from any of the cameras that you are viewing. Below the timeline bar are alert indicators, the triangular symbols.

Now if you want continuous playback of multiple recordings, you have to have had multiple same time continuous recordings. It does work, and is not a limitation.

At night I do continuous recording on 4 cameras. Also I have alerts enabled. When I use the timeline playback I get 4 synchronized full time recordings played back, and using the skip to next alert arrow, I jump over time periods when nothing major has happened. Then if I want to look at something that happened between alerts it is recorded even without the alert.

Hope I didn't confuse you more.

 

[pozzello]

Thanx for the reply. you've confirmed how i think it should be working.

of course i understand it can't playback something that was not recorded.
I may be dense (as the wife constantly reminds me,) but i'm not THAT dense.

It just seems to not work well for me, playing from timeline when the colored bars indicate
recordings on one or more cameras at the red-line time.

I'll try to grab a screen shot or two to show what i'm experiencing...

 

[fenderman]

Thanx for the reply. you've confirmed how i think it should be working.

of course i understand it can't playback something that was not recorded.
I may be dense (as the wife constantly reminds me,) but i'm not THAT dense.

It just seems to not work well for me, playing from timeline when the colored bars indicate
recordings on one or more cameras at the red-line time.

I'll try to grab a screen shot or two to show what i'm experiencing...

The time line will not be accurate if you are using combine and cut..

 

[pozzello]

Aha! and that's on by default. OK, I'm grokking it more now. I expected to see video wherever there is a colored bar,
but there's really only content recorded around the alert signals, even tho the bar appears continuous.
If that's what hltljohn was tryng to explain to me, then I may be as dense as my wife thinks I am...