Constant Record - how?

B

bapesta786

n3wb
Apr 17, 2019
16
3
UK
Guys i'm looking for some assistance please. I have the latest BI installed on a Windows machine and have 4 Cameras installed. On 2 of these cameras, I have motion alert setup so I can view past motion recorded clips no issues.

On top of that, what I would like to do is have a constant record of all 4 cameras and after X amount of hours, that clip is stored off to my mechanical hard drive. Reason being, if for whatever reason I wanted to view footage of my driveway from 2 weeks ago, I would simply be able to search within BlueIris for that specific time/date and be able to view that clip.

Can anyone point me towards where in BlueIris i should be looking to configure this?
 
You aren't storing your new clips on an SSD drive, are you? If so, it's not recommended.
 
In the record tab of each camera, simply select "continuous" rather than "triggered". Alerts will still be captured and posted, but will switch, internally, to flags in the continuous recording. Do not limit things, recordings, clips, alerts, by age. Set a size and let BI handle the rest. Do not move files around from "new" to "stored" on a regular basis. It just adds overhead and increases drive writes. If you have multiple drives, simply create a Blue Iris directory structure on each drive and point cameras at each drive for continuous recording using the "aux" directories as needed.
 
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sebastiantombs said:
In the record tab of each camera, simply select "continuous" rather than "triggered". Alerts will still be captured and posted, but will switch, internally, to flags in the continuous recording. Do not limit things, recordings, clips, alerts, by age. Set a size and let BI handle the rest. Do not move files around from "new" to "stored" on a regular basis. It just adds overhead and increases drive writes. If you have multiple drives, simply create a Blue Iris directory structure on each drive and point cameras at each drive for continuous recording using the "aux" directories as needed.
Click to expand...
Thanks I'll give this a try!
 
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My Standard allocation post.

1) Do not use time (limit clip age)to determine when BI video files are moved or deleted, only use space. Using time wastes disk space.
2) If New and stored are on the same disk drive do not used stored, set the stored size to zero, set the new folder to delete, not move. All it does is waste CPU time and increase the number of disk writes. You can leave the stored folder on the drive just do not use it.
3) Never allocate over 90% of the total disk drive to BI.
4) if using continuous recording on the BI camera settings, record tab, set the combine and cut video to 1 hour or 3 GB. Really big files are difficult to transfer.
5) it is recommend to NOT store video on an SSD (the C: drive).
6) Do not run the disk defragmenter on the video storage disk drives.
7) Do not run virus scanners on BI folders

Advanced storage:
If you are using a complete disk for large video file storage (BVR) continuous recording, I recommend formatting the disk, with a windows cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte). This is a increase from the 4K default. This will reduce the physical number of disk write, decrease the disk fragmentation, speed up access.

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Thanks for the replies! Is there any way of viewing these clips in the native android app in such a way where i can search date/time?
 
Ssayer said:
You aren't storing your new clips on an SSD drive, are you? If so, it's not recommended.
Click to expand...
If you've got several weeks (or more) of rewind on your storage medium, a good SSD (like the Samsung 850+ EVO/Pro series) will last far longer than any HDD. I've installed several HDD based systems and countless SSD based systems. So far, I've had to replace HDDs on all but one after several years, yet the SSD systems have all been working great, without fail. I did some calculations on one such system, and it should be good for about 40 years before the SSD gets into the 2 PB range where they start failing!
The bigger issue with SSDs is the higher cost/GB and the fact that the smaller the drive, the more write cycles it will go through in the same amount of time. If you're doing 24/7 recording, a HDD makes sense. If only motion activated and you're going through under a couple hundred GB/week, a SSD is a fine choice. Just get one large enough (no less than 500 GB).
 
looney2ns said:
Yes, choose by the calendar.
Click to expand...

So I'm in the app and from the menu i select 'Clips'. I then click on the calendar and i choose the date. From there I can see that I have a 2hr recording of my front driveway. I can click on the clip and it plays but i can't see any way for me to rewind/forward/speed up/slow down the footage unless im missing something?
 
biggen said:
He is talking about continually writing to a SSD. Unless its an enterprise SSD with SLC it you will wear it out pretty quick depending on how many Gigabytes a day you are writing to it.
Click to expand...
That can be monitored; there are SMART parameters for it. I wouldn't say it's a certain death really, depending on the system
 
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Millstone said:
That can be monitored; there are SMART parameters for it. I wouldn't say it's a certain death really, depending on the system
Click to expand...
Its does depend on your writes per day and the drive being used. A cheaper QLC based SSD will have much less write endurance than a TLC or MLC.

None of those are made for continuous writes though. Only a SLC Enterprise drive is designed for that. YMMV of course.
 
SouthernYankee said:
====================================
My Standard allocation post.

1) Do not use time (limit clip age)to determine when BI video files are moved or deleted, only use space. Using time wastes disk space.
2) If New and stored are on the same disk drive do not used stored, set the stored size to zero, set the new folder to delete, not move. All it does is waste CPU time and increase the number of disk writes. You can leave the stored folder on the drive just do not use it.
3) Never allocate over 90% of the total disk drive to BI.
4) if using continuous recording on the BI camera settings, record tab, set the combine and cut video to 1 hour or 3 GB. Really big files are difficult to transfer.
5) it is recommend to NOT store video on an SSD (the C: drive).
6) Do not run the disk defragmenter on the video storage disk drives.
7) Do not run virus scanners on BI folders

Advanced storage:
If you are using a complete disk for large video file storage (BVR) continuous recording, I recommend formatting the disk, with a windows cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte). This is a increase from the 4K default. This will reduce the physical number of disk write, decrease the disk fragmentation, speed up access.

======================================
Click to expand...

Think i'm getting somewhere. I now have continuous recording on my cameras however it looks like I still can't go back longer than a few hours. In the individual camera settings, in the Record tab, I have 'Video' ticked along with 'Continuous' selected in the drop down. Just below that there is an option called 'Combine or cut video each' which is ticked, and populated with '8hrs' and '4GB'. Does this need amended? If so, what are the recommended settings for this?

Also as per yours and others recommendations - in the global settings for 'Clips and Archiving' - New options are : "Limit Size 10GB and Limit Clip Age 14 Days, and Delete". Stored options are "Limit Size 0GB and Limit Clip Age 14 Days, and Delete". Does this look ok?

Thanks.
 
I set combine/cut at one hour to limit file sizes. Got rushed and left out that limiting by age is not necessary. Limit by size and let BI delete as necessary. Stored being limited to 0GB means BI will not write to it at all.
 
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sebastiantombs said:
I set combine/cut at one hour to limit file sizes. Got rushed and left out that limiting by age is not necessary. Limit by size and let BI delete as necessary. Stored being limited to 0GB means BI will not write to it at all.
Click to expand...
Will try this and see how I get on mate
 
sebastiantombs said:
I set combine/cut at one hour to limit file sizes. Got rushed and left out that limiting by age is not necessary. Limit by size and let BI delete as necessary. Stored being limited to 0GB means BI will not write to it at all.
Click to expand...

I'm getting close but falling short! Here's a screenshot of my settings. The issue I have now is that for some reason, BI isn't keeping footage older than 3 hours old. Am I missing something here?

Screenshot 2020-07-06 at 00.10.39.png

Screenshot 2020-07-06 at 00.11.09.png

Screenshot 2020-07-06 at 00.11.16.png

Screenshot 2020-07-06 at 00.11.31.png
 
10GB is hardly any space at all in the video world. It takes TB to store a meaningful amount of video. If you look at your D:/Blue Iris/stored its full, 10GB of files, with the oldest file about 3 hours old. Also, un-check "limit clip age". There's no need to limit space and age, space is the critical factor. I have a 4TB drive and 12 cameras, mostly 2MP with three 4MP, and it holds about 105 hours worth of video. I've got to spring for an 8 or 12TB drive in the near future because more cameras will be coming on line before the winter gets here.

In terms of allocation you want to leave about 10% of the drive unallocated. BI needs some space to handle slight overages. Remember, too, that a 1TB drive, when formatted, will actually come in at about .8TB-.9TB of usable space. Southernyankee recommends formating the drive with a block size of 1024 to make writing easier and I agree with that.
 
sebastiantombs said:
10GB is hardly any space at all in the video world. It takes TB to store a meaningful amount of video. If you look at your D:/Blue Iris/stored its full, 10GB of files, with the oldest file about 3 hours old. Also, un-check "limit clip age". There's no need to limit space and age, space is the critical factor. I have a 4TB drive and 12 cameras, mostly 2MP with three 4MP, and it holds about 105 hours worth of video. I've got to spring for an 8 or 12TB drive in the near future because more cameras will be coming on line before the winter gets here.

In terms of allocation you want to leave about 10% of the drive unallocated. BI needs some space to handle slight overages. Remember, too, that a 1TB drive, when formatted, will actually come in at about .8TB-.9TB of usable space. Southernyankee recommends formating the drive with a block size of 1024 to make writing easier and I agree with that.
Click to expand...

thanks. My "Stored" folder is empty because as per SouthernYankee suggestion, I have decided not to use that as New and Stored are on the same drive.

I thought the 10GB refers to the size of the clip? I'm getting confused here. I totally understand that I should be limiting things by Size and not by Age. So what should I change that 10GB to?

All I really want to do is have a folder where I can have continous recordings of my cameras for at least 7-14 days, and not 3 hours whcich I have right now.
 
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