Is there a "general purpose" camera setting for BI that I can study and base my future camera settings on?

[ipmania]

Just a noob. I've just been using the default settings for now as I play with my demo-mode BI and a few IP cameras set up in test positions using 2x4s and buckets.

After some playing around, I'd like to do the following:

1) if some motion is detected, save the footage from about 3 seconds before the motion
2) keep recording footage until the motion stops

I've got (1) going properly I think. But currently, for (2), the footage stops recording after a while (a few seconds). An example situation is someone walks onto my driveway (fairly large driveway). The "stock" setting seemed to record footage that shows the person already on my driveway. i later found a setting that lets me start the recording about 5 seconds before. So #1 is now ok.

However for (2), at some point, the recording of the person ends, even though he might still be on my driveway. It's as if BI had a default limit for how long a piece of footage is. Ideally, if a person came onto my driveway, danced for 30 seconds, and then left, I'd have footage of his approach (or up to 5 seconds of it), the entire dance, and then it'd stop when the person left. In other words, a 35-second clip. But it's only about 8 or 10 seconds right now and it ends with the person disappearing in mid-stride, kind of like a genie going "poof".

Could someone help me with Step (2)? (Sorry if I used the wrong terminology.)

 

[Mike A.]

Look under the Trigger tab > Break time.

Also, generally best if you can to record continuous for any important cams. Then you have the alert as a marker and can go back and pick up anything to either side of the trigger that you may want to see more of and don't miss things because of something with the triggered recordings.

 

[TonyR]

Also, in the camera "Settings" => "Record" tab, I have "Pre-trigger Record Time" checked and set for 4 seconds. Read more about this setting in BI's "Help", at "Recording and Clips" => "Video Options":

"The pre-trigger record time applies only to when triggered or when alerted recording. This is a useful feature for capturing the moments leading up to a trigger event. There are a couple of considerations when using this however, depending on whether or not you are using “direct-to-disc” recording (discussed in the format and compression topic below). Without direct-to-disc, all pre-tigger frames will be encoded at once upon trigger—as this has the potential to require time and CPU resources, you should keep the pre-trigger time to a minimum, ideally just a few frames. If you are using direct-to-disc recording, this is not a concern, as the frames are pre-encoded—however you must be mindful that recording can only begin on a key frame and not any arbitrary time in the stream. Key frames are generally spaced at 1 second intervals, but you should take a look at the Cameras pages in Status to see what your camera is sending."​

 

[ipmania]

Thank you, @Mike A. and @TonyR, I think you guys have got me sorted out.