New User - 3 Cameras, Continuous Recording and Separate Triggered Recording...

[bedpan]

Hey folks, been trolling the forums for awhile now. Through reading here and a couple other places I have things up and running fairly well. Current setup is 3 HIKVisions 3MP cameras and BlueIris running on a high end i7 proc.

I was trying to find a way to record 24/7 on the cameras to a NAS (Drobo) as well as record triggered clips to a cloud storage drive (Dropbox right now). On top of this I also have email alerts setup on a couple of the cameras. My thinking was that if someone is to take the computer/NAS at least some of the triggered data has been uploaded to a remote service hopefully before cords are pulled.

To achieve this the only way I could figure it out was to make duplicate cameras for each with a record when triggered to a different folder, with the original camera camera set to continuous. I set the camera's to hidden for the triggered record. They still showed up in the webstreams and the Android App. So I also had to go disable the webstream on each of these cameras as well.

All said I have things working right now but it seems pretty convoluted. Wondering if I missed something? Is there an easier option to record continuous and a separate record path for triggered events? Maybe my mindset just needs to be changed and I don't need two streams?

Things are working right now but I find it a to a bit of a pain everytime I want to make a change having to do it on two camera setups instead of one. Still learning here though.. So much to BlueIris I am trying to learn and understand.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

 

[bp2008]

Yes, you can add a NAS using NTP or SMB/CIFS, and store recordings there. Hikvision cameras also have FTP capability, though I don't know if you can record to FTP the way you can record to NAS.

That was supposed to be a reply to a different thread. Oops!!

 

[bp2008]

Duplicate cameras are the way to do continuous recording + separate alert recordings. If you added both cameras as the same camera type, pointing at the same stream, then Blue Iris is smart enough to only pull one stream and share it. Or so I've heard.

I do not know of a way to set it up to work this way using only one "camera" in Blue Iris. I actually use a second instance of Blue Iris, running on a different machine, for my constant recording. And I only record low bit rate sub streams with it. I could do this with the main instance of Blue Iris, but I figure this makes it a better backup having it separate.

Something you might do is hide a NAS box like a simple WD MyCloud drive, and have Blue Iris automatically FTP motion clips to it. Put it in the attic or the crawlspace or something, where no burglar is going to look for valuables.

 

[fenderman]

@bp2008, blue iris does in fact only pull a single stream...Ken confirmed this to me as well...for this reason the cloned instance can operate without the proper username and password...this can be an issue if the cloned camera makes the attempt to connect first...so its important to enter the proper credentials in the cloned camera as well...

 

[bp2008]

Good to know.

 

[bedpan]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Is there an actual duplicate camera function? I just setup a second camera with the same settings.

Other issue I am struggling with; Cameras are setup to record 24x7 BVR format Direct-to-disk to the NAS (no problems here). Duplicate cameras are set to record when triggered to a local dropbox folder on the computer in MP4 format. These files play fine on VLC etc. The problem is that if I use BI to view any of these triggered events they will not play.

Ok... Thought I better do a quick search... I need codecs installed.. (Then I had to search for how to do a strike-thru)

Alright last issue...

The duplicate cameras are still showing up in the BI Android App. I have them set to hidden and have disabled the Webcast. There is no video from them, just a BI icon but they are still there. Not a major issue would be nice to just not see them at all.

I guess the only other question is any overall thoughts on setup? Am I missing something or is there a better way of doing this? Really I don't need the 24x7 recording but I got the space available so I thought why not. My main goal was to get an alert if someone is in the house while we are away on holidays. With this in mind I thought it might be best to get some footage offsite and setup to record triggers to dropbox. Am I missing anything?

Sorry for the ramble... Still muddling my way through the software. Everything I do is a learning curve

Cheers!

Mike

 

[fenderman]

@bedpan, you are doing it correctly...I emailed Ken and mentioned the fact that the hidden cameras show up in the mobile app and webserver and that it would be nice to not see them..he liked the idea so hopefully he will implement it.

 

[bedpan]

I have had a couple issues I have thought about contacting Ken.. But I usually find a way around it.. Thanks taking care of it!

Mike

@bedpan, you are doing it correctly...I emailed Ken and mentioned the fact that the hidden cameras show up in the mobile app and webserver and that it would be nice to not see them..he liked the idea so hopefully he will implement it.

 

[bp2008]

To duplicate a camera, you can export its settings, then create a new camera and import the settings and change the name.

If installing codecs, I recommend going to https://ninite.com/ and using that to install k-lite codecs. This way you should avoid all the bundled spyware that k-lite normally includes. When I installed the codec pack it made BI capable of playing back mp4, but only in the main Blue Iris application. The web server had trouble producing jpeg images of the video clips.

I don't really know how hidden cameras are treated by the mobile apps and web server since I don't use hidden cameras myself. I should probably test with one though and make sure my UI2 page is handling them appropriately!

 

[bedpan]

Should have thought of Ninite... I use it from time to time. Been so long since I have had to use Codecs of any sort though. VLC plays so much now. I did end up using the klite pack.. Unchecked the infect my computer options during install. Hopefully not doing anything rogue in the background. Will run some extra scans to make sure I am clean ;-)

Thanks folks.

Mike

To duplicate a camera, you can export its settings, then create a new camera and import the settings and change the name.

If installing codecs, I recommend going to https://ninite.com/ and using that to install k-lite codecs. This way you should avoid all the bundled spyware that k-lite normally includes. When I installed the codec pack it made BI capable of playing back mp4, but only in the main Blue Iris application. The web server had trouble producing jpeg images of the video clips.

I don't really know how hidden cameras are treated by the mobile apps and web server since I don't use hidden cameras myself. I should probably test with one though and make sure my UI2 page is handling them appropriately!

 

[ItechashardasIcanbro]

Any solve on how to hide cams from the BI app?

 

[fenderman]

Any solve on how to hide cams from the BI app?

mark them hidden in the server..then in the app select hide hidden cameras.