Opinion: Continuous vs. Motion Trigger Recording?

dragoneggs

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Just wondering about the pro's and con's of each. I am set up exclusively for motion trigger recording but after realizing I wasn't triggering one of my cameras without adjusting the sensitivity in BI, now wondering if I should change my tactics.

There are obvious benefits such as storage and detection but what else?
 

aristobrat

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I started with just Motion Detection, but after the second time I went looking for something and found that it didn't record (for whatever reason), I switched to continuous. Since then, there've been quite a few times where interesting things happened outside of the motion zones I have setup... were it not for continuous recording, I'd be SOL.

Con is the disk space but a 2nd 4TB HDD made that much less of a con for me. :)
 

gwminor48

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Like @aristobrat I started out with motion detection and finally moved to continuous after about a year and I'm very happy I did. I didn't change a thing on the trigger options in Blue Iris. I still get all the alerts like before and I can go before or after the alert moment if I want, it's all there, nothing missed.
 

alastairstevenson

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I have both - by using 2 NVRs, one for motion/event recording and one for continuous, both connected to the same set of cameras.

And yes, it's possible to see missed motion events on the continuous recording.
 

anijet

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I have both - by using 2 NVRs, one for motion/event recording and one for continuous, both connected to the same set of cameras.
And yes, it's possible to see missed motion events on the continuous recording.
I do similar in Blue Iris. All cameras are cloned. Both are motion triggered. One set is set very sensitive and records on the smallest movement with longer trigger (read recording) times. The other set is set up for alerts with zone crossing and tuned for minimum false alerts and shorted trigger and record times. So far haven't found anything missing on the first set yet it saves recording when nothing is going on.
 

dragoneggs

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I changed my main (most important and activity) camera to continuous recording. Seems that with certain lighting (time of day and glare) it wouldn’t necessarily trigger. I suppose some tweaking to the sensitivity might have remedied the issue but decided not to mess with that in that one.

For now just 1 camera set out of 9 set for continuous as I am still learning how many days recording I will have. I would like 1 month ideally. I just installed a dedicated 2Tb purple drive and have all
 

Silas

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When I was first introduced to this science, i would have said 100% that I would only ever need Motion Detection, after all, that was what I was after, but the choices I took did not provide the satisfaction that I was going to get the result I wanted, and I quickly realised that the link between continuous and motion meant that for me, with my current setup, continuous would be the go, and a few years down the line, I am satisfied that unless I want to shell out for newer gear, that is the best option, as discussed, storage is a pretty cheap media today and the 4TB I have gives me the timeline I currently require.
Who knows what the future may provide...
 

bigredfish

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Both. 9 2MP cameras on a Dahua XVR. 5 running 30fps and 4 at 15fps. All on max bitrate of 6144. I get 14 days recording on (2) 4TB drives.

I'll soon be adding 3 and expect 10 days recording. Anything worth saving has probably ceased to be important after 2 weeks for me. I'm not making a documentary.

I suppose a lot has to do with what you're recording. if you have a camera tightly focused on say a door, and thats all that is in the frame, maybe you could get away with just MD. Anything wider, and with most home setups, you're foolish not to record both IMHO
 

SouthernYankee

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12 cameras storage
Day: 5.9 GB/Hour
Night: 3.9 GB/Hour

fps 8-15 fps
Iframe 8-15
Max bit rate: 4096
Quality: medium
Resolution: 2.1 mp 1920*1080
compression: H.264
type: VBR

Note the storage requirement depend on the type of the image you are storing. I have two out door cameras with the same setting, one use .28 GB/Hour and the other uses .74 GB/Hour. One points to a white brick wall at the front door, The other points to the front gate,with blowing bushes and a street with a lot of traffic.
 

Mr_D

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The only camera I have set to record on motion is the one in the garage. It's a 2.8mm lens mounted over the door into the house and the big door is in view so anything visible is going to cause a trigger.
 
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