Overlaying camera name programmatically

[abraxas11]

Is there a code or macro i can use to insert the camera name into the OSD without manually entering it as simple text?
i regularly get screwed by this when changing configurations.

 

[TonyR]

I don't think that I'm totally stupid but I'm not understanding what the problem is you're trying to address.
In Blue Iris, a new camera when first created will default to and display on the screen the camera "Name" which will be like "My Camera X" or similar.
You go to "camera properties', "general" and change it. Very simple.

 

[pozzello]

Please clarify if you are referring to the CAMERA's OSD or BI's OSD. And what are you trying to achieve? not clear...

 

[abraxas11]

sorry, i never use the cameras for anything but feeding BI video.

in camera options/Video/Edit Overlays you can use data and time formatting for day of the week and even FPS.
i want a code for the camera name so i don't have to enter it as simple text in the overlay.

now, when i change a cameras' name i have to change it in three places, it's "proper" name, it's "short" name, and in the text overlay as mentioned above.
if i could tie the text overlay to the cameras' "proper" name (or short name) that would save me one thing i usually forget.

maybe i'm missing something obvious, seems pretty useful.

 

[TonyR]

I turn off all camera-placed overlays and use only the ones provided by Blue Iris.
Also, I'm not re-configuring, changing, etc. so often that it's an issue....at least not with me.

I also leave the cam "short name" in Blue Iris as is...it's unique and I don't care if I see "Front Gate (Cam30)" on the screen as I see it ONLY in Blue Iris; I have the cam's OSD disabled in all 6 cams.

But that's just me....

maybe i'm missing something obvious, seems pretty useful.

Maybe it's me that's missing something....I still don't see it as an issue....I type it in....done.

 

[pozzello]

and i do just the opposite: name the cameras in the CAMERA's UI and disable BI's 'overlay'...

 

[TonyR]

and i do just the opposite: name the cameras in the CAMERA's UI and disable BI's 'overlay'...

Exactly.....cam or BI..... whichever you like.
Or both ! It's America!

 

[pozzello]

i was under the impression that the performance benefits of 'direct-to-disk' recording are bypassed when BI has to decode the stream to add the overlay text and then re-encode before writing to disk?

 

[TonyR]

i was under the impression that the performance benefits of 'direct-to-disk' recording are bypassed when BI has to decode the stream to add the overlay text and then re-encode before writing to disk?

You are correct. BI cannot add the overlay if DTD is used.

But....I have so few cams and a PC with enough of the "good specs for BI" that it is not noticeable.

 

[pozzello]

anyways, maybe BIT can help the OP do what he thinks needs doing?
Blue Iris Tools - Weather Overlay, Watchdog & more!

 

[fenderman]

i was under the impression that the performance benefits of 'direct-to-disk' recording are bypassed when BI has to decode the stream to add the overlay text and then re-encode before writing to disk?

To clarify. There may be some benefit by removing the overlay, but keeping it does not negate D2D because as tony mentions its not added to the recording when D2D is used.

 

[abraxas11]

i have a dozen cams on one system, with a dozen different IPs and who knows how many different manufacturers.
i don't need any software from them, BI does everything.
thought i explained pretty clearly why it would help me.
maybe this is just from a programmers point of view, but you don't hard code the same value in more than one place.

i do use BIT, love the weather macros from my weather station right on the video feeds.
but i don't see how the BIT macros would know which camera it is being used in.

 

[fenderman]

i have a dozen cams on one system, with a dozen different IPs and who knows how many different manufacturers.
i don't need any software from them, BI does everything.
thought i explained pretty clearly why it would help me.
maybe this is just from a programmers point of view, but you don't hard code the same value in more than one place.

i do use BIT, love the weather macros from my weather station right on the video feeds.
but i don't see how the BIT macros would know which camera it is being used in.

It would help you little unless you have OCD and are running around changing camera names every weekend.
To answer your question it cant be done. You can email support and ask for the function but its unlikely to ever get implemented as it would require a checkbox as there are many reasons why you might want to change one parameter and not the others.

 

[abraxas11]

that's not how code/macros work. no checkbox involved.
seems odd i can access the camera-specific and dynamic FPS code (for instance) for display in my window (no check-box needed of course)
but can't access the cameras' name.

 

[fenderman]

that's not how code/macros work. no checkbox involved.
seems odd i can access the camera-specific and dynamic FPS code (for instance) for display in my window (no check-box needed of course)
but can't access the cameras' name.

You again are misunderstanding. In post 4 you complained about about THREE locations where you would have to make the change. Two of which are NOT related to any macro. Therefore there WOULD need to be an option to enable/disable the changes for the short name and or camera name. So even if there was a camera name macro you would have to change it in two places. Bottom line is you are being silly because normal people change cameras names rarely.

 

[abraxas11]

sorry for being silly, wouldn't be the first time i'm afraid.

i guess it's a matter of UX. when i add a camera i will also probably re-allocate a few cameras in the system for better optimization. i've been using BI for like 15 years or when ever it got started and while i'm always buying cameras for about the same amount of dollar value they just get so much better.
by experience i've found that i usually move one or two other cameras when adding a new one. i'll improve one camera location with a new camera, then move that old one to another position and give that location an upgrade. or recently we added a whole new location. that's happened rather regularly.
also the short name is a different variable than the full name so doesn't really fit in the count. it serves a special purpose also not always needed.

no worries, was wondering if there are any more codes for time and date and camera performance than are listed in the help.
sometimes people discover things....

i would never use the cameras for OSD stuff. at the least, the fonts wouldn't match and the opaqueness, size etc. placements would all be different and i would have to remember all their IPs and UI. don't need a dozen cameras pinging for the time, maybe failing for unknown reasons. i would have to place my BIT weather macros in different places to compensate...
that's one the best aspects of BI, is that it ties all this together for a professional looking result and doesn't make me dependent on firmware programmers in china.
really impressive software, and i obviously have strong positions about these things. since the beginning, i would add, and the improvements never stop.

 

[pozzello]

perhaps email ken (support@blueirissoftware.com) and request a macro definition for this?

eg, as you know, there are already various camera-specific macros defined for adding into a text/time overlay. Shouldn't be hard to add something to represent (and be replaced by) the current NAME of the camera for display in a text/time overlay definition.

Maybe "%C" for the Camera's full name (Identifier,) and "%c" for the cam's short name, just as as an example - %I and %i (for Identifier) might work as well...

Couldn't hurt to ask, as he's generally been responsive to reasonable feature requests, and that seems
pretty reasonable to me...

In the meantime, the user-defined macros can be set to pull text from a .txt file for %1-%9,
so one could have a script pull just the cam names from BI via the API and dump
them into the text files the macros point at (similar to how BIT updates the weather overlays.)
kind of a kludge, but could be made to work if you had less than 10 cams and don't need those
global user-defined macros for anything else...

 

[Q™]

Maybe "%C" for the Camera's full name (Identifier,) and "%c" for the cam's short name

Or %IP for the camera's IP address, or %FPS for fps...

 

[pozzello]

yes! the cam's IP address might be handy as well, while we're at it, maybe %a?...

FPS is already defined as %f, bitrate is %k, last PTZ preset is %n, and the current profile is %P

I was following convention that xisting macros are all single letter or digit...