Recording alerts + 24/7 full-time from the same camera

[perfect777]

My BI camera server has 25 cameras installed - ranging from simple Reolink cams to higher end starry-night Amcrest/Dahua cameras. Since setting this server up many years ago, I typically just record on alert and end up with tons of 15-30 seconds clips. After years of fiddling with the settings, I'm generally pretty happy with the alerts and their ability to trigger for recording (direct-to-disc, of course!), but I do sometimes miss smaller items to trigger the cameras.

As such, I'd like to setup some of my exterior cameras to not only record the clips (from alerts), but to also record continuously 24/7.

I'm assuming that this would require me to select the "Continuous + Triggered" setting in the "Record" tab. Is there a better setting or considerations I should be making when trying to achieve this?

I understand that this will consume a lot more disc space (which I have no shortage of with a 100TB NAS server). Will this also utilize significantly more CPU/RAM though? I'm planning on setting 8-12 of my [25] cameras with this setting.

 

[wittaj]

Cont+triggered will record substream until triggered and then mainstream during triggered event and then back to substream.

Provided you are using substreams.

Depending on amount of triggers and your settings, it might not take as much storage as you think.

Processing the motion is the CPU hog not the recording, so it shouldn't make an appreciable jump on CPU or RAM.

What machine do you have now and what is typical CPU% and amount of RAM?

 

[perfect777]

Cont+triggered will record substream until triggered and then mainstream during triggered event and then back to substream.

Provided you are using substreams.

Depending on amount of triggers and your settings, it might not take as much storage as you think.

Processing the motion is the CPU hog not the recording, so it shouldn't make an appreciable jump on CPU or RAM.

What machine do you have now and what is typical CPU% and amount of RAM?

Thanks for the quick reply, wittaj!

I have an Intel i7-6700 with 16gb of ram. No graphics card. I have a primary 3tb drive that I use for recordings (but a 100+TB UnRAID NAS that is available.

Does the substream not record in lower quality?

My current CPU% with these 25 cameras is 20%. I definitely make use of substreams and try all the best practices for minimizing CPU usage.

 

[fenderman]

Thanks for the quick reply, wittaj!

I have an Intel i7-6700 with 16gb of ram. No graphics card. I have a primary 3tb drive that I use for recordings (but a 100+TB UnRAID NAS that is available.

Does the substream not record in lower quality?

My current CPU% with these 25 cameras is 20%. I definitely make use of substreams and try all the best practices for minimizing CPU usage.

You dont have to record substream. If you set recording to continuous it will record continuous and also mark all motion alerts. Understand that alerts are not separate recordings, they are just pointers to recorded video.
Using Continuous + triggered allows you to record substreams when no motion is detected as mentioned. Newer cameras have substreams that support up to 1080p dahua calls this stream 2 and hik calls it third stream (on hik its 720p).