Two part question.

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These are probably newb questions but here goes.

1. How do I set cameras to continuously record? I'm missing activity prior to the segments being recorded.

2. Can I use ip cameras at our food truck without a computer locally and point my home system to the cameras for recording? We have a qsee system that's garbage currently (resolution wise).
 
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I assume your food truck is mobile, as in across the city or county kind of travel. Could do something like a Cradlepoint 3g/4g (or 5g if they make them) cellular modem or something similar. Then use VPN to home network.
If truck was line of sight to home network and within a few miles or a little beyond, could do something like Ubiquiti point to point setups.
 

area651

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The reason why you are missing recordings is because you don’t have pre-trigger set and/or your camera is set to very high I frame intervals remember When using direct to disk blue Iris can only begin a recording on a new I-frame.
This brings up a question I haven't been able to find the answer to. What does "I-frame" mean? I can't find it explained in the wiki, manual or anywhere. You allude that the camera could be set to too high an I-frame interval. What is the normal setting and what's considered too high? (for ex, if the normal is "5" then is "10" too high or would it have to be like "200" to be considered as "high")
 

fenderman

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This brings up a question I haven't been able to find the answer to. What does "I-frame" mean? I can't find it explained in the wiki, manual or anywhere. You allude that the camera could be set to too high an I-frame interval. What is the normal setting and what's considered too high? (for ex, if the normal is "5" then is "10" too high or would it have to be like "200" to be considered as "high")
To minimize recording initiation delay, the iframe interval should match the fps (this is referred to as a key frame rate of 1.00 in the manual), this also helps with video tearing that some people see. If you set the iframe interval to double your fps, then you could have as much as a two second delay before the recording begins, therefore you need to set your pretrigger to at least 2 seconds over your true pretrigger desire.

This is explained in the manual:

FPS/Key
The FPS is the number of Frames per Second on average currently being received from the
camera. The value that follows is the number of key frames per second. A key frame is a
complete frame—one that may be displayed without reference or dependence upon another
frame. These are sometimes called I-frames and define a GOP (group of pictures).
The key frame rate is an important consideration for multiple software functions. A key
frame rate of approximately 1.00 is desirable for optimal use of the direct-to-disc recording
option as well as the limit-decoding unless required functionality. Adjust this rate within the
camera’s web browser interface.
Direct-to-disc recording can only begin on a key frame boundary—if the rate is too low, this
means that video frames between a trigger event and the next key frame rate may be lost.
One way to compensate for this is to use pre-trigger time on the Record page.

When limit-decoding is being used, only key frames are decoded unless all video is required
for display or analysis. This means that only key frames are fed to the motion detector when
the camera is not triggered or selected for streaming or viewing. If the key frame rate is
much lower than 1.00, the motion detector may not operate effectively and events may be
missed.
 

area651

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To minimize recording initiation delay, the iframe interval should match the fps (this is referred to as a key frame rate of 1.00 in the manual), this also helps with video tearing that some people see. If you set the iframe interval to double your fps, then you could have as much as a two second delay before the recording begins, therefore you need to set your pretrigger to at least 2 seconds over your true pretrigger desire.

This is explained in the manual:

FPS/Key
The FPS is the number of Frames per Second on average currently being received from the
camera. The value that follows is the number of key frames per second. A key frame is a
complete frame—one that may be displayed without reference or dependence upon another
frame. These are sometimes called I-frames and define a GOP (group of pictures).
The key frame rate is an important consideration for multiple software functions. A key
frame rate of approximately 1.00 is desirable for optimal use of the direct-to-disc recording
option as well as the limit-decoding unless required functionality. Adjust this rate within the
camera’s web browser interface.
Direct-to-disc recording can only begin on a key frame boundary—if the rate is too low, this
means that video frames between a trigger event and the next key frame rate may be lost.
One way to compensate for this is to use pre-trigger time on the Record page.

When limit-decoding is being used, only key frames are decoded unless all video is required
for display or analysis. This means that only key frames are fed to the motion detector when
the camera is not triggered or selected for streaming or viewing. If the key frame rate is
much lower than 1.00, the motion detector may not operate effectively and events may be
missed.

ok.....this is a good explanation and I think I'm following it. When setting your FPS, you set that on the camera configuration page on the camera itself, not in BI. Correct? (I mean if your camera is only putting out 15 FPS for example, then it doesnt matter if the BI Max rate is set to 30. Right?)
Here's a screenshot of one of my external cameras. (Yeah, its a damn amcrest...grrr)
I know I have the FPS set higher than needed but considering I only have 9 cameras (3 wireless inside the house) and I think I have plenty of bandwidth and cpu power then I think I'm ok to run that high. I could drop to 15 I suppose just to see if I can tell a difference.
I set the camera to VBR (Variable Bit rate) and the Max bit rate, I used the drop down and set to 4096 b/c I saw others running that number.
I don't recall ever changing the Frame Interval (which I'm assuming is what BI is calling I-frame and key-frame). Since I am using Direct to disk for all cameras, should I set every Frame Interval to only "1"? I see in the config page that it says 30-150 is I guess normal. From what you posted, it seems like 60 that I'm running now is wayyyyy to high.

I think maybe my confusion is how your FPS should be set in correlation to the Max Bit Rate and the Frame Interval (which I'm assuming is the IFrame). It sounds like the Key Frame should be "1" regardless if you're using 10 FPS or 30 FPS.
How the Max bit rate correlates I'm not sure. (FYI, the drop down menu offers 4096, 6144, 8192, 10240 and Customized)

This is an Amcrest camera so I apologize if its setting isn't typical.
Capture.JPG
 

fenderman

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ok.....this is a good explanation and I think I'm following it. When setting your FPS, you set that on the camera configuration page on the camera itself, not in BI. Correct? (I mean if your camera is only putting out 15 FPS for example, then it doesnt matter if the BI Max rate is set to 30. Right?)
Here's a screenshot of one of my external cameras. (Yeah, its a damn amcrest...grrr)
I know I have the FPS set higher than needed but considering I only have 9 cameras (3 wireless inside the house) and I think I have plenty of bandwidth and cpu power then I think I'm ok to run that high. I could drop to 15 I suppose just to see if I can tell a difference.
I set the camera to VBR (Variable Bit rate) and the Max bit rate, I used the drop down and set to 4096 b/c I saw others running that number.
I don't recall ever changing the Frame Interval (which I'm assuming is what BI is calling I-frame and key-frame). Since I am using Direct to disk for all cameras, should I set every Frame Interval to only "1"? I see in the config page that it says 30-150 is I guess normal. From what you posted, it seems like 60 that I'm running now is wayyyyy to high.

I think maybe my confusion is how your FPS should be set in correlation to the Max Bit Rate and the Frame Interval (which I'm assuming is the IFrame). It sounds like the Key Frame should be "1" regardless if you're using 10 FPS or 30 FPS.
How the Max bit rate correlates I'm not sure. (FYI, the drop down menu offers 4096, 6144, 8192, 10240 and Customized)

This is an Amcrest camera so I apologize if its setting isn't typical.
View attachment 55914
to clarify, you want to match the fps to the iframe interval. So in your case the iframe interval should be 30. This way a new keyframe is sent every second and you have a key frame rate of 1. Shorter iframe intervals will use more bandwidth so you might want increase your max bitrate but its not needed if you dont notice a change in image quality.
These settings are all done in the camera, blue iris cannot control frame rates, that setting auto adjusts.
 
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I assume your food truck is mobile, as in across the city or county kind of travel. Could do something like a Cradlepoint 3g/4g (or 5g if they make them) cellular modem or something similar. Then use VPN to home network.
If truck was line of sight to home network and within a few miles or a little beyond, could do something like Ubiquiti point to point setups.
We're stationary on a lot about 1/2 mile from our house. Line of sight won't work with major treeline in between the two. I do have a dsl line but it only has about 3mbps upload speed at the truck.
 
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I'd look into getting a Cradlepoint cellular modem. Or one of those Verizon USB stick cellular modems. Pretty good bandwidth as compared to DSL.
 

bp2008

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You would eat through a ton of bandwidth using a cellular modem. 3 Mbps for 8 hours is almost 11 gigabytes, and if the reason for using cellular is to make it faster, then you'll be using more than that. You would burn through all the "fast" data from an unlimited data plan in no time.
 
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