CCTV best practice - record 24/7 or on motion detection

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › CCTV best practice - record 24/7 or on motion detection

mdf

3513 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#245344 30-Jan-2019 12:17

I'm installing CCTV cameras. A few issues along the way but am slowly figuring things out.

I've managed to get motion detection alerts working (phone app pings or email sent), but was just wondering what others do/best practice regarding recording. Do you just record on motion detection, or record 24/7?

I bought a Seagate Skyhawk drive following previous recommendations, and cameras are wired with ethernet and POE so aren't going to drain the battery/congest the WiFis either way.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13765 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2170114 30-Jan-2019 12:20

Its bit of a catch 22.... if you can afford to the storage, then 24/7 will obviously give you full coverage, but hunting through that coverage for a particular thing, takes time.

Motion detection is obviously more direct, but you could miss some other things going on before the motion detection kicked in.......

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree

alasta

6703 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2170118 30-Jan-2019 12:25

xpd:

Motion detection is obviously more direct, but you could miss some other things going on before the motion detection kicked in.......

I have a cheap D-Link camera and its video clips seem to capture several seconds leading up to motion occurring. I assume it must constantly buffer the last few seconds of video so that short history is available if and when motion is detected.

SirHumphreyAppleby

2844 posts

Uber Geek

#2170130 30-Jan-2019 12:39

mdf:

I've managed to get motion detection alerts working (phone app pings or email sent), but was just wondering what others do/best practice regarding recording. Do you just record on motion detection, or record 24/7?

The to aren't mutually exclusive. I record 24/7 and have motion detection alerting me to anything that occurs.

IMO 24/7 is definitely the way to go. The year before last we discovered someone had tried to break in to our shed. At around 50' away, he wasn't caught on motion detection, but we got a quite clear image from the continuous recording. He was convicted as we could match up the video from the front camera and obtain the plates of the car that was used.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#2170135 30-Jan-2019 12:53

SirHumphreyAppleby:

The to aren't mutually exclusive. I record 24/7 and have motion detection alerting me to anything that occurs.

Pretty much this. 24/7 recording and some sort of IVS rule (or motion detection depending on the location of the camera) offers the best of both worlds.

The question doesn't really have an answer as it will depend on the situation.

davidcole

6029 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2170141 30-Jan-2019 13:03

Unless your motion detection/ivs is bang on, you'll miss stuff if only record on motion.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

mdf

3513 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2170143 30-Jan-2019 13:11

Makes sense. Will go down that path.

As a follow up query, if recording 24/7 what image resolution and framerate do you use? Max, or something less?

I bought a couple of Amcrest cameras (which I believe are rebadged Dahuas): https://amcrest.com/amcrest-prohd-outdoor-4-megapixel-poe-vandal-dome-ip-security-camera-ip67-weatherproof-ik10-vandal-proof-4mp-2688-tvl-ip4m-1028e-black.html

The specs say these are capable of 4MP (2688 x 1520) at 30 FPS, but teh Interwebz suggests that there is no need to record at that high a framerate, since you won't miss anything at 3-5 FPS. For example: https://www.supercircuits.com/resources/tools/security-nvr-storage-calculator

rscole86

4973 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2170144 30-Jan-2019 13:15

I'm running 24/7 and IVS. I find the IVS works OK, but does not always trigger a notification. With 24/7 I can review either side of the event to see more of what happened.

But everyones set up is different. So you won't really know until you get it running.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

chimera

506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2170198 30-Jan-2019 14:11

"Line crossing" works well if your NVR or camera supports it, as opposed to motion detection (which trees, cloud cover or light changes etc can easily trigger). I use that with my Hikvision gear, seems to work reasonably well.

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2170299 30-Jan-2019 17:05

xpd:
Motion detection is obviously more direct, but you could miss some other things going on before the motion detection kicked in......

Most systems will store a few seconds of video from before the MD was activated. So they buffer ( time - 5 ) to ( time - 1 ) and then store that at the start of the recording if motion is triggered at time-0.

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2170300 30-Jan-2019 17:09

mdf:
The specs say these are capable of 4MP (2688 x 1520) at 30 FPS, but teh Interwebz suggests that there is no need to record at that high a framerate, since you won't miss anything at 3-5 FPS.

That depends. If you've got a clear shot and the person is looking into the camera then 3-5 FPS may be OK, but if it's someone walking quickly past and not looking then you may only get one or two frames at 30 FPS that show their face properly. I've stepped through frame-by-frame 30 FPS shots to try and find the one or two fames that show the appropriate amount of detail.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2170403 30-Jan-2019 20:21

I have multiple NVRs recording the same cameras, some are constant record on one and motion on the other, and vice versa to even out the storage needs.

Cheap NVRs make more smaller drives a viable option vs a giant drive in a single NVR. But the playback UI on cheap "H264" brand gear is total trash with no real seeking and only able to play the crap lowres stream when playing more than one at a time.

Richard rich.ms