Blue Iris

Hi, I am new here, joined the dark side a week ago, switched from Milestonesys XProtect. I am still learning how to use the product and I must say that some things are not easy to grasp having the brain wired in the XProtect mode.

Some of the XProtect features that were extremely helpful during my "investigations" were the ability to switch into the Playback mode and see synchronized recordings from all cameras at any given point in time. Very helpfull if someone diappeared behind the corner - I'd just switch to camera#2 to continue tracking the person. Also, the recordings were not split in chunks. Even though they were broken down in multiple files just like BI, however, the playback timeline was continuous and endless and I could "scroll to the left" as far as the recordings could go back in time. Scroll, point, play - and all the cameras are showing what was happening exactly then.
Also, segments with motion were marked with a different color on the timeline. Very useful for continuous recording 24/7. If you wanted to check activity overnight, you'd just zoom out the timeline to the 12hr scaling, locate the "red" timeline blocks and zoom back into them to see what happened right then.

Is anything similar achievable with BI? I've chosen the recordings to split in 1 hr files, and now I see plenty of 1hr chunks in the left panel. Do I have to scroll through each one if I want to see activity from all cameras at 4:23AM for example?

Thanks!

I have my continuous records set to cut every 6 hours. Why do you need to cut each 1 hour?

BI plays back all cameras synchronously. You can slide back & forth, use the button speed controls, and, set keyboard keys. I have a 'ShuttlePro v2' that words excellently with BI.

All cameras show up in the timeline in the default blue bar. Motion will be indicated by a Orange bolt symbol with an orange bar indicating how long the motion was. You can change the color of a cameras timeline bar. I've found that all continuous cameras work best with the default blue bar, and, cameras that I have set to 'record on trigger' to unique colors.

You can see just one cameras timeline by toggling the 'Solo' button.

Another method of viewing a specific set of cameras, is to make different camera 'groups'. I find that if I'm only concerned with a set of cameras, by switching to that group of cameras I get much better performance - since BI does not have to synchronously display all cameras, but rather just a subset of them.
You ca toggle thru the groups either by the dropdown menu, or, by pressing the 'page up/down' keys.


If cameras are set to record 'On trigger', then uncheck 'Combine or cut', then set teach camera to a slightly different color so you can see the separate motion recordings in the timeline.

If cameras are set to 'Continuous', then set them to 6 or 12 hour cuts, and leave them at the default color. Otherwise you will just get continuous color bars in the timeline.

Thanks Mike for your detailed reply. I am completely new to the BI UI and operation. It's somewhat different from XProtect and concept. I have a few follow up questions.

MikeBwca wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:13 am I have my continuous records set to cut every 6 hours. Why do you need to cut each 1 hour?

My strategy in learning the product was to get it up and running using a guide and start poking around. So I used this wonderful tutorial, where Substreams (640x360) are used for continuous recording while taking JPEG pictures when motion is detected and sending them into a bucket (Windows folder). A third party AI software continuously scans the JPEG folder and picks up new pics, analyzes, and if people, cars, etc, etc (customizable) are detected on the picture, then the AI software sends an API request to Blue Iris to record that motion detected sequence in 4K (Mainstream quality). This way I get continuous recordings in low quality worth of months (7GB storage) and motion detected sequences in 4K.

This is somewhat long explanation why 1 hour cuts were used, but the guy in the tutorial likes to have it at 1 hour. That being said, I've changed it to 6 hrs to your recommendation, and for me it makes more sense too.

MikeBwca wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:13 am BI plays back all cameras synchronously. You can slide back & forth, use the button speed controls, and, set keyboard keys. I have a 'ShuttlePro v2' that words excellently with BI.

All cameras show up in the timeline in the default blue bar. Motion will be indicated by a Orange bolt symbol with an orange bar indicating how long the motion was. You can change the color of a cameras timeline bar. I've found that all continuous cameras work best with the default blue bar, and, cameras that I have set to 'record on trigger' to unique colors.

You can see just one cameras timeline by toggling the 'Solo' button.

It took me some time to realize that my timeline was hidden and needed enabled. In XProtect you switch into the "view mode" to investigate recordings, rather than having the timeline, clips and live view all in one control panel.
After enabling the timeline, I was sliding back and forth through it, and I would see the clips in the left pane scrolling up and down, but my main pane was still showing Live cameras. If I double-clicked on a particular clip from the left pane, only that camera clip would show expanded in the main pane. After some struggle, while in Live view, I accidently double-clicked on the timeline and all my 4 camera clips appeared in the main pane. Not very intuitive I must say. Is there a button that does the same? Besides the double-click, how do I switch to "view recordings" with all my sources showing in the main pane? What about that Solo button? Where is it?

I don't have any Orange bolts in the timeline. It's completely blue. But that's exactly what I would need. How can I enable it?

MikeBwca wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:13 am
If cameras are set to record 'On trigger', then uncheck 'Combine or cut', then set teach camera to a slightly different color so you can see the separate motion recordings in the timeline.
If cameras are set to 'Continuous', then set them to 6 or 12 hour cuts, and leave them at the default color. Otherwise you will just get continuous color bars in the timeline.

In my case, the Substream source is continuous and I set them to 6 hr cuts.
The Mainstream is recording on trigger, but the trigger is an external API call, that I haven't set up yet.