Searching withing a zone on archives-recordings

[carlzone]

I have heard many good things about ZM and before I install it I wanted to verify a feature (but can't find it in the user information).

Some programs have a smart search features that allows you to open the archives and select a camera's recordings and then create a region for motion on that camera, that searches the archives for motion. Basically you are searching for a subset or smaller region for motion on your recorded archives. I guess it is just processing motion 2x. Once to record the video from the original motion event and the second time would be looking for a more specific or smaller region within the recording. So can you create a motion search on a recording or only a live feed?

I hope that makes sense.
Carl

[knight-of-ni]

Exacqvision calls it a smart search, Genetec calls is a quick search, and I forget what Milestone calls it. This is not a feature native to ZoneMinder.

There is a roundabout way of doing it... export the video in question, create a virtual camera that loops through that exported video, then define an appropriate motion zone. ....but that is probably not what you are looking for.

This is not to say there is not some third party tool out there that can analyze an mpeg for motion. There might be, but I've never looked.

[carlzone]

Thanks! That is what I was looking for in a search tool. I came from Milestone and on occasion had to search a couple days worth of recordings to find a small zone of action and it was a life saver. Looking up a virtual camera for ZM, that is a great work around.

Thanks again,
Carl

[knight-of-ni]

Here is a write up on how I set up a virtual camera using an mpg file:
https://zoneminder.blogspot.com/p/zonem ... amera.html

Once you get it working, just configure the desired motion zone like a normal camera.

[iconnor]

This is definitely a feature I would like to implement. I've had occasion to alter/add zones and wanted to re-run motion detection on events.

It will come eventually. Or sooner if more people throw money at us.