Modect help

Support and queries relating to all previous versions of ZoneMinder
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ynn
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Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:30 am

Modect help

Post by ynn »

I have set Modect on my front yard camera. when there is movements, my camera is starting to do the recording, but only for couple of seconds and then it stops.
my question is now that, is it possible to have my cameras keeps recording as long as the movements are there. so I can see what they are doing over there, let's say the movements is 3 minutes of times and the camera record all the 3 minutes times and it will stop just untill no movements at all.

Can it be done with zm?

thanks.
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cordel
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Post by cordel »

Yes it is possible. You just have to configure your settings (zones, image blend-age, buffers,frame rate, skip, etc.) appropriately.
ynn
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Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:30 am

Post by ynn »

Thanks Cordel,

With Image blend-age 5%, is that mean it will record longer?

Do you have any guidance for me what setting should I be using to have my ZM record as long as there are movements in my Zone?
for instance how many Image Buffer Size or Pre/Post Event Image Buffer should I be using, and so on?

thanks a lot
TimboUK
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Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2006 9:06 pm

Post by TimboUK »

Is there an idiot guide to setting these up? I have read the "manual" etc and still cannot get my head round it :roll:
nelsda
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:18 am
Location: Kelso, WA, USA

Post by nelsda »

While I'm still learning about ZM and how to get it set up right I have a few things figured out with the help of the manual.

Pre Event Image Buffer: this is the number of frames/pictures to keep once ZM has determined that motion has occurred. These are kept in RAM since not all of them are necessarily recorded to disk (ie. if frame skip is not 0). What this means is that if your camera frame rate is 10fps the default Pre Event Image Buffer of 10 will store 1 second of pictures.

Post Event Image Buffer: This is the number of frames to be stored after the event has ended and, as I understand it, is at the Alarm Maximum FPS rate so if your Alarm Maximum FPS rate is 20fps then a post image buffer of 100 would store 5 seconds of video before slowing down to the Maximum FPS and recording images at that rate after any frame skip values. The Post Event Image Buffer frames are not stored in RAM so it doesn't have any affect on what the Image Buffer Size needs to be.

Alarm Frame Count: This is the number of frames which are noted by ZM as having movement before an alarm is triggered and ZM records at max rate. If this value is 1 it will only take one frame to trigger an alarm. If this is set at 2, then two consecutive frames with movement detected are required to trigger an alarm.

The manual wasn't clear to me on the advantage of having a value of say 10FPS and a frame skip of 9 frames rather than just saying 1fps if that is all I wanted to record for non-alarm recording. The advantage, as I learned from a question I posted a while back, is that motion detection is done at the Maximum FPS value. A fps of 1 means that motion would be detected using frames a full second apart which won't likely be very sensitive. A fps of 10 and a frame skip of 9, however, means that motion is detected with frames 1/10th of a second apart and still only recording to disk 1 frame/second for regular non-alarm recording. I think I have it correct that if and alarm event occurs that the frame skip value is ignored and every frame is recorded at the Alarm Maximum FPS value.

You can also play around with the zones and the different sensitivity values starting with the presets. If you pick a preset and you want to get an idea of how many pixels a particular setting is using change the Units from Percent to Pixels and this will give you an idea of how many pixels will trigger an alarm. I tend to think in pixels rather than percent so I use the pixel values to get an idea of what I want then change to percent and make minor adjustments to the resulting values. Note that switching back and forth between pixels and percent results in rounding errors. I also found it useful to have a printed version of the manual in front of me while I was working through setting up ZM. I could read and then test each feature so I could get the hang of it.

Hope this helps a little. Also, hopefully I have it right my self. If not, hopefully someone will correct me.

David
ynn
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Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:30 am

Post by ynn »

I still can't get continous recording on Modect function when there is movements. do you know what settings do you use in order to do continuous record on Modect.
thanks.

I have set
Image Blend %ge to 3
Image Buffer Size 40
Warm-up Frames 23
Alarm Frame Count 1
Pre Event Image Buffer 25
Post Event Image Buffer 25
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zoneminder
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Post by zoneminder »

I think your image blend %ge is probably a bit low and would set it to at least 4 or 5. However the most important thing for you is probably to increase post event count to the number of seconds you want an event to continue for / your frame rate. So if you have 5fps then 25 will give you 5 seconds.
Phil
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robi
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Post by robi »

zoneminder wrote:post event count
You mean Post Event Image Buffer, right?
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zoneminder
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Post by zoneminder »

Yes, though it isn't really a buffer and I keep meaning to change the label for it.
Phil
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