Unable to Export to .bvr

K

Kingkoopa

n3wb
Mar 21, 2020
15
0
St. Louis, Missouri
Hey all. I'm trying to figure this out, but have been unable to, and didn't see another thread concerning this.

First, the current configuration.

I currently have this camera server set to continuous recording for all cameras saved to a large dedicated E: drive. It's configured as 'Managed folder, exclusive-use drive" and is 4TB out of 4.5TB total.
I have smaller D: drive that I want for my Alerts and Stored clips. Both of those folders are set up as 'Managed folder, shared drive'.
I have all my new 24/7 footage saved to the large 4TB 'New' folder, and would like to save alert triggers to the D: drive, with the idea that since only alerts are stored there, I will have much longer timeframe to clips available after the 24/7 recording is overwritten after a week or so.
I see the settings in the camera 'Alert' tab of 'When the camera is triggered', I can 'Add to the alerts list', but default is adding a database entry only, my understanding that when the primary file is deleted for space, the alert will no longer exist.
I have set the option to 'Export to MP4/BVR files' and have set up my triggers to run a 15sec pretrigger record with a 10sec post-trigger break time. (To make sure I capture the lead up and ending to the flagged trigger). I have it set to Export to my D: drive Alerts folder.

The issue

Under the Convert/export settings, exporting to BVR is grayed out (see attached picture) My end goal is just cut the bvr footage out of the primary file, and still save it as BVR on the server. Then I can convert to MP4 at a later time if I choose to. This is to keep server load down from constantly having to run a encode to MP4 on every alert.
Also, the MP4 exports are not playable on both the server and the UI3 web client. They show up as blank extra entries next to the corresponding database entry pointing to the primary .bvr file (see attached picture), and when trying to play them on the UI3 client, it shows a loading circle with errors in the bottom right of "Server is unavailable" and "The video stream was lost".

The Questions

One, is there anyway to have it cut out the trigger and save a copy of just the triggered portion as a .bvr on my second drive? Since the files would be so small, I would be able to keep trigger/alert clips for months on a few hundred gigabytes.

Two, if that is not possible, how to I get the exported .mp4 clip files to be playable in the UI3 client?



Thank you for any help in this issue. I hope I am just overlooking something small.
 
Update - I figured out why the MP4 exports were not playable, and had the white X as a thumbnail. I had failed to install the proper media codecs on the serverOS, so since the server itself couldn't play MP4, BlueIris was unable as well. Installed K-Lite codec pack and that is working as intended.

Still would like to see though if I can just clip the alert and save as .bvr instead of having to use CPU time to encode every alert.
Thanks very much for any help.
 
hp_chat_llm.webp

Blue Iris Support Assistant


The .BVR file format may be greyed out if the recording settings are incompatible with its use. While the provided search results don't explicitly list all scenarios where .BVR might be greyed out, they indicate several situations where direct-to-disk BVR, which is the optimal use of the BVR format, is not possible or advisable, leading to re-encoding.

Here are conditions that would prevent direct-to-disk BVR or necessitate re-encoding, which might then grey out certain BVR options or default to re-encoding:

  • Source File Format (page 7, 112): If your camera is providing an MJPEG stream, Blue Iris cannot record direct-to-disk BVR with it, as direct-to-disk only works with H.264 or H.265 streams from network IP cameras. Analog or USB cameras, unless they supply H.264 or H.265 video, also cannot use direct-to-disk BVR.
  • Time-Lapse Features (page 7, 112): If you are using time-lapse options, direct-to-disk BVR cannot be used because it would only record key frames, which is not suitable for time-accurate output.
  • Applying Blue Iris Overlays (page 7): If you want to add text or graphic overlays from Blue Iris that are burned into the video (rather than saved as metadata), re-encoding is necessary. Direct-to-disk BVR only saves overlays as metadata.
  • Changing Video Characteristics (page 7, 112): If you desire to change the frame size, video quality, or other video characteristics, re-encoding is required.
  • Precise Trim Start Time (page 7): If you require a precise start time for a recording that does not align with a key frame, re-encoding would be necessary.
  • Privacy Mask or Rotation (page 7): If the BVR file needs to contain a privacy mask or rotation, re-encoding is used.
  • Switch-Stream Files for Export (page 7): For exporting from certain "switch-stream" BVR files (e.g., continuous sub + when triggered), re-encoding is required.
In these situations, Blue Iris would default to a re-encoding process, which might implicitly grey out the direct-to-disk BVR selection or force a configuration where BVR is saved but with re-encoding applied. The software recommends using direct-to-disk BVR for optimal performance and features, so any setting that makes direct-to-disk impossible would likely lead to alternative recording methods.
 
I know that the server is recording the main files as .bvr, but to go down that list...

1. Source into the server is H.264 streams from Reolink IP cameras.
2. Time-Lapse is not being used.
3. No additional Blue Iris overlays are being used for recording. There are currently no added Blackout or Masked areas, but even so, Blackout/Mask is set to save as metadata.
4. No settings are set to change change the incoming footage characteristics.
5. No specific start time set.
6. No privacy mask set up
7. Record is set up as Continuous. No switch streams.

I also don't think that it is doing a .bvr encoding to begin with, as when there are no alerts (and it's not re-encoding the alert to .mp4 as currently configured), the CPU usage is near zero. If it was not able to do direct-to-file recording due to an above issue, and was automatically encoding all the incoming streams, my CPU usage would be through the roof.
 

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