I dont understand camera time line??

[Stev Wolf]

I just bought BI and find it much easier to use and more reliable than for example Hikvisions software or Geovision software.

There are several things however that I dont understand.
The first is the camera time line (I think it is called)
That is the blue line just below the date and time line. or above the activity line.

I'm confused. There is below this the little walking man to show when there is activity. There is the red line beside this to show how long the activity is. But the solid blue line shows what exactly. I'm confused because it has some blank sections . What do the blanks mean?? I have read the documentation but cant really figure out what this is. I is not when there is movement because thats what the little walking person and red lines are for??
Thanks.



PS I have it configured for motion.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

The blue bar in your example is the recorded clip . Blank areas are areas with no recording. If you do contious recording the blue bar will be continuous. You can also change the color of the blue bar which is helpful when you have multiple cameras.

 

[Stev Wolf]

Thank you for your reply.
This does confuse me however, because in some cases there is a blue line covering long stretches but only two activities or walking symbols, and some with no red line following them. So that means for example there an action at say 9.10am and then the next action is at 9.45am, but the blue line is solid for that whole time.
My logic tells me there should be an action and blue line at 9.10 for say the time of the action, including pre-recording give or take, then a blank spot for some period of time lets say for 30 or so minutes then another blue section and action. It doesn't make sense that it is recording for 45 min. Also when I play the playback video it seems to only play the action portion of the video. it does not play the parts that are blue but no action. (unless there is a setting to play the non action parts of the video.)In the picture below there is action at around 7 and then around 7.50. But only action at the start and finish. it it recorded for almost 50 minutes and there is only action twice at the start and finish. It seems to be too much recording time.

 

[fenderman]

Thank you for your reply.
This does confuse me however, because in some cases there is a blue line covering long stretches but only two activities or walking symbols, and some with no red line following them. So that means for example there an action at say 9.10am and then the next action is at 9.45am, but the blue line is solid for that whole time.
My logic tells me there should be an action and blue line at 9.10 for say the time of the action, including pre-recording give or take, then a blank spot for some period of time lets say for 30 or so minutes then another blue section and action. It doesn't make sense that it is recording for 45 min. Also when I play the playback video it seems to only play the action portion of the video. it does not play the parts that are blue but no action. (unless there is a setting to play the non action parts of the video.)In the picture below there is action at around 7 and then around 7.50. But only action at the start and finish. it it recorded for almost 50 minutes and there is only action twice at the start and finish. It seems to be too much recording time.
View attachment 23530

This is because you have combine and cut set in the record tab... are you sure it actually recorded for 50 minuets? or is it blank...also the red V: indicates you have over allocated your storage, this will create problems.

 

[Stev Wolf]

Thank you for your response.

I have read about the combine and cut. But dont really know what the advantage of having it off or on say for 1 hour. I dont understand the advantages. I dont know what is best? I had it set for 1 hour. but have turned it off as an experiment to see what happens, that was the default. You ask me if I have recorded 50 min. How can I tell? when I try to open the video in the file browser it just opens in BI which skips from action to action, skipping over the blue section that has no action. So I dont know? Really this is the original question that Im confused at, what is the blue line showing?

Also what is wrong with more allocation? I did read a warning in the manual but didn't really understand it. I wondered if their use of smaller recommended sizes was an old reference as some manuals on many things make archaic references to smaller drives. Why cant I use more space?? Obviously it would save more video.
I have however based on your comment reduced the space and now the Red warning is gone.

I still am confused by the blue line. Is it telling me the recorded length or not??

Also since the clips and archiving option is set for 15 days. Does that mean that the software will delete files older than 15 days or that it will only delete files older than 15 days if it needs the space, meaning it could save video for 20 or more days if there is enough space. Also that this deletion will occur in any of the folders listed in the BI software, eg Stored , Aux 1.
Because I assume that the software automatically moves files from new to stored, based on if the new folder gets full.

thanks.

 

[fenderman]

Thank you for your response.

I have read about the combine and cut. But dont really know what the advantage of having it off or on say for 1 hour. I dont understand the advantages. I dont know what is best? I had it set for 1 hour. but have turned it off as an experiment to see what happens, that was the default. You ask me if I have recorded 50 min. How can I tell? when I try to open the video in the file browser it just opens in BI which skips from action to action, skipping over the blue section that has no action. So I dont know? Really this is the original question that Im confused at, what is the blue line showing?

Also what is wrong with more allocation? I did read a warning in the manual but didn't really understand it. I wondered if their use of smaller recommended sizes was an old reference as some manuals on many things make archaic references to smaller drives. Why cant I use more space?? Obviously it would save more video.
I have however based on your comment reduced the space and now the Red warning is gone.

I still am confused by the blue line. Is it telling me the recorded length or not??

Also since the clips and archiving option is set for 15 days. Does that mean that the software will delete files older than 15 days or that it will only delete files older than 15 days if it needs the space, meaning it could save video for 20 or more days if there is enough space. Also that this deletion will occur in any of the folders listed in the BI software, eg Stored , Aux 1.
Because I assume that the software automatically moves files from new to stored, based on if the new folder gets full.

thanks.


View attachment 23538

If it skips over the blue action nothing was recorded...you can also tell by file sizes...combine and cut reduces the number of total files...when using combine and cut the blue line will not show recordings properly..also if yo have more than 1 camera, you need to change the colors in general>event color so that they dont overlap...
so IF you want to use the timeline as you intend, you must disable combine and cut or it will show recording when there is none as was in your case...otherwise simply use the motion event indicators as a point of reference.
READ the help file. You have allocated more storage space than you physically have. Blue iris cannot overcome the laws of physics...
DO NOT SET A DAY LIMIT...only use storage space limits as your limitation...why delete footage early if you have the space.

 

[Stev Wolf]

Thanks I will try those things out. In some cases I thought I had to set limits when non were needed. Oddly Im not sure why reducing the clip to 1 hour would change the blue ribbon I would think it should report the same as if its off. I have read the help file many times but dont always find the answers or places where the answers are.
Regards