Recommended Home/Away Settings

[scale9767]

Howdy, this forum has provided me a wealth of useful information for years so thank you all! I am posting in the BlueIris section (since that's what I use) but my question relates to camera setups in general, so if there is a better place for this question please let me know.

What are some recommended configurations for home and away "profiles" that make sense? I understand that continuous recording is generally recommended, but I have not felt that necessary in my setup yet. I currently record on motion and alert on AI detection, but am not married to that config and I have noticed missing recordings that I really felt like it should have caught. I am currently trying to test various notification settings and profiles to get it just right before I install the BI app on my wife's phone (she is not tech savvy and wants things to just "work").

Main things I am looking for:

• Recording settings when home or away
  • i.e. continuous or motion
• Notification settings when home or away
  • i.e. disable motion notifications, enable doorbell, etc.

I will likely use BI's geofencing feature to determine location.

How do you have your profiles set up? And what is usually recommended for most people?

 

[wittaj]

There is no right answer - it is whatever works for your use case.

Some here have different profiles for day and night settings and that is good for them.

Others have profiles set up for away and home.

Others set up alerts to only be on certain profiles or times of day

Endless combinations.

If you are using substreams, recording continuous + triggered events is the best of both worlds - it records substream when there isn't motion, thus saving storage space as it doesn't take as much as mainstream, and then on triggers it records mainstream.

 

[bigredfish]

I can’t imagine recording events only. You WILL miss important stuff.

With HD space so cheap, I can’t even think of a valid reason?

The only difference on alerts for me is that I have two short blackout periods for when we are normally home and use the back door/porch area in the morning and evenings. Just that zone. But even then, there are approach cameras that still alert that you have to go through to get to that area.

I don’t know about most but I don’t routinely have a lot of people unexpectedly tromping through my property.

 

[Oneup]

Continuous recordings are like cameras in general. No one thinks they need it until something happens, then it is too late. If you do not continuously record, you are not serious about your security. You make the choice.
As far as notifications, I would recommend having 2 different types of notifications for redundancy when away. I use both BI notifications for specific camera ID tones and email/text/push notifications for a trigger pic. A lot of people have problems with their carrier on these text notifications, but I have excellent reliable results using Google Pixel phone Gmail/ GoogleFi (Tmobile) network. Knock on wood. If that ever changes, I would use the Push Notifications. When at home I have profile for just BI notifications on the key cameras that surround the house and none inside. Again, setup specific BI alert tones for each camera/area, so you know where someone is without ever looking at a pic/video. Use all your old cell phones scattered around your home with BI loaded for alerts.

When you are complacent in your surroundings, that is when something happens. Be prepared for it, especially this day and age.

 

[bigredfish]

I also run two sets of alerts, email and push. I mute the push when I'm home during the day now that I'm retired. But then I also have perimeter sensors/alarm at 4 points around my house, so I kinda know you're close and approaching a possible entry point before I ever bother to check on a camera alert.

 

[The Automation Guy]

The only time I could see myself running different home vs away profiles is if I had interior cameras that I wanted to record while I was away, but not while I was home. Otherwise I want all of my exterior cameras recording full time - just the substream normally and full resolution on triggers.

 

[Mike A.]

The only time I could see myself running different home vs away profiles is if I had interior cameras that I wanted to record while I was away, but not while I was home...

I started out doing that but then had some things happen while at home that I wished that I'd recorded. Same as for recording continuous - You don't miss it until you do. If your security is good, you're the only one who's going to see them anyway. And I don't put cameras in more private areas.

 

[scale9767]

Continuous recordings are like cameras in general. No one thinks they need it until something happens, then it is too late. If you do not continuously record, you are not serious about your security. You make the choice.
As far as notifications, I would recommend having 2 different types of notifications for redundancy when away. I use both BI notifications for specific camera ID tones and email/text/push notifications for a trigger pic. A lot of people have problems with their carrier on these text notifications, but I have excellent reliable results using Google Pixel phone Gmail/ GoogleFi (Tmobile) network. Knock on wood. If that ever changes, I would use the Push Notifications. When at home I have profile for just BI notifications on the key cameras that surround the house and none inside. Again, setup specific BI alert tones for each camera/area, so you know where someone is without ever looking at a pic/video. Use all your old cell phones scattered around your home with BI loaded for alerts.

When you are complacent in your surroundings, that is when something happens. Be prepared for it, especially this day and age.

Just wanted to say that camera specific alert tones is genius!

 

[Oneup]

Just wanted to say that camera specific alert tones is genius!

Yes, but Ken needs to add the capability for everyone to add their own wav files to BI alerts for better ID of areas, like "front yard, Driveway, Kitchen, Audio home alarm, etc." At least add some pre-canned messages that users can select from. Sometimes when waking from deep sleep on tone alerts, I have to wonder what tone did I really hear? Still waiting on this upgrade.