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Yawnder

How do you watch your footage?

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Just curious as to how you guys watch your security footage back. Do you watch an entire day's worth at full speed, slowing down when you see motion? Do you only watch motion events? Just a newbie trying to think about how I might do this...

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I check out large file motion events, which means it recorded longer for some reason. Most all other small file motion events are false triggers. My cameras are all exterior.

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if i need to narrow down a long time frame, i usually use my dvr's 'smart search' feature to select motion areas in the recorded video, so i can narrow it down to movement in a specific area of interest.

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Usually just night-time motion events unless I suspect something funny's going on that isn't captured at night. 8x speed seems to work fine. 16x seems too quick for something that triggers and moves quickly. This is a homeowner system though. The one at work is more complex in its benefits and a person could spend hours a day analyzing footage. After spending more time on it than it was worth I ended up just scanning motion events for stuff when I knew there was a problem.

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i have alarms run to my dm sprite with ptz domes connected aswell. i run thru the event alarms each night before bed to see if theres a few or little amounts usually only check if i think ssomeone or something has been hanging around the property.

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i have alarms run to my dm sprite with ptz domes connected aswell. i run thru the event alarms each night before bed to see if theres a few or little amounts usually only check if i think ssomeone or something has been hanging around the property.

 

The novelty wore off on me a long time ago, I only ever search the footage when an event is known to have happened then I just search the time-frame during which an event could have happened. I sometimes get asked by neighbours or a couple of time by police so I search their time-frame and let them have any interesting stuff. Mainly if I were to come home and find someone had vandalized my garden or porch area I would search for the event from the time I went away to the time I returned..... Thats it, .... CCTV does not take over my life but it does remove the frustration I feel at not knowing what happened. All the local kids know I have CCTV by now and they stay well away.

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Yeah I'm the same way. I rarley watch playback but I do check into my cameras each day just to make sure everything is working properly. I also monitor my cameras all night remotely from work.

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I save my files in 5 minute "chunks".

 

Each morning before work, I turn on the monitor and start the playback from midnight on just the cameras that I am interested in. I then use the "next file" button on my DVR's front panel and I am able to easily see what happened on my cameras in 5 minute snapshots. If something catches my eye, I'll then let the video play at 4x speed (the fastest option on my DVR).

 

I can usually pan through an entire night in just a few minutes.

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i have alarms run to my dm sprite with ptz domes connected aswell. i run thru the event alarms each night before bed to see if theres a few or little amounts usually only check if i think ssomeone or something has been hanging around the property.

 

The novelty wore off on me a long time ago, I only ever search the footage when an event is known to have happened then I just search the time-frame during which an event could have happened. I sometimes get asked by neighbours or a couple of time by police so I search their time-frame and let them have any interesting stuff. Mainly if I were to come home and find someone had vandalized my garden or porch area I would search for the event from the time I went away to the time I returned..... Thats it, .... CCTV does not take over my life but it does remove the frustration I feel at not knowing what happened. All the local kids know I have CCTV by now and they stay well away.

 

 

You and I agree on this. Rather than writing my own, I'll just use yours.

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i have alarms run to my dm sprite with ptz domes connected aswell. i run thru the event alarms each night before bed to see if theres a few or little amounts usually only check if i think ssomeone or something has been hanging around the property.

 

The novelty wore off on me a long time ago, I only ever search the footage when an event is known to have happened then I just search the time-frame during which an event could have happened. I sometimes get asked by neighbours or a couple of time by police so I search their time-frame and let them have any interesting stuff. Mainly if I were to come home and find someone had vandalized my garden or porch area I would search for the event from the time I went away to the time I returned..... Thats it, .... CCTV does not take over my life but it does remove the frustration I feel at not knowing what happened. All the local kids know I have CCTV by now and they stay well away.

 

 

You and I agree on this. Rather than writing my own, I'll just use yours.

seconded. so far, the most useful my system has been *for me* is identifying other dog owners who let their dogs crap in my yard and don't pick it up.

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I would go and check a specific time frame if something happened.

 

I found my system most useful for real time monitoring from my Home office (On a dedicated monitor) to just know what

what going on outside.

It's come in handy 3 times. One time resulted in a man charged with two felonies.

Another was a Neighbor staking out my house and looking in my basement windows, and the last

was a neighbord ladder was stolen.

After a few months though the "New toy" feeling went away

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