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Video Survelliance: Local Police

S

StarsFan4Life

Golden Member
I am installing a couple of IP cameras (DLink DCS-910) and recording them using Active Webcam from www.pysoft.com.

It's a GREAT product!

However, I am finding that if I record at 640x480 at 30fps, I can fill the 500GB hard drive up pretty fast, plus recording at 30fps uses 100% cpu on my dual core AMD BE-2400. Maybe I need to upgrade the CPU (this machine is running Windows Home Server) but do I really need to record at 30fps? Do local police require a high FPS when handing them "evidence" of someone breaking in, stealing stuff, etc?
 
Record at like 15, see if your results are any better.

30 isn't really necessary...and get a couple bigger HDs and RAID them. 😛
 
No one requires any sort of fps for evidence, you just need to be able to identify a person or car. Most survelliance systems are ~5 FPS
 
try 12 fps

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...08/01/28/MN37TKH6O.DTL

Motion pictures and television programs are shown with a frame rate of at least 24 frames per second. Las Vegas casinos are required by regulators to film many gaming areas at 30 frames per second.

That is also the rate generated by more than 550 cameras installed and maintained by the city of Chicago, which has spent millions on the nation's most robust government surveillance of streets and other public places.

Anti-crime cameras in the Contra Costa County city of Pittsburg are typically set at eight to 10 frames per second, officials there said. A BART spokeswoman said her agency's cameras capture from two to 15 frames per second.

The cameras in the Mission, made by IQinVision of San Clemente (Orange County), provide optimal footage at 12 frames per second, said Peter DeAngelis, the company's president.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by: StarsFan4Life
I am installing a couple of IP cameras (DLink DCS-910) and recording them using Active Webcam from www.pysoft.com.

It's a GREAT product!

However, I am finding that if I record at 640x480 at 30fps, I can fill the 500GB hard drive up pretty fast, plus recording at 30fps uses 100% cpu on my dual core AMD BE-2400. Maybe I need to upgrade the CPU (this machine is running Windows Home Server) but do I really need to record at 30fps? Do local police require a high FPS when handing them "evidence" of someone breaking in, stealing stuff, etc?
Click to expand...

Set to 10 to 15 FPS and you'll be fine.

Also you may want to pickup a few larger hard drives.
 
What format is it all being recorded to? Certain older codec/compression schemes will definitely chew up CPU without being very efficient on space, like mjpeg avi files.

When you consider a lot of 30fps, ~640x480, 2 hour divx/xvid movies are made to fit on a 700MB CD, you're looking at ~8.2GB per 24hours, per camera. Even better with reduced FPS (12 or 15fps is probably fine).
 
Originally posted by: StarsFan4Life
I am installing a couple of IP cameras (DLink DCS-910) and recording them using Active Webcam from www.pysoft.com.

It's a GREAT product!

However, I am finding that if I record at 640x480 at 30fps, I can fill the 500GB hard drive up pretty fast, plus recording at 30fps uses 100% cpu on my dual core AMD BE-2400. Maybe I need to upgrade the CPU (this machine is running Windows Home Server) but do I really need to record at 30fps? Do local police require a high FPS when handing them "evidence" of someone breaking in, stealing stuff, etc?
Click to expand...

Are you using motion detection?
 
I have found motion detection work well if the detectors are placed correctly. They will start recording instantaneously. I have experience with large, commercial systems though (which write continuously to DVD-RWs). Not sure about consumer grade. When I was working with big systems we always recorded at 15 fps and it was just the right amount. Anything higher did produce more fluid video but didn't offer any extra detail.
 
Originally posted by: StarsFan4Life
I have the option of AVI, WMV or a local format to the software.
Click to expand...
http://www.pysoft.com/ActWebCa...veWebCamHelpFrame.html

Click the Additional Settings button to change the AVI codec and its options. During playback, the video quality depends on the selected video codec and its quality setting. Experiment with each video codec and quality setting to obtain a satisfactory recording. The trade off of having better quality is bigger video file size.
Click to expand...

Look around to see if you can adjust this setting for something better suited to your space (buy some more HDDs anyway) and computer's power.

Looks like there's a bunch of settings for the motion detection. Might as well play around with them and test things out when you're there.
 
I would think higher resolution at lower frame rates would be a lot better than 30fps low-res shots. Something like 5fps is going to be able to image as good as anything else someone as they pass through the camera's view, unless they pass within just a foot or two of the camera.

Curious question for OP: I assume the software allows for remote recording. Are the cameras hidden or concealed in your house? Seems like a DLink camera would just be nabbed by trespassers.
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
try 12 fps

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...08/01/28/MN37TKH6O.DTL

Motion pictures and television programs are shown with a frame rate of at least 24 frames per second. Las Vegas casinos are required by regulators to film many gaming areas at 30 frames per second.

That is also the rate generated by more than 550 cameras installed and maintained by the city of Chicago, which has spent millions on the nation's most robust government surveillance of streets and other public places.

Anti-crime cameras in the Contra Costa County city of Pittsburg are typically set at eight to 10 frames per second, officials there said. A BART spokeswoman said her agency's cameras capture from two to 15 frames per second.

The cameras in the Mission, made by IQinVision of San Clemente (Orange County), provide optimal footage at 12 frames per second, said Peter DeAngelis, the company's president.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

i was gonna say the same thing. for surveillance you can easily get away with 8-12. a lot of older systems i seem to work on are set up to snap every 3 to 5 secs.
 
Does your software let you set a maximum amount to record? It seems that after a week or so, you could probably discard the recordings to free up some space.
 
Does your recorder software have built in motion detection. Many I've used will overlay a grid on the screen that allows you to select areas that you want to use to trigger recording. Furthermore, some will buffer 30 seconds back. When the motion is detected, it stores the previous 30 seconds, the live feed, and 30 seconds after motion stops. With this feature, you can crank the resolution all the way up at 30 fps and have plenty of recording time on a 500 gig drive.
 
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