record configuration
in this chapter we will learn how to configure the recording parameters of the system
click on the menu button and then choose settings
the second category is record
after clicking on it you will see a subcategory appearing on the right. we'll start with record
setting the recording must be done after setting the camera
if no cameras are configured yet please go back to the previous chapter
also our assumption is that the hard drives were formatted during the wizard configuration
if not please note that the record will not take place until the hard drive is formatted
if you wish to learn how to format the hard drive you can skip to the disk settings chapter
the Ossia recording interface was redesigned to be clearer and easier to configure
it is based on statistics showing that most users configure the recording to work year long in 24/7 setting
the auto mode is the best choice for these users.
manual mode- is for users who wish to customize the recording and schedule configuration
auto mode- is actually built from 6 presets of 24/7 recording as follows :
motion record- will trigger record upon motion alarm under 24/7 schedule for all channels
sensor record- will trigger record upon sensor alarm under 24/7 schedules for all channels
motion record + sensor record- will trigger record upon motion and sensor alarms under 24/7 schedules for all channels
always record + motion record- all the channels will be recorded continuously
motion alarms will be marked in the event list
always record + sensor record- all the channels will be recorded continuously
and sensor alarms will be marked in the event list
always record + motion record + sensor record- all the channels will be recorded continuously
motion and sensor alarms will be marked in the event list
selecting one of the auto modes will pop up the stream settings window
in this window you should set the video encode type, resolution, FPS, bitrate type,
bitrate and audio for each of the cameras and click OK to save the settings
below we can configure the manual record duration
this setting will define how long the manual record stays active after enabling
now that we have finished with the auto modes we will continue to manual mode
once the manual mode is selected you will need to set the encode parameters and schedules for each of the cameras
failing to do so will result in recording inconsistency or complete lack of recording by the system
we will get to the schedule settings in a few minutes but now let's better explain the encoding section
the encoding section is divided into -event recording stream and normal recording stream
the idea is to allow the system to record on a 24/7 basis
but to reduce storage consumption while there is no alarm
so basically you can set lower record configuration for when there is no alarm
and higher configuration when alarm is occurring
it is important to understand that the pre alarm record will be recorded in the lower configuration
as it takes 2 to 3 seconds for the system to switch from lower to higher configuration
this means that if you choose any of the continuous record modes
or you use scheduled recording you must configure both
if you use only recording based on alarms configuring only the event recording stream is enough
let's understand better the encoding parameters
video encode is the compression type, basically the available options are h.265 and h.264
if the camera doesn't support h.265 this encoding type will not be available
resolution is the image resolution for recording the higher the resolution the bigger the image
FPS or frames per second refers to how many images build up one second of video
for example 25 FPS means that each second of video contains 25 frames or images
higher frame rate delivers more fluency however more storage space will be required
bit rate type offers you the choice between CBR which is constant bit rate and VBR which is variable bit rate
this is a very broad topic and we will not explain it deeper in this tutorial
bit rate stands for the compression aggressiveness the lower the bit rate the higher the compression
high compression means lower bandwidth and storage space usage
but also decreasing the video quality
recommended bit rate range is not configurable but very important for choosing the correct rate for your camera
the system offers the best bit rate range that will balance between quality
and bandwidth and storage consumption according to the configuration you set
it is recommended to follow this recommendation
Audio offers you to select whether to record audio or not for the chosen channel
this was the main stream recording configuration
now we should go to the sub stream settings and set it as well
the encoding parameters are the same except for audio recording which only applies to main stream recording
after setting the sub stream we will have to set the schedule
the schedule section is grayed out if any of the auto modes are selected since they all work on 24/7 schedules
if you switch to manual the schedule will become active
in the schedule you will have a list of all cameras with the option to assign a schedule
to each of the cameras based on motion sensor and normal situations
you can use a specific schedule to each of the cameras individually
or set a schedule to all cameras in one go
there are three pre-made schedules
24/7 all week ; 24/5 which is for weekdays Monday to Friday;
and 24/2 - which is for weekends Saturday and Sunday
24/7 schedule cannot be deleted or modified while 24/5 and 24/2 can be edited or deleted
click the schedule name to display the detailed schedule information on the left side of the interface
the lines on the left stand for the 7 days of the week. each line stands for the daily 24 hours
red marks the active selection and grey marks inactive selection
if you wish to add an existing schedule click on the pencil icon next to it
if you wish to create a new schedule click on the plus button on the top right corner
when adding a new schedule you will have to input the schedule name and set the schedule times
setting the schedule can be done in several methods the easiest way is the manual input
you can use it for all the channels from the top line
or for a specific channel from the buttons under the corresponding day
first choose if you wish to add or delete time duration from the schedule
by using the marked time or delete time icon
after choosing click on manual and set the start time and end time
you can repeat this process to input as many duration's as you wish
the minimum duration is 15 minutes
the second method is by using the mouse cursor
choose if you wish to add time by using the mark time icon
or to delete time by the delete time icon
and then click hold and drag the mouse cursor from the start time to the end time
under each one of the days you have several options-
copy to- will open a window allowing you to copy the schedule of selected days to other days
manual- is the manual input method as described above
all- will mark all the day as active
invert- will invert the active and inactive durations
clear all- will delete all the active duration
now you will have to assign your schedules
click on schedule settings
and assign the required schedules to the cameras for sensor motion and normal recording
remember that when switching to manual mode the default schedule settings is none
which means that if you will not set a schedule for it the device will not record any event
after setting the schedules click apply to save the settings
after finishing with the scheduled settings we only have to configure the Advanced Settings
you will find it under record
cycle recording is enabled by default. it means that the recording will work in FIFO method- first in first out
so that the oldest recording will be automatically overwritten by new recording once the HDD is full
tick it as you wish
notice that disabling it will trigger an alarm once the disc is full
no new records will be saved until you free some space from the disk
set the pre alarm record time which is the recording duration before an alarm event started
set the post alarm record time which is the recording duration after an alarm event ended
finally set the expiration time which means that recordings will not be kept
for duration's longer than the specified time even if the disk is not full
once finished click apply to save the settings
now you can go to record status and see the recording situation of each of the cameras
here you can see immediately if you have configured anything wrong by the record status of each camera
this finalizes the recording configuration