Trouble downloading video from NVR? Change recording length to minimum (30 mins)

[Ben L_363180304232580]

I had about 5 hours of footage from four cameras I wanted to download (to make a time-lapse montage). You may already know that the phone app and web UI are limited to downloading no more than a few minutes of video, you're supposed to use the PC app.

I did - latest version 8.7.1 - but had very unreliable results. The direct 'download' function plain didn't work - it would claim success but each video segment was cut short, usually by more than half.

I found partial success by using the 'snip/trim/scissors' function to select the period of interest in the playback window, then select download; this seems to work at least some of the time. It can take a few attempts (3 or more), but the files were downloaded to the PC. Unfortunately these videos are only the low-resolution stream - 640 × 480.

I then changed the recording length to the minimum of 30 minutes (was 60) and that seems to have made a big improvement for new footage since the length change - the entirety of the full-resolution files now download directly (don't have to use the 'snip' tool).

[update]: well, ymmv... some other downloads just failed, so it seems to still be unreliable

[Reolink Fiona]

@ben-l_363180304232580
Thank you for giving us this feedback. I have let our tech look at the download issue and see if it can be better improved.

[Ben L_363180304232580]

Hi @reolink-fiona - I do have an existing ticket open for this: #799504; I've provided some more details to Reolink on that ticket.

I've also tried the macOS app as well, there are much the same problems - downloading full-resolution video always fails when the recording length time is 60mins, it's a bit better but still hit and miss when it's set to 30mins.

Also, I've had the app lock up frequently too - I thought this might be due to my old, slow Windows 10 laptop but it also happens on a current-gen M1 Macbook Pro. Often when trying to download lots of video it just hangs and I have to quit the app and restart it.

I'm guessing downloading large amounts of video (~10-20 segments of about 0.5-1GB each, depending on recording length!) isn't well tested by Reolink: it would be good if it worked!