how to request in-camera recording, or trigger motion detection externally?

takbal

Short version:

I would like to find a way to tell the camera to start on-device recording to the SD card, ideally, through a http message. An alternative would be generating a motion detection event externally.

Long version:

I am a happy owner of four 411WS cams (with 16 GB on-board SD cards) for a few years now. My only pain is that the embedded motion detection generates lots of false positives, and therefore it is not practical as a warning tool.

Recently I have put up a beefy server at home, and I am hoping to find a way to employ the more advanced motion detection algorithms available on the PC. However, I would like to record videos in the best quality possible, and my outdoor WiFi bandwidth is not enough to live stream the cameras in their highest resolution.

The current idea is that the PC performs detection on the low-res stream. If it sees something suspicious, it asks he cameras to start recording. The cameras can later upload the generated high-res clips asynchronously via FTP. Then I can turn off motion detection on the cameras, and presto, practically replaced the cam's built-in motion detection with the PC's better software.

For this to be viable, I need a way to trigger the on-camera recording via http or something else from the server. Sound like a truly simple feature, but unfortunately, the web interface of the cams seems like missing this option. The Windows Reolink client has a "capturing" functionality, but apparently, it saves the hi-res live video stream as transmitted from the camera - for which the bandwidth is not enough, and the clips skip a lot of frames.

The most straightforward solution is to reduce the quality of the high-res video stream until it can be captured on the PC, but this is not really elegant. It is also clearly possible to configure the motion detection masks and sensitivity via web, so in theory, a hack can be done where a cleared mo-det mask with low sens is replaced with a full mask of high sens when the request is made, then set back afterwards. But this is beyond ugly, and it would likely introduce a massive delay.

So is there a way to trigger on-camera recording externally? If the end of the recording could be specified in a second message, it is even better. I have found the 1.61 CGI command list, but it has no call that does this. Could not find anything on the forums either.

Crimp On

Can you please post a list to the CGI list?

p.s. My initial assumption was that the camera would record a motion file and after the recording finished, it would then FTP the file. This was not correct. What happens is the camera opens an FTP session immediately and begins sending the file as it is also being recorded to the SD Card (and, if someone just happens to be viewing the camera at this instant, it is also streaming the file to the viewer). I have compared SD recordings that I have "Downloaded" against FTP files, and they are definitely different. There is a parameter in the Client software called "FTP Lag". I thought this was how long to wait after the recording ended before sending. Not true. It is actually how long to keep recording after motion ends.
If the network bandwidth is really low, I have no idea (at all) what will happen when the FTP recording gets farther and farther behind. Maybe it will produce "gaps"? Maybe it will..... No idea.

takbal

I have found it here:

https://reolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Reolink-CGI-command-v1.61.pdf

I did not test the FTP server yet, but your research suggests that it may not fit my purpose. However, this document just happen to explain how to list and download in-camera recorded files, so a server process should be able to pull them actively as they appear without FTP.

Another way of circumventing the lack of trigger could be to configure the most sensitive motion detection possible on the cams, then pull the files with the mechanism above if motion is detected on the server. But that would make the cams work hard for nothing, resulting in high power consumption, and likely earlier failure.

Crimp On

Thanks for the link. As far as power consumption and product life is concerned, typical IP cameras record and transmit constantly to NVRs, 24/7. While you have a unique situation with regard to network bandwidth, one of the most frequent questions (and complaints) about security cameras is how to capture "what we want" and avoid capturing things that we do not want. Neither PIR nor frame comparison methods seem to be all that great. I have made several suggestions to Reolink about giving the user more control over what is "motion worth recording", and none of my ideas have showed up in firmware.

Carl

Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your suggestion. Our senior engineer will work on it and spare no effort to improve alarm accuracy. You may subscribe our emails to get the newest update: https://reolink.campgn4.com/Subscribe-Us. Thank you for your patience.
If you have other problems that bothering you in operation, you could send en email to support@reolink.com for help.