Quick Start Guide: Recordings / Storage

Nov 2020
Housekeeping
Happy Friday!

● Participants will be muted until the Q&A session.

● Ask questions via Q&A dialog
● We will be recording this webinar. And it will be available for playback on our
YouTube channel, Blue Iris Support.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDkejni_hONfMPfI7l2u64g
● This presentation will also be available in the YouTube video notes for
download.
Agenda
● Introductions
● Software: Installation & Suggested Hardware
● Recordings / Storage
● Q&A
 Software: Installation & Suggested Hardware
Download software / 15-day Trial
Blue Iris Support Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDkejni_hONfMPfI7l2u64g
Cajoling Technologies – Blue Iris Tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnL59ZzaR6iJpZXRedTjEmrwWIxj1VIcp
○ Install & Camera Setup
○ Clips & Archiving
○ Motion Zones, Triggers and Alerts
○ Scheduling & Profiles
○ Port forwarding vs VPN
Home Tech Video – Blue Iris Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPIbTc8JRuU&list=PLwwZSA4tzwhOlkPaKIfgaA2Ajp7ZH8CWB
Recording & Storage Decisions

How
How to
What? When? Where? long to
access
store
Video Search - Demo
● Clip vs Alert? BVR files?
● How can I quickly review all the events today?
● How can I review events across all cameras?
● Find an event on specific date at the front gate
● How do I take a snapshot?
● How do I record a video?
● How do I export a video? How to
How
What? When? Where? long to
access
store
Recording & Storage Decisions

How
How to
What? When? Where? long to
access
store
Camera considerations
● Direct to disk vs Re-encode
New cameras: Smart codecs, H.264+ → Re-encode
In general, when setting up a new camera better to get it working with re-encode first.
Use Case 1: Record alerts
Use case

Triggered Only record when there are events

Continuous

Periodic
Triggered +
periodic
Triggered +
continuous

Continuous Triggered
Use Case 2: Always record & identify alerts
Use case

Triggered Only record when there are events

Want to record everything. Also want to search

Continuous quickly by events.
Optional: Cut the clip every hour instead of 8 hours.

Periodic
Triggered +
periodic
Triggered +
continuous

Continuous Triggered
Video Compression
Direct-to-
Re-encode H.264
disc(H.264, H.265)

Good choice for

Good for cameras that do not
modern IP
support H.264 or H.265, e.g.
Cameras that
USB cameras.
support H.264 or
BVR If your IP cameras have
H.265. Reduces
Highly recommended. playback or streaming issues,
CPU resources.
this may be a good choice to
May need to do
debug issue. Should always
camera
work.
adjustments.

MPEG-4 (directly
share)

AVI / WMV
Old deprecated MS
formats. Should not be X X
used.
Use Case 3: High resolution cameras (dual streams)
Recording & Storage Decisions

How
How to
What? When? Where? long to
access
store
Where
Total of nine folders available to store clips
New → Stored → Aux 1 → … → Aux 9

Folder / Network Drive

Specifications
8 GB Usually very large, like
Size
500 GB+

Age 7 days

Delete / Recycle / Move

Alerts Folder
May be helpful for AI solutions
Status and error messages
Delete: nothing to do [127/168, 2.85G/3.00G, 14.3G free]
168 hrs = 7 days.
Status and error messages
Storage calculator
● YouTube: What is Bit Rate?
https://youtu.be/QOn-9anLFxA
● Test: (3) 8 hour files are
created per camera per day
file size x # of days of recording =
Storage requirements per camera.
Recording & Storage – Special Use Cases

How
How to
What? When? Where? long to
access
store
Webinars coming next
Quick Start Guide
● ✓ Remote Access (UI3, mobile phones)
● ✓ Storage: Clips & Archiving
● Triggers / Alerts
● Profiles & Schedules
● Advanced Remote Access (Geo-fencing,
Push notifications, https/Stunnel)
Advanced Tuning Topics
Why is my computer so slow?
● Performance tuning
● CPU
● RAM
● Stream loss / reconnects
Advanced Networking Topics
● RTSP Streams: Basic / Digest
Authentication
● Cameras: Static vs Dynamic IP addresses
● Router Client Table
● Packet sniffer
● Advanced Port Scanner
Other topics
● Hardware recommendations
● 2-way audio
Self Help Resources
● YouTube Channel: Blue Iris Support
https://youtube.com/channel/UCDkejni_hONfMPfI7l2u64g
● Blue Iris User Forum
https://blueirissoftware.com/forum/index.php
● FAQs (in forum)
https://blueirissoftware.com/forum/app.php/help/faq
Quick Start Guide: Recordings/Storage
Nov 2020