Loop video recording/editing

[lanjcoll]

I have a loop audio recorder, for constantly recording radio: I hear something interesting, maybe in the car coming home from work, I wait 'til the end, edit the bit out and save. Could be a few seconds or a whole programme. I've been looking for the same thing with video: I see something interesting on TV, find it interesting, and want to save and edit it (when I say 'edit' I mean a simple cut either end): could be a few seconds or a whole programme. Apparently TIVO and REPLAY don't have this function, and not even their hackers' discussion boards can help.

Can anyone help with this please? I don't mind buying a whole dedicated computer to do this. Have seen vaguely some top-class security stuff but that could costs several thousands.


Many thanks.

[DirkyBoy]

If what you are talking about is recording TV -ALL THE TIME- and being able to actually SAVE something you might have just landed on - (For example: coming home at like 4:25 to find a show started at 4:00 that really interested YOU) - this CAN be done. Most PVR stand-alone systems have this built in (TiVO/DishNetwork PVR/Etc.) - you can actually go BACK almost a full hour to capture something that has already gone past. Caveat: You have to be ON THAT CHANNEL with the unit ON. In other words - it doesn't capture all the channels simultaneously nor does it work when it's off.

I hope this is what you are looking for. Your question is somewhat unclear to me.

As for SnapStream being able to do this - well, they probably COULD save live input to RAM - but this would be unacceptable to most people as they need their RAM for other processes. A Standalone CPU dedicated for Snap, however, would be another story...

-DirkyBoy

[srigby]

Hi Lanjcoll,

The amount of data created by a loop recording would be pretty huge. Also, note the stress your CPU is under during a record.

I take it, you're talking about a 24/7 loop - not just recording over a programme that you watch every day.

BTW, I'd be interested to know what audio loop recorder you're using. Is it a streaming media recorder, or an analogue audio in type recorder.

Thanks...

[PBMax]

You could just setup snapstream to record one channel and set it to record for 24 hours. Have it be a daily recording. That way after a few days of recordings they will autoexpire to free more room up. The only problem with this is that you have a massive file of recording and editing it is a problem. You can use Microsoft Movie Maker to edit it but it would take forever to load! And you need a HUGE hard drive if you want any kind of quality. 30 mins of Near VHS is about 150 MB. 24 hours is 7.2 GBs.

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Current Projects:
Rav4MP3
Snapstream Support Page

[lanjcoll]

Originally posted by srigby:
Hi Lanjcoll,

The amount of data created by a loop recording would be pretty huge. Also, note the stress your CPU is under during a record.

I take it, you're talking about a 24/7 loop - not just recording over a programme that you watch every day.

BTW, I'd be interested to know what audio loop recorder you're using. Is it a streaming media recorder, or an analogue audio in type recorder.

It's VERY inexpensive software from Germany at http://www.looprecorder.de

It's excellent. I hear quotable things on the radio as I'm waking up, etc., wander leisurely to the computer with its on-board radio card, then edit and save (with the new loop being recorded from that point). I've suggested plenty of improvements, including adding video, but they have no such plans.

Thanks for your reply.

Thanks...

[DirkyBoy]

Originally posted by PBMax:
You could just setup snapstream to record one channel and set it to record for 24 hours. Have it be a daily recording. That way after a few days of recordings they will autoexpire to free more room up. The only problem with this is that you have a massive file of recording and editing it is a problem. You can use Microsoft Movie Maker to edit it but it would take forever to load! And you need a HUGE hard drive if you want any kind of quality. 30 mins of Near VHS is about 150 MB. 24 hours is 7.2 GBs.

PBMax: I would be interested in knowing how this "auto expire" is accomplished. I wish to use my computer PVS system for TWO purposes - one - to record from my TV tuner card when I want to capture a show... but more importantly, I have multiple cameras set up around my home I use for security. They are all fed into a BURLE switcher so I can see different cameras (front, back, sides, inside, basement etc.). I have plenty of security software - but have none (and can't seem to find any) that can record, say 3 file(s) of 8 hours each - and delete the first file and record over it at the end of the last file. 3 files would be 24 hours - 8 hours each. Ultimately, you could define 4 files of 8 hours each that way you ALWAYS had a complete 24 hours prior to what you are currently recording. I think if it had this capability I could offer this in some of my retail stores that use video surveillance since tapes wear out and this would be all automated. Any suggestions/comments?

-DirkyBoy

P.S. - I plan on purchasing my copy of PVS soon - but I just got done buying several software packages to do a video project I am currently working on, so money is a little tight right now - especially with the <sigh> holidays... I WANT MY PVS!

[PBMax]

Auto expire is a setting to make sure that you have X MB of space available on your machine. So if you dip under this amount, SS is suppose to delete the oldest shows until this the low space condition is solved.

What I suggest (not sure if this will work) is that you have two hard drives. One shows drive and the other is the Survellience drive. Each Store has a separate autoexpire setting but that are linked to the drive space. So if you have more than one store on a drive the store with the autoexpire setting set for the most space will prevail.

Second is that you set a daily recording for 8 hours each to get the 24 hour period. You will have to figure out the space requirements for each of these 8 hour files and figure out how many files you want to save. This way based on the size of the drive you can set the autoexpire size to be total space - 24 hours of video.

The only problem I can say is that if the OS, or SS crashes. You lose that recording (all 8 hours) as it currently is. I have a suggestion for on loading Snapstream it retags sstemp.asf if it finds it on loadup to save partial recordings. Haven't been implemented yet. Hope this helps.

------------------
Current Projects:
Rav4MP3
Snapstream Support Page

[DirkyBoy]

Originally posted by PBMax:
Auto expire is a setting to make sure that you have X MB of space available on your machine. So if you dip under this amount, SS is suppose to delete the oldest shows until this the low space condition is solved.

What I suggest (not sure if this will work) is that you have two hard drives. One shows drive and the other is the Survellience drive. Each Store has a separate autoexpire setting but that are linked to the drive space. So if you have more than one store on a drive the store with the autoexpire setting set for the most space will prevail.

Second is that you set a daily recording for 8 hours each to get the 24 hour period. You will have to figure out the space requirements for each of these 8 hour files and figure out how many files you want to save. This way based on the size of the drive you can set the autoexpire size to be total space - 24 hours of video.

The only problem I can say is that if the OS, or SS crashes. You lose that recording (all 8 hours) as it currently is. I have a suggestion for on loading Snapstream it retags sstemp.asf if it finds it on loadup to save partial recordings. Haven't been implemented yet. Hope this helps.

Thanks much for the info! One other thing I'd like to see implemented into SS is the ability to launch captures if they are missed. For example, it's 7:56 and a new recording starts at 8:00 - I'm working on the computer and something happens that I have to reboot and let's say it comes up at 8:02 - the time to start recording has passed but it doesn't see that this recording isn't on disk (or as long as it should be) and just does nothing. It would be great also - thatis a recording CANNOT start because of some weird error (say - the video subsystem cannot connect to the video source) it will E-Mail the user and let them know. Even possibly a "reboot computer and restart recording" option for dire straits kind of anomalous error conditions.

I think these "computer empowered" digital type recording systems are very nice, indeed, and offer much power and options - but I also believe they need more "fail proof" error recovery and steps built in to make them as customizable, friendly and error tolerant as some hardware counterparts.

Some things I would like to see implemented:

Error recovery: Option to reboot on video subsystem failure AND/OR E-Mail user / Run external command. Obviously this option will need a checkbox for 1 reboot/day or else the machine could end up in a state of perpetual rebooting, say, if the drivers were in dire straits or the video USB cable became unpluggeged etc.

Motion Recording: Since some of us are using S.S. for security recording (as well as entertainment) it would be nice to see some settings implemented for this type of use: A Date/Time generator superimposed on the video and one thing that's missing FROM ALL security video capture programs... MOTION SENSING capability BUT with UPPER **AND** LOWER thresholds. Most video capture software that can detect motion has a singular "threshold" setting. Well, that's fine if you only have one camera - but what is you have 9 cameras connected to an auto-switcher? You can't use the motion sense because as soon as the camera changes it senses this as "movement" and trips the record mode. If there was some fuzzy logic built in that worked between settings, it may be able to reject things like lightning, light flashes, cam switchers, etc. it would have to react to changes between say 15% and 70% but ignore picture changes less than 1 second AND/OR over 70% overall change.

I don't know of ANY video capture software that employs such a feature. Being the first software to utilize such a feature would make it compelling to video/security enthusiasts.

Sorry for the rant - I digress.

-DirkyBoy