Monitor as Camera

Marty
Marty
in SecuritySpy

Ben,

I have recently been experimenting with using one monitor as a camera source since I use SecuritySpy on a work/gaming computer. I like to record the main monitor in case I want to go back and see anything that was done during the day, etc. I keep the recordings for one week. This is working perfectly. There is actually some gameplay on this system and it's nice to have any action recorded automatically. The recording starts when the computer is being used and pauses when there is no activity. This works perfectly to document and record all screen activity during the day.

I do note after a few days that the Mac process replayd is huge, as in dozes on gigs of rams being used. Once it was over 60 gig. I have to force close replayd and then all is fine for a few days. I know a restart also clears this, but is there a way to keep it from getting so huge. I start getting memory warnings from SecuritySpy after a few days.

Since only a screen is being recording and not real objects, would pixel based recording be best for this use case or would AI still be the best choice?

Marty

Comments

  • Ben
    Ben

    Hi Marty, replayd is Apple's process that does the work of capturing the screen pixel data when an application like SecuritySpy requests an image of the screen. The fact that it gets to over 60 GB is highly abnormal and indicates a possible memory leak in this process, however we don't have any control over what this process does or how much memory it uses. Things to try:

    • Update to the latest macOS version.
    • In SecuritySpy, specify a low frame rate for the screen capture (e.g. 2-5 fps).

    In terms of the motion detection, it's much better to use the standard pixel-based algorithm, as this is much more likely to reliably capture movement on the screen. The AI algorithm is optimised for real-world CCTV images, and has not been tested with screen capture.

  • Marty
    Marty

    Thanks Ben,

    I did go down to 1 fps since I don't need to record action per se, and replayd certainly does not use ram the way it was. Thanks for the tip(s).

    And, I thought pixel based motion would be the best here. Thanks again, Marty.

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