Ben

Question on compatibility with Night Owl THD301-88P
There doesn't seem to be any public information about how to stream video from this DVR. This is not surprising - most DVR products like this are designed to be closed solutions that don't support standard streaming protocols and therefore…

Comment by Ben 12:01PM permalink
Drop in frame rate when camera is being recorded.
I'm as puzzled as Guy at this point :) Everything he says is correct. The setting to look for, to check that SecuritySpy isn't re-encoding the video streams (and therefore using more CPU time while recording) is called "Recompress vi…

Comment by Ben 11:54AM permalink
Netatmo Presence
Unfortunately this camera doesn't seem to support industry-standard streaming formats for IP video surveillance (e.g. H.264 over RTSP), so it's unlikely to work properly with any third-party software such as SecuritySpy. Typically this wou…

Comment by Ben August 18 permalink
Error 8873 (see log)
Glad to hear you worked out the right set of settings for your camera. Green/corrupted streams means that some data is getting lost in transmission over your network, and the image is therefore becoming corrupt. If the camera is connected wireless…

Comment by Ben August 14 permalink
Feature request (tool tips)
I like this idea, we'll see what we can do for a future version.

Comment by Ben August 14 permalink
Foscam IP cameras: no more PTZ control?
Please could you try the latest beta version of SecuritySpy (currently 4.1.7b12). For the problem camera, go to Preferences -> Cameras -> Device, and click the "Auto-Detect Profiles" button. SecuritySpy will then go through all avail…

Comment by Ben August 14 permalink
10 HOURS of video...Hmmm?
This is not a known issue with the latest version of SecuritySpy 3.x, which is 3.4.10, so make sure you are using version 3.4.10, not an older version. You can get it on the old versions of SecuritySpy download page. Then, check your motion-detectio…

Comment by Ben August 14 permalink
Next MacOS 10.13 High Sierra
Yes, it certainly will be by the time of release. In fact the latest beta of SecuritySpy does work perfectly with the latest beta of High Sierra in our testing. Are you sure you are using the latest beta versions? Use the App Store to upgrade to the…

Comment by Ben August 14 permalink
Problems with MultiStream Setup in Camera and SS
Yes it's possible for SecuritySpy to pull the streams from the Synology Surveillance Station - it has a function called Share Stream Path, which will give you a RTSP URL in the form: rtsp://address/request To set this up in SecuritySpy, use t…

Comment by Ben August 10 permalink
Problems with MultiStream Setup in Camera and SS
I suggest you leave the stream at its maximum resolution for the best quality. Though there is no specific reason why SecuritySpy wouldn't be able to connect when the camera is set to a lower resolution. One thing you could try is to use the O…

Comment by Ben August 9 permalink
An Objective Test of a Mac's Cooling System Condition
Great tutorial - many thanks for posting!

Comment by Ben August 8 permalink
Can only view SecuritySpy app on local network (not on LTE or outside network)
Hi @triggs I have just checked our DDNS system and everything seems to be working from our end. So it was either a transient problem that is now resolved, or something has changed on your end. Could you please test this again and let me know if you …

Comment by Ben August 7 permalink
SS TVOS App—SuperCool!
Great to hear that - thanks Robert!

Comment by Ben August 6 permalink
Maximum server streams performance issues?
Hi Robert, Axis has a long history of high-quality IP camera products and excellent firmware, so you can be sure that when purchasing an Axis camera you are getting a quality product. Hikvision and Dahua are newer, and they seem to be aiming at a d…

Comment by Ben August 6 permalink
Maximum server streams performance issues?
For any Mac that you want to use SecuritySpy for viewing-only purposes (i.e. just to display live streams and no other features), you can use an unlicensed copy of SecuritySpy for free. It's good that you're going for Axis cameras - these…

Comment by Ben August 4 permalink
Maximum server streams performance issues?
Each additional stream going to a remote viewer will require a certain amount of additional CPU resource usage on your server Mac. Exactly how much is difficult to predict because it depends on many factors (resolution, frame rate, encoding format).…

Comment by Ben August 4 permalink
Can SS get IVS data from the camera....?
"Analytics" implies a bit more than just motion-detection: things like tripwire detection, missing object detection, people counting etc.

Comment by Ben August 4 permalink
External motion sensors to trigger camera recording?
Hi TJ, You could try increasing the "trigger time" setting in SecuritySpy under Preferences -> Cameras -> Setup (e.g. try 2s). This should cut out most false-positive triggers, while still capturing all real motion. A PIR (Passive …

Comment by Ben August 4 permalink
Best audio codec in Hikvision for quality
By default, SecuritySpy will capture the audio from the camera directly to disk without converting it (provided that it's a supported format for MOV files). To get SecuritySpy to convert this to AAC, you should enable the "Recompress audi…

Comment by Ben August 4 permalink
Reducing the CPU utilisation for SS with Hikvision?
Hi Andy, Great to hear that. When using this option, I would advise that you make sure the camera's key frame rate is not too high (this is the frequency of key frames in the video stream and can be referred to by the following names by vario…

Comment by Ben August 3 permalink
Best audio codec in Hikvision for quality
Axis cameras typically support AAC - Andy if you're looking for an indoor cube-style camera, perhaps the AXIS M1065-L or M1065-LW will fit the bill? SecuritySpy produces either MOV files or MP4 files - the latter is a subset of the former, wit…

Comment by Ben August 3 permalink
Reducing the CPU utilisation for SS with Hikvision?
Unfortunately I don't think that the 2011 Mac minis have hardware-accelerated H.264 video compression/decompression; I think this was introduced in the 2012 models. To assess how much work your Mac's CPU is doing, the relevant figure to c…

Comment by Ben August 3 permalink
Can SS get IVS data from the camera....?
Hi Robert, SecuritySpy cannot get analytics data from IP cameras, however it can use the on-camera motion detection in Dahua, Amcrest and Hikvision cameras (this list may expand in the future as we work on this more). This is useful to offload the …

Comment by Ben August 3 permalink
IOS app request: nightstand mode
Hi Andy, I understand what you are describing, but this is somewhat different to how the app works currently, and I don't think that adding such a feature should be high on our list of priorities as it will not be useful for most users. Perhaps…

Comment by Ben August 3 permalink
SS vs NVR vs NAS
Hi Robert, as you know I would recommend SecuritySpy for a variety of reasons (flexibility, feature set, iOS app, no recurring fee), but I may be a bit biased :) Since this forum is specifically for SecuritySpy users to come together and share idea…

Comment by Ben August 2 permalink
Any luck with Lefun camera?
That's a shame about the Lefun camera. We haven't confirmed compatibility with Annke cameras, however if they support ONVIF they should work. However it's always safer to go for a camera that's already on our list of compatible…

Comment by Ben August 2 permalink
License Plate Reader Data Logging via SS?
Hi Robert, this is not currently a built-in feature in SecuritySpy, though other users have made their own solutions, please see: https://www.bensoftware.com/forum/discussion/2141/openalpr-automated-license-plate-recognition-integration#Item_3

Comment by Ben August 2 permalink
SV3C Camera on 3.4.10
Unlike SecuritySpy version 4, SecuritySpy version 3 does not have have automatic ONVIF device discovery, but you should be able to use our Network Device Finder app to find the IP address of your camera. Once you know the IP address, you can test t…

Comment by Ben August 2 permalink
Upgrades
Hi @finkej - we'd be happy to split your 16-camera license into two separate 8-camera licenses if you wish (simply email us), however you'll get a better user experience if you have all the cameras running on one machine. I would recommen…

Comment by Ben August 2 permalink
iOS streaming speed
So you aren't seeing any video in our iOS app when you tap on a particular camera? That's a different problem to seeing lower-quality video, and indicates some kind of connectivity issue. Please see above about turning on/off H.264 streami…

Comment by Ben August 1 permalink

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Username: Ben
Joined: May 2013
Visits: 888
Last Active: 12:00PM
Roles: Administrator