Email attachment now 2x in size

jay

Hi Ben-

Enjoying the new SS.

However, my email notifications have doubled in size… Three shots used to be about 800 kB and now I'm at 1.9 MB… I want this file compressed to the absolute maximum… If I see something's amiss… I'll go to remote patrol… But at 2 MB an email… that is surely gonna I show up on my monthly wireless data allotment.

jay

Ben

Hi Jay,

Glad you're enjoying the new software!

What format is the camera itself supplying? You can check this in the Camera Info window if you enable the "Format" column (click on the header with the column names to add/remove columns).

If the camera is supplying JPEG data, then SecuritySpy will now probably be using this JPEG data directly for captures and emails, rather than re-encoding it and creating its own JPEGs. Using the data directly from the camera results in the best quality and performance, but then it's up to the camera what the data rate is.

So, if this is the case, then you can reduce the size of the images by lowering the compression quality in the camera.

If however the camera is supplying a different format, then SecuritySpy will have to re-encode to JPEG, and in this case SecuritySpy has control over the file size. But I would be surprised if this were the case, because I've just tested the difference between version 3 and version 4 in terms of creating JPEGs and they are the same size (with default settings).

jay

From the camera info window, all of my cameras are H.264.

I don't want to change the compression from the camera itself, because I need to have very high quality images stored, just not on the emails.

I suppose I could use pictures generated from the sub stream… What's the licensing situation with sub streams on cameras… Is it one camera or two?

I need to get the size of these JPEG's down to 100 kB… All I need to do is look at the picture to see if there's someone wearing a "hoodie" or it's the postman knocking at my door… then I can determine if I need to fire up remote patrol.

TIA
jay

Ben

Hi Jay, no you shouldn't change the stream coming from the camera: H.264 is the best one to use for that.

If you right-click on the camera in a video window in SecuritySpy and select the "Save as JPEG" option to save an image file, how big is this file? Could you repeat this test in SecuritySpy 3 so that we can compare the two?

jay

Hi Ben-

Thanks for your help.

I've lost contextual menus (right-click) with SS4. It was very handy for enabling audio quickly. And again, in the browser… I don't see time coding or a scrub bar.

I will say, I rather like using the sub stream for JPEG emails… I've got four pictures down to about 200 kB… Again, I just use it for quick reference… And I love 200 kB. It's also incredibly handy having a lower resolution feed for remote patrol… My 3 MB cameras chew up huge amounts of data... but I have the sub stream set at 352×288... You're just not able to pull a license plate number from that kind of resolution… But you can certainly see if things are a miss.

srd

I am also seeing the email attachment since increase dramatically, I had reduced the Still Image JPEG Compression for email to under 40% that ensured the total email size was ~800k. Currently with SS4 with 4 stills - each email is ~2.8MB

srd

Regarding the Save as JPEG from the Video Window
SS4 Filesize 855KB
SS3 Filesize 865KB (Still image JPEG Compression for local capture 100%)
SS3 Filesize 193KB (Still image JPEG Compression for local capture 50%)

Ben

In the latest beta version of SecuritySpy (currently 4.0.3b5), the quality as set in Preferences -> Compression for video compression will now be used for generating the JPEG images. So please try the beta with a quality setting of around 50, and please let me know if this resolves the issue. Thanks.

BrianM

Ah, that isn't obvious, I didn't want to drop that setting because it seemed like it would affect the saved files, not just the ones sent via email.

I also saw email attached pictures increase from 100-150 KB up to 420 KB+

I want the saved files to disk to be max quality, but the email attachments to be small (as mentioned in another comment on another post - sometimes cell service isn't fast or reliable, so smaller files can be the difference between getting a picture to load and in a reasonable amount of time, not to mention data usage on a cell plan that isn't unlimited)

jay

Despite a lot of functionality problems (some perhaps unique to me), I went ahead and purchased an upgraded eight camera license.

But what are you going to do about the size of the email images… They have doubled in size.

Like BrianM mentioned, I don't want to degrade the archived library… Just the email images.

Most IP cameras have two streams available. I don't mind using a sub stream for the email alert cameras (as an added benefit having the camera generate the stream doesn't use up my Mac CPU%) … But it creates a licensing problem.

In my setup, I use six cameras, but with the email attachment size problem… I've created a sub stream for each camera…But despite it being the exact same camera (just a lower resolution feed 352 x240 v. 1920 x1080)….SS4 sees it as a DIFFERENT camera. And that's the problem, the ninth camera performs no actions with a 8 camera license.

What are your thoughts on this Ben… This is really important to me… A huge percentage of my iPhone data is going to SS4.

TIA

Jay

Ben

Hi Jay,

In the latest beta version of SecuritySpy (currently 4.0.4b4), we have added a separate quality setting for the JPEG images. You'll find it in the Preferences -> Compression section. This new quality setting applies to saving still JPEG images to disk, emailing them, or streaming them via the web server, and is separate from the quality setting for recorded movies.

Try a setting of around 40, as this should give you reasonably small files for the emails.

Does this resolve the issue for you?

jay

Hi Ben-

Thanks for your timely reply!

Not really.

As I said, for me, email needs to be parsed out from everything else. I need very high quality JPEG's and high quality video archived.

At the end of the day, if there is a problem… The information needs to be disseminated… To my neighbors, to my local police Capt and maybe the court system.… And that data needs to be the highest quality… Capable of pulling license plate numbers off of cars. (This is a huge frustration I have with Remote Patrol… It has no sharing…)

But the emails, can't be of this high quality… For a number of reasons: data pricing constraints, but as someone else said, wireless coverage is far from perfect… Getting a 100 K picture through is often possible… 2 MB sometimes it just doesn't happen… It was that way on a cruise I took three months ago.

Looking down the road… I think you need to incorporate a second stream video feed from each "camera" into the software… Much like you have done for time lapse (continuous motion) where in previous versions I had to set up a second "camera" for that.

What's your email address, I'd like to send you two pictures… One is 1.2 MB and the other is 80 K… The 80 K tells me everything I need to know.

At present, I have to use the second stream… But to have to purchase a 16 camera license is very burdensome, when I really only have six cameras… Albeit with two feeds from each camera.

Have I missed any progress on this issue:

Error from camera "Street Low Res", it will be closed. (Failed to decompress incoming video frame 22185,-8969 Image data decompression failed - bad data)

TIA

Jay

BrianM

Testing new version - it would still be nice to have separate storage vs email, but this will do - I can always grab still images from the video if needed. I realized I mostly used the stills as a quick way to get the time stamps of the motion to then look at the video - so quality in them isn't as important as I first mentioned.

BrianM

in 4.0.4b4 I ended up changing that compression setting to 35 - the largest files are around 90KB and still high enough quality to recognize people. Night pictures drop to around 35-40KB

Ben

Jay - what quality setting have you actually set in the Preferences -> Compression window? If you are getting 2 MB images it must be set very high.

Are you getting SecuritySpy to capture still JPEG images in addition to the recorded movies?

As for the "bad data" errors, this isn't a known problem with 4.0.4, and I suspect that your camera is actually sending bad data. What camera make/model is this and how is it connected (wired or WiFi)?