Couple of issues in iOS app

nickhandel

Ben, please forgive me if this duplicates other posts here.

My SecuritySpy server is MacOS Sierra 10.12.1, and I'm using a SeagateNAS mounted as a volume with afp.

1. I can't open the movie file that's currently being written from the iOS app. I get a "Connection Failed. Unable to connect to server" message.
2. I can playback the other movie files from the beginning but I can't scrub or jump to any other position.

I've just noticed that the browser also won't play backwards meaningfully. Is it just the network latency/bandwidth limitation of the disk? I'll try with the local disk but it's only got a few hundred GB free - maybe we need multi-tier storage capability...

nickhandel

Update - it's definitely NAS-related. Changed the record destination to the local hard disc and both issues go away (although I still managed to get it to stop working by trying "fine scrubbing" on the iPad. Not sure if there's anything you can do about this. My server is 2009 iMac - am now tempted to demote the late 2011 one I use as my main desktop to server, get some Thunderbolt storage and a retina iMac for my main machine.

nickhandel

Further update - I tried configuring my NAS drive as iSCSI and whilst it made access faster (noticeably better in Browser) it still doesn't work from iOS. I also wonder if my machine's CPU is a limiting factor.

Ben

Hi,

The problem with scrubbing in movies is actually a bug in SecuritySpy version 4.0.8 - we've today released a new version of SecuritySpy to address this (amongst other things). So please download and install it and let me know if this fixes the problems.

Mounting the NAS via AFP is the right way to do it.

nickhandel

Will try that tonight Ben, many thanks. So you don't recommend iSCSI? It does seem to perform slightly better, but has the disadvantage of preventing shared access (it's nice to be able to open the footage files in QuickTime on my main desktop).

Ben

iSCSI should work, and should indeed provide certain advantages (such as speed), however we haven't thoroughly tested it at this point, so we can't officially recommend it. AFP has been thoroughly tested so we know it works well. If you decide to stick with iSCSI it would be interesting to hear your feedback after you have been able to test it for a little while.

nickhandel

Will do. On the Mac it's not natively supported (as I believe it is in Windows). I tried a "free" initiator client from KernSoft which simply didn't work, but I downloaded the only other one I could find, seemingly quite long-established and well known - it's called "GlobalSAN". The trial install is working; you have to pay about $90 for the full version, which I think just gives you "persistence" (meaning it reconnects targets automatically on boot/login). I think for transport control (particularly synchronised across multiple streams) you need local disk (or something like Thunderbolt).

nickhandel

Ben, TBH I don't think my 2009 iMac is up to the job with 4/5 cameras recording simultaneously and trying to replay synchronised video at the same time. Replay sort of works on my iOS devices but even when I use the browser to replay the machine runs out of steam (even to the point where it disconnects my VNC session). I'll look at upgrading I think.
One additional little report though - sometimes (not always) in the browser, the JKL keys don't operate the transport but jump to different cameras beginning with the nearest letter. I think it may depend which bit of the window has the focus but I think it probably constitutes a bug of sorts. Personally I'd rather use the arrow keys...

Ben

That's a shame, you could try reducing the frame rates of your cameras until you get acceptable performance, but ultimately it sounds like you'll need some new hardware. See if you get find a second hand 2012 quad-core Mac mini (e.g. on eBay) as these are more powerful than the current Mac mini lineup on offer.

Thanks for the note about the JKL keys - this does sounds like a bug, we'll look into it.

nickhandel

Yeah I'm going to try running it from my main machine which is a Mid 2011 quad-core 3.4GHz i7 with 16GB RAM. The older one is a quad 2.66HGz i5 with 8GB RAM, but of course it's not as simple as the numbers suggest because the chipset architecture is also different (Lynnfield vs. Sandy Bridge) . If it works OK on the 2011 I'll wait for the new iMac (must be coming soon) and relegate the 2011 to my server. I was wondering whether smaller files might help (I'm doing one per hour at the moment), and it's quite interesting how these things combine with the NAS approach - I'd need a lot of time to experiment properly but you'd expect iSCSI to me much better than AFP given block access (particularly with massive files), but on the other hand I suspect iSCSI also loads up the initiator's machine's CPU far more than AFP so it may be swings and roundabouts if it's already fighting for cycles. I'll try a couple of simple tests with one stream at a time via the Browser and via iOS.

One other suggestion (sorry this is all a bit random): it would be nice to be able to set the default capture destination somewhere. Given that MacOS now provides the option to upload your Documents folder to iCloud (which I believe is on by default), those of us with tiny upstream broadband connections would rather video doesn't go in there (by accident). It's aggravated by the fact that it's also the fallback location when the specified volume isn't available, so I really think it should be configurable. Related to this, I suggest that a SS folder at the top level of the user directory is defensible and preferable to the Documents folder, by default.

Final question (hope this is of some interest to others, by the way!) - you specifically mention AFS rather than SMB - I don't think my Seagate NAS supports SMB2 so afp probably preferable to SMB1 on the Mac, but isn't this pretty much transparent to SecuritySpy? Or are there ACL issues with SMB?

nickhandel

Ben, quick update on this. Video playback working fine in the browser on my Mid 2011 iMac; reviewing each stream individually is instantaneous regardless of SSD, HD, iSCSI or AFP, and this is also the case when viewing multiple streams synchronously (I've tried 5). I note the reported CPU usage per camera is half that on the older machine (between 17% and 20% per HikVision camera). Also of passing interest, I very quick file copy test reveals APF transfer rate twice as fast as iSCSI. 140MB/sec vs. 60.

So obviously the 2009 iMac not up to the job. Will see how I get on with it running alongside my other stuff on the 2011. Been looking for an excuse for a Retina iMac for a while anyway.

However: the JKL key issue remains regardless of using VNC (screen sharing) or not - I have a camera whose name starts with K and as soon as I hit that key it jumps to it in the cameras selector (at which point I lose the other streams being displayed).

Also, although you've fixed the playback on iOS for completed files (tried iPhone 6 and iPad Pro), it's still not displaying the in-progress recording at all. I either get the connection failure message, or a get a single frame with mostly green mask.

May I make one further request? It would be enormously helpful to be able to key in a clock time to jump to in the browser. Similarly, to be able to select the playback speed with buttons - either a drop-down against the current speed indicator and/or add fast forward and rewind transport control buttons between the start and end buttons). Click once for 2x, twice for 4x etc.

I should add I haven't actually yet paid you for the software yet (still in the trial period), just in case that has any bearing on functionality. I'll be buying though...

Ben

Thanks for the additional information.

AFP is preferable to SMB. Certain catalog information (e.g. file sizes and creation/modification times) work better with AFP. So when using SMB you may find that SecuritySpy cannot automatically delete old files properly.

The app should display the in-progress recording, though scrubbing backwards/forwards doesn't currently work properly for unfinished files (the file size is continually increasing, and this confuses some clients). We'll look into this.

Good idea with the Browser suggestions.

nickhandel

Thanks Ben. You may have missed the other suggestion (sorry I've gone on a bit on this thread) - it would be great to be able to set the default capture location to avoid inadvertent uploads to iCloud.

jonovortex

Hey Ben - I noticed there don't appear to be any notification (push) capability in the new app - I really appreciated it in the Remote Patrol app. Any eta / plans to have push notifications for the new app? Apologies if it's a stupid question. Cheers