SecuritySpy Version 6 - Feature Questions
Comments
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I don't use the web interface, I really haven't touched the settings in my 12 cameras in months, and I have a gig up and a gig down, so bandwidth isn't a big issue for me. The only thing appealing, at first blush, is improved AI… For me in 5...animal recognition just doesn't work reliably at all.
Is the AI significantly better in 6.0?
Short of that, there doesn't seem to be much here for me.
Jay.
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I agree with Jay. While I'm not opposed to paying the upgrade fee to support further development, I don't use the web interface, so there isn't much for me either. I hope the release notes are underselling the improvements in performance and AI accuracy.
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Just trying out v6 after an in place upgrade from v5 and i use the 'Run shell commands' heavily upon motion detection, but they're not working since v6. Any changes under the hood?
This is an example of the previously working config under actions:
curl --insecure -X GET "https://events:XXXXX@XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/api/createEvent?source=XXXXX&caption=Video%20Analytics&description=Person"
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@AdamSpy - the functionality to check for and install updates has been moved to Settings > Registration.
@8urt0 - thanks for the suggestion, I think it's a good one, I'll see if we can add this.
@jay and @cmh716 - I certainly understand your position, since you don't really use the web interface, and this is the main new feature. In your case it may make more sense to wait to see what other features we add. We will certainly be improving the software continuously for years to come, so even if version 6.0 isn't appealing to you, no doubt we will be adding many features in the future that will be appealing.
@JC_5674 - the only thing that has changed under the hood related to this is that double quote characters are now correctly escaped, where they were not previously (i.e. adding a backslash before the quote). Do you have any backslash characters in your curl command? If so, removing them should solve the issue. If this doesn't solve it, try removing the quotes characters altogether - it should work without them. If that doesn't do it, please email us and include a screenshot of your settings.
In terms of the AI, here is what we have done for V6:
- We have significantly expanded the dataset on which we train the AI, with more and varied images. This improves overall accuracy for all detected objects (humans, vehicles and animals).
- In particular, we have made a big effort to add images of animals, so the animal detection is now much more accurate than before.
- There is also now an option in the advanced trigger settings to exclude birds from animal detection. To the AI, birds can look very much like flying insects, so in the past, bugs could easily trip the animal detector. By excluding birds using this option, you get very accurate animal detection that is not triggered by flying insects.
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Ben,
I view the server from many different devices (iPhone, iPad, AppleTV as well as another Mac.) When I make a group, I note there is no way to order the cameras in the group. On some devices I like a different order for a particular group. I note it's dependent on the server order. I can only hid cameras in named groups and not reorder them. Would this be something feasible to consider?
Thanks, Marty
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Yes, I too explicitly re-order the viewing arrangement of cameras in my browser bookmarks under V5. That lets me put each set of camera views in a geometrically logical order for each desired view. That was easily done by re-sequencing the camera numbers in the URL's. Is this not possible in V6 URL's?
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Also, the grid view is absolutely vital when I visually clear a couple hundred motion captures in one sitting.
I know there is a legacy URL access in the V6. Are the old V5 interface capabilities still accessible via the legacy URL pathway?
Due to time constraints, have not undertaken the task of attempting the V5 to V6 transition. Better AI accuracy and smoother playback are pluses to look forward to, but losing grid view and ability to sequence the cameras would prevent me from using V6
If I can run the V5 web interface and get the better V6 AI, then it could work.
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"Are the old V5 interface capabilities still accessible via the legacy URL pathway?" - yes they are, so you can still view all motion captures in grid view via the V5 interface (just add /legacy to the base URL)
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Thanks. The Legacy V5 URL is going to be a lifesaver for me, until the V6 interface grows in capability.
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Anyone else get the legacy captured grid or list to actually play back any captured files?
I see the old grid appear, but trying to actually play back anything fails. Clearing Safari cache didn't help.
I just get a 404 file not found for playback attempts in the legacy captures page in both list or grid view. Oddly enough, I can Download files from the grid view. Just can't View them in browser.
I know the captures view and grid is a legacy feature, but there is no equivalent way I can find in the V6 web interface to quickly review a range of dates and visually evaluate a couple hundred thumbnails. That's the SS functionality I need to perform efficient and comprehensive capture reviews in seconds.
As there isn't an equivalent in V6, legacy playback functionality is vital for SS to do its job for me.
New V6 interface is snappy, but also quite clumsy and inefficient for serious capture reviews. Scrolling through single column of thumbnails a couple at a time and one date at time is horribly inefficient.
If we could have a grid and date range selection capability added to V6, it would be usable without legacy grid. Meanwhile, please let the legacy grid do actual playback.
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@guykuo - sorry about that, the 404 error in the legacy interface when viewing files is now fixed in the latest 6.1b8 beta version.
@Marty - currently, the camera order is dictated by the server (where you can reorder cameras under Settings > Cameras). The only exception to this is when using ViewCam or another copy of SecuritySpy to view live video on another Mac - in this case, the client maintains its own independent camera order.
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Thanks. Grabbing the beta later today. Much appreciate the fix.
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I confirm that 6.1b8 restored ability for legacy URL to play videos from grid and list views.
We can continue doing serious security work using the legacy grid view until an equivalent is available in the new V6 web interface. As a bonus, the legacy grid benefits from V6 speed for downloads.
Actually, most of the legacy interface feels much more responsive under V6. Feels like I'm eating my cake and keeping it too.
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Could you please bring back the "show password" option in the camera settings ?
Thanks !
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@guykuo - great to hear that it's fixed. As mentioned elsewhere, we're planning to bring back the grid view in SecuritySpy 6.
@pgh - this is another common request, we're considering adding this back. Our only concern is for security, but perhaps this can be visible only in the in-app settings window, rather than via the web interface settings pages.
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Hi Ben,
What a nice upgrade !
I'm really liking the new web interface... I have used the "add to dock" feature in safari to make it a standalone app that I can quickly launch, without having to fire up safari and go to a bookmark.
I'd like to add my vote to have an option to quickly select all cameras... I found the alt-click trick, but I'd also like an option to quickly select only one camera, so it becomes "full screen"... maybe alt-click on the image feed of the camera toggles single camera or all cameras ? But I'd prefer to not use any extra keyboard modifier...
And also a last request, a small icon above each camera feed that, upon clicking, throws you into the captures of that camera.. a bit like the ios app does...
if you wonder why I don't use the native app, and instead created a web app, it's because of the remote browsing of captures...
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nice to see web ui improvements, now I longer have to use remote desktop!
correct me if I am wrong but is macos app no longer native? my very first launch app I instantly went ah this is not native, I believe electron apps do this (blank screen and then ui is loaded). if thats the case, we could do with daemon mode that removes UI so only webserver ui is avaliable.
also would be cool if we could create html/js plugins for web ui to modify UI to allow some customization etc e.g. add ability to re-order cameras
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I run SecuritySpy on my main machine and use the "Come to Front" action, which is great. I am considering migrating SecuritySpy to a headless server, but I'd still like to have popup videos when motion is detected. Is there any option for this scenario where the server instance can tell ViewCam, or SecuritySpy to pop up a window?
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Hi @luqman - great to hear you like the improvements in the new version! SecuritySpy is still very much a native application. However, the Settings window has been completely re-implemented in HTML/JavaScript. The reason for this is to unify it across both macOS and web interfaces, to make ongoing maintenance and improvements much easier.
You can re-order cameras from the Cameras section of the Settings (either via the Settings window in macOS or the Settings section via web), by clicking the gear button at the bottom and selecting "Change Camera Order".
Your idea for a daemon is a good one, however SecuritySpy is still a UI-based application, and modifying it to run as a daemon would be a big job, so I'm not sure if we will ever do this.
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Hi @cmh716 this is possible using AppleScript. On the receiving Mac, go to System Settings > General > Sharing, and enable the "Remote Application Scripting" option. While you're there, take a note of the "Local hostname" that will be displayed in that panel, for example "iMac.local".
On the sending Mac (the one running SecuritySpy), open Script Editor and enter the following script:
tell application "SecuritySpy" of machine "eppc://iMac.local" open video window camera number 5 end tell
Make sure the camera number here matches the number shown for the camera in question in the Camera Info window on the receiving Mac.
Save the script to the ~/SecuritySpy/Scripts folder on the sending Mac, and select it as an Action for the camera in question. Make sure that Actions mode for this camera is armed.
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Thank you so much, Ben. If I have my licenses on my Server, can I have SecuritySpy on the workstation PC in a limited mode that requires no/less licensing? I would not have any motion detection, recording, triggers, etc on the Workstation PC. Maybe I can set "Operate in view-only mode (don't count towards license limit)" on each of the instances on the workstation computer?
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For the purposes of viewing live video from a licensed server instance, we allow users to install and use SecuritySpy for free for this purpose. For instructions on how to set this up please see SecuritySpy as Remote Viewing Software.
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thanks for the reply
html/js makes sense for ui, I thought maybe there was some plan to go cross-platform, along side daemon.
sorry was note clear; my thoughts regarding per user on client side. if we could add some x-plugin.js file to SS folder that gets added to say <header|footer>, it might provide opportunity to add custom behaviour, like per user ordering using localstorage/cookies on web ui but I guess in its current stage it would also kinda depend on studying existing html/js code vs some kinda actual plugin system.
ability to update SS via web ui would be great! With plex I had to remote desktop to update, these days it can be done via web ui :)
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How do I re-order the cameras in the settings window ?
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Hi @luqman we intentionally disabled the ability to update SecuritySpy remotely via its web UI. This is because depending on the current user's permissions settings, you may need to authenticate to macOS using an admin user's details in order to apply the update, and this can't be done remotely.
@pgh - you can re-order cameras from the Cameras section of the Settings (either via the Settings window in macOS or the Settings section via web), by clicking the gear button at the bottom and selecting "Change Camera Order".
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So far I'm really enjoying the v6 update. I have a couple of little hiccups and one question I could use help with:
- I'm finding that playback of captured events does not work on nearly half of my 9 cameras. I get an error that says, "This is a MOV file which cannot play back in web browsers. To fix this, set the camera to send video in H.264 or H.265 format, and audio in AAC format. However, the camera streams are set to H.264. There are even two identical cameras with identical settings - one which generates the error and one whose captures are playable. Anyone have any idea how to diagnose the problem?
- Adjusting per camera setting on the web interface on iPad Safari is glitchy. Camera are invisible until you click on the area and then, when you choose one, the settings frame gets scrolled down, obscuring certain options and you are unable to scroll back up.
- Finally: a question. I think the Remote Screen Control is a fantastic idea. I'm running SS on a headless MacMini along with home automation software (Indigo). While it works perfectly with Security Spy on that computer, all other apps and interfaces are invisible. Is that by design? Is it just meant to get you remote access to Security Spy and nothing else? If it is, would you consider adding full access? Also, if it isn't, can you help me figure out how to see / control other apps on the Mac Mini?
Great work. Thanks so much.
