Framerate is to change the number of frames per second. Higher rates will result in smoother videos but will consume more memory and increase the CPU load. If this field is disabled, then it's necessary to set the framerate in the network / ip camera's web interface.
Recording framerate divider can be set to a value greater than 1 if the camera doesn't support the option to adjust the framerate. Useful if your PC cannot save in real-time.
Pre buffer is to configure the amount of video data stored before a recording event.
Post buffer is to configure the amount of video data stored after a recording event ends.
Drop motion shorter than is handy to filter out short movements.
Split longer than can be adjusted to split a recording sequence into multiple files and thus limit the frame buffer usage. The default value is 1000 frames and the maximum is calculated from the cameras count, the cameras video resolutions and the installed RAM size.
Flip Horizontally and Flip Vertically will mirror the video source horizontally and vertically (to rotate by 180° check both).
Source button is enabled for capture cards and USB / DV cameras. It displays the camera proprietary general settings dialog.
Size & Format can be called to change the wanted video size, format or compression. For USB cameras switching to MJPG helps reducing the bandwidth usage.
Input Select is used to choose the input of an analog video capture device.
TV opens the analog TV tuner dialog.
Audio
Enable audio recording together with video.
Live Listen to hear and verify the live audio.
For RTSP Network / IP cameras get the audio from the stream.
For USB cameras use the Source button. The Mixer button is to regulate the levels of the USB cameras.
Recording Save
Full video stores the complete sequence in .mp4 format. Enable Fast save if your PC cannot save in real-time (be aware that Fast save will generate bigger files). Quality will impact the video appearance of the saved files. Higher qualities result in bigger files with better visual quality.
Animated thumbnail stores a summary of the full video with the configured size.
Start picture stores a meaningful recording start frame as .jpg file (this one is offset by "pre buffer" + "drop shorter than" seconds from the recording begin).
Live Snapshot
Under Take each the live snapshot rate is set; those snapshots are used for the web interface live view. Usually 1 second rate is fine, setting this to Fast will result in a smoother preview, but at the expense of more network bandwidth usage and increased Hard Disk / SSD write operations.
Press the Thumbnail Size button to adjust the live snapshot thumbnail size which is also the web interface live view size.
Control
For each camera there are two batch files to control ContaCam externally, the path is shown in the text boxes and can be copied to the clipboard (use right-click menu).
CAMERA.bat sets the camera source either visible or obscured and CAMERA_REC_SENSITIVITY.bat changes the recording state / sensitivity.
The Windows Task Scheduler is frequently used to execute those batch files.
Different commands can be configured through the available Profiles.
It can be chosen when to execute a command: 1. On Recording start, 2. After the Recording saving is done, 3. When the Live snapshots saving is done or 4. After the Daily summary saving finished.
In Program box provide the full path of the executable to be run.
Under Arguments fill the optional parameters using also variables.
Hide window of executed command should only be checked if the executed command closes itself when done.
Only one instance of executed command instructs ContaCam to skip a new command if the previous one is still running.
Under Examples there are helper buttons to setup typical commands.
Attention: batch files have to be invoked through cmd.exe (under Arguments pay attention to provide the double-quotes like shown). Program C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe Arguments /C ""C:\Tools\my script.bat" "%full%" "%small%""
Reduce false detections
In the menu of the red dot record button decrease the Motion Sensitivity to 40, 30 or 20.
Increase Drop shorter than to 2-4 sec (see above under Video section).
With the Zones (Mask) designer (red rectangles button) erase active zones or draw active zones with lower sensitivity. If choosing Draw active zones (50% main sensitivity) the drawn zones will be marked with a orange square and will have half of the main sensitivity (set under the red dot record button menu). Taking the picture below that would signify a sensitivity of 50% x 40 = 20 for the zones marked with a orange square. Choosing Draw active zones (25% main sensitivity) will create zones with yellow squares that have a quarter of the main sensitivity. Draw active zones (10% main sensitivity) makes green-square zones with one-tenth of the main sensitivity and Draw active zones (5% main sensitivity) does blue-square zones with one-twentieth of the main sensitivity. Hint: to spot the zones triggering a false detection, run your camera for a few days with the REC motion zones (for testing) option enabled. Then review the motion recordings and fine-tune the zones' sensitivity.
