I think I figured out how recording and retention works in Frigate #4231
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From what I can see mostly correct except for one detail. When viewing an event the event will gather ALL segments relevant to that event. So if since you have 24/7 recordings enabled with motion based retention. Any segments with motion during that event will also be shown as part of that event (until the 7 days you set are up at which point the event will only show the active_object segments) |
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Whoops, this
I just looked at the parsed config on the debug page
But then I moved it to the root of the config file and restarted, and it worked. Then I moved it back under the camera and it still worked. I could have sworn I restarted Frigate after adding the mask. I even restarted it a few times while trying out different options, it was still stuck at Oh well, it's working now! |
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Great! |
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I set up Frigate yesterday and left a camera on the floor overnight to try it out. I was a bit confused about how the recording works, but I think I've figured it out now. I thought I would post here in case it helps someone else, or in case I still have some details wrong.
I use the following
record
config:Main Frigate page showing cameras
Events page
This is related to this part of the config:
It only saves video clips when an object is detected, and the object is moving.
Specific event
This shows the specific recorded clip
Recordings
This is related to this part of the config:
This is similar to the events page, but instead of showing a trimmed clip, it actually shows the full recorded video for that hour, and links to specific timestamps in that recording video. You can also click on events to go to that timestamp.
You can also click on a time to go to the beginning of that hour, so you can see any motion as well (not just events):
The recording will only show any 10 second segments of video where motion was detected. Each 10 second segment of motion is merged together into a single video file for that hour:
Recordings/MM YYYY/MM DD/HH:MM:SS/<camera name>
So your recording for that hour might be only a few seconds or minutes long, if not much motion happened.
Home Assistant Media folder
active_objects
)Recordings/MM YYYY/MM DD/HH:MM:SS/<camera name>
I was looking at a recording from 3am last night:
It looks like Frigate decided to keep 11:48 of video from the hour. I couldn't figure out why, since I didn't see any motion in the video. Then I realized it was probably detecting motion from the embedded timestamp overlay that I had configured in the IP camera settings.
I guess it was usually ignoring the seconds, but it detected enough of a difference when it ticked over to the next minute:
02:06:59
=>02:07:00
It looks like Frigate can't (or shouldn't) add these timestamps itself: #2151
(Or maybe you could do it with ffmpeg if you really need it.) But I want to keep the timestamp, so it looks like I need a motion mask to cover up the timestamp area: https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/masks
I think that's everything I've learned so far. I was worried that Frigate would only record videos if it detected an object. I was concerned that there would be a false negative where someone breaks in and steals something but we didn't get any video because the person detection failed for some reason. So it's great to know that it does actually record video for any motion, and it also saves additional clips for any object detection events.
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