Swann H.264 manual Recording: Option, English, Advanced Configuration

English

Recording: Option

The Recording: Option menu lets you change some aspects of how the DVR will record footage, such as:

• whether the DVR will record a short video before events take place,

• how long after events take place the DVR will continue to record for,

• how the DVR will store and divide long recordings into “packs” and

• whether the DVR will record over old footage to make room for new events.

Overwrite: When enabled, the DVR will record over the files already stored on the hard drive. The DVR will always record over the oldest files on your hard drive first.

Using the overwrite option is advisable, as the DVR will always be able to record events as they happen. However, it does mean that you’ll need to get important events off the HDD before they’re overwritten.

Pre-Record:While Pre-Record is enabled, the DVR will record a few seconds before an event occurs. It’s a little like making the DVR psychic (but not really - it’s actually just caching a few seconds of video which it adds to event recordings as they occur).

If you’re using Motion Detection (recommended) and/or Alarm based recording as your primary recording method(s), then it’s a really good idea to use Pre-Record - sometimes, if an event is fast enough, it might have left view before the DVR can trigger a recording. With Pre-Record, there’s almost no chance you’ll miss it.

Post-Record:How long after an event occurs that the DVR will continue to record. It can be very useful - for example, if an intruder or potential target triggers the motion detection but pauses in view; having post-record enabled will get a much better look at them. 30 seconds is the recommended length for the post-record setting, but it can be set higher (the options are 1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes) depending on your unique circumstances.

Pack Duration: Pack Duration is a measurement of how long the DVR will record for before splitting the output file into discrete units. “Packs” are something like the chapter numbers on a DVD - though the video is broken up into separate units, it will still play through as one continuous movie (unless interrupted by the schedule or motion detection turning the recording on or off). If you don’t want to worry about setting Pack Durations, you can leave it on the default value; it will make little difference to the day-to-day running of the DVR.

Advanced Configuration

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