Milestone XProtect Camera vs. Server Motion Detect

[buellwinkle 0]

Some of you have asked me how to setup camera side motion detection on Milestone XProtect as by default when you first add the camera, Milestone uses it's own motion detection, done inside the software. The downside is it uses more CPU, the upside is that it's easier to setup as you do nothing, it's automatic but you can tweak it. The instructions below show the 2013 version, but it's the same for the 2014 version.

 

This is a brief guide on how to setup camera side motion detection on Milestone XProtect. This is all done in the Milestone XProtect Management Application.

 

1. Under Advanced Configuration on the left, then Events & Output, right click on Hardware Input Event and select Add New Input Event. Select the camera you want to do this for and check Motion Started on Camera 1 Window 1 and give this event a more unique name, like Driveway Motion Start and click OK. Then do the same for Motion Stopped on Camera 1 Window 1, you'll need both. You can also pick other stuff like Face Detection, Audio, whatever your camera supports

 

 

2. Then go to Cameras, select the camera, click the OPEN button and click on Motion Detect and uncheck Enable. It will give you some warning.

 

 

3. Now select Recording Properties on the left, uncheck built-in motion detection and check Event, select the Start event you created, select the Stop event you created and click OK. While here you can enable pre and post recording, I usually make it 3 and 8 seconds respectively

 

 

As you go, you'll see it asking you to Save or Discard in a yellow banner on top, so click Save at anytime to save your work. If you try an exit without saving, it will prompt you again.

 

To make sure it's recording, start Smart Client and see if it says "Recording" when motion happens.

[quadraTomic 0]

Thanks, I was wondering how this was done.

[voip-ninja 0]

Thanks for posting this. I will have to check my cameras, I believe that somewhere in the settings I have "use in-camera motion detection" as an explicit check box on my Axis and/or Samsung cams.

[ilkevinli 0]

I believe you get more specific options if the camera is fully supported. Less options if it's using ONVIF.

 

Thanks for posting this. I will have to check my cameras, I believe that somewhere in the settings I have "use in-camera motion detection" as an explicit check box on my Axis and/or Samsung cams.

[buellwinkle 0]

It's the same for all supported cameras I use including Axis, ACTi, Mobotix & Hikvision.

[ilkevinli 0]

Interesting. What would be the difference between supported and unsupported camera models ?

 

 

It's the same for all supported cameras I use including Axis, ACTi, Mobotix & Hikvision.

[voip-ninja 0]

Apparently the problem is how Milestone labels things.

 

In all of my cameras there is an option under "recording settings" for the camera that list "built in" motion detection and it is checked.

 

One would assume this means that Milestone is configuring and using the built-in motion detection capabilities of the camera, but from what Buell is reporting this is in fact not the case and "built in" means "built into milestone".

 

Because of the very low CPU use of the recorder application I was under the impression that there was no way that Milestone was doing the motion detection, but after looking at my cameras I see that they don't have motion event set up or triggers set up on motion, so it does appear that Milestone is handling all of that via their motion detection stuff.

 

I will say that setting up the motion detection areas and sensitivity in Milestone itself is very easy... and if the cpu use is as low as I'm seeing (10% for recorder on a C2D CPU machine) then I see no reason to change it to use the camera motion detection.

[buellwinkle 0]

The reason would be if you had alarm input trigger (like a PIR motion detector) or some sort of built in motion detection like Hikvision's face or line traversal motion detection. Also, if I can save a few percent of CPU, why not, the CPU runs cooler, less power consumption, more CPU left over for other stuff.

[pipabix 0]

carried out the above smoothly on milestone, but is there anything I should look out for on the hikv firmware as its not recording.

[buellwinkle 0]

You have to set the camera's motion detect areas for this to work. In Hikvision this is under Advanced Configuration and Events, check the Enable Motion Detection box and draw the area on the screen you want motion detect and here's what trips people up, the default sensitivity is zero, that won't work, set it to 20 or 40 based on your preference (all of mine are at 20).

[pipabix 0]

Brilliant buellwinkle, only thing I hadn't done is draw the area, and almost missed the stop drawing button. Works now. Thanks.

 

Only one job left to do now, that's get sub stream working.

Otherwise I won't be able to use milestone going forward

 

Pip

[cloudcover 0]

Thanks for this writeup...one question though:

 

I'm using Xprotect Go in conjunction with a Hikvision cube camera and am trying to use the camera's built-in PIR detection capability. When I right-click to add a new Input Event, I see several options (like Scene Change, Face Detection, etc) but not the PIR functionality. Is it called something else? Or how do I enable use of that capability?