Night Time motion detection

[losrx7]

Hello,
New to blue iris. Seem to have it working great during day time, but can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with night time motion dectection. I've tried quite of few suggestions by using the search engine here , and via other sites. Perhaps i'm not understanding something correctly. Can anyone point out any helpful videos or links to address motion dectection at night. Currently using Amcrest IP5M-1176 and IP8M-2496 cameras. The original amcrest NVR box recorded motion at night with no issues, but now I have mostly nothing at night. I can post here any settings i currently have, just not sure which ones to post.

Feel free to PM me on discord if easier to chat @ losrx7

Any help would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks,
-LoS

[TimG]

Start from the beginning. Can you clearly SEE motion on your cameras at night. If you can't then BI5 won't be able to detect it. Some cameras are good in the dark, and some are not.

[losrx7]

Yes I can see motion clearly. Sometimes too, only 1/2 of the motion gets alerted when my dog goes out with flood lights on. Also, cars driving by at night, don't set off any alert, even thou you can clearly see a vehicle driving by cameras. It's not visually the same as day time, as in clarity, but I can tell if its a coupe/sedan/truck or bike at night without flood lights. The old amcrest box picked this all up at night, I'm just not getting much with blue iris at the moment.

[TimG]

Are you using CPAI, or is this BI5 motion detection and triggering ? The settings will differ depending on that. Are you using the same settings for day and night, and have you experimented with making the motion detection more sensitive ?

[Pogo]

I've found effective night time motion detection relies heavily on the contrast settings combined with object size as determined in the basic Blue Iris motion detection settings.

180 to 220 or so for minimum object size and 15 ~ 20 or 30 for minimum contrast works well as a starting point for my general setups and works well during the day for the most part also. I generally use a 0.3 make time fwiw.

Object detection travel is usually in the 50 pixel range depending on any number of variables, not the least of which is the resolution of the sub-stream. I don't use zone crossings. My object size scene % detector reset is usually in the 30% ballpark but is combined with my basic trigger settings and may actually be a moot consideration as a result.

I get a trigger from a raccoon coming out of the woods and can even get them from a mouse running across my driveway at night. For my road facing cameras I simply don't extend my zones into areas that will be affected by headlights. I find that to be a fairly simple and effective method of eliminating those triggers. LOL

Every situation is different and just needs patient trial and error to dial in. The above works for me as a general starting point for night time stuff without adversely affecting daytime detection performance.

[MikeBwca]

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[Pogo]

I use each cameras Schedule 'Events Schedule' to change the Brightness & Contrast for daytime and Nighttime.

This is an automatic feature simply through the Schedule function without using separate day/night camera profiles?

[MikeBwca]

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[Pogo]

Thanks for the very cool overview.

My page 112 is a 5.7.4.2 version discussing a different recording topic but I found your reference in earlier pages. I've wondered where an explanation for Profile 0 as a simple on/off switch was hidden! LOL

I've always thought that whole control options section in the individual camera scheduling was exclusively for PTZ camera operations, not also a Blue Iris software image control function for non-PTZ devices.

Seems like a lot of hassle at first glance, but once the lat/long and relative to sunrise/set is sorted out in your head it's pretty straightforward. The little offset is a great tip too.

[Pogo]

I still don't quite see how these setting changes are implemented without being done in the actual camera itself via PTZ controls.

Am I missing something glaringly obvious?