Blue Iris

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Any particular reason you have Profile 0 selected in your example?

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I posted this in a new topic: Setting a Camera Event Schedule for Relative Sunrise/Sunset.

https://blueirissoftware.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=3810

MikeBwca wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 4:51 pm That is the time I do not want the camera active. The video feed still shows, but the camera is idle not doing any Motion detection, AI, Alerting...

I do that for only 1 or two clones.

So this begs the question(s): Why bother with the brightness/contrast modifications if they aren't assisting/enhancing the night time functionality of the critical features you are disabling in the first place?

Where/how does a clone come into play with all this?

And a couple more..., how do the events know whether they are to occur relative to sunrise or sunset? By the AM or PM selection I presume? You want night time events to reference sunrise to establish their start point and vise versa for their end times? I presume the order of the event list is irrelevant?

Nice effort on the new link, btw. It also begs a few questions..., or will once it receives some views.

I've also discovered a couple more aspects to the process that would be helpful to include, particularly relating to the 'adjustments' capabilities of the two main areas that offer them (or would seem to). (Will post in the new thread when I have a little more time.)

This is a pretty cool feature that most folks would probably never even consider unless they have PTZ cameras. Quite a bit of potential for upping the night time performance of otherwise mediocre cameras. Now if it only included a noise reduction component....

Anyone see what's been driving me nuts trying to figure out the actual event control scheduling method 'Relative to Sunrise/Sunset' ?

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This is a long one so you may want to grab a sandwich and a beer.

Thanks for taking the time to clarify, Mike. All makes sense.

And clones are wonderful tools for specific tasks ancillary to a main camera, aren't they? Just another lesser known Blue Iris gem. (I think I read that tip some time ago from you as well.)

MikeBwca wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 5:00 am

Pogo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 7:05 pm ..., how do the events know whether they are to occur relative to sunrise or sunset? By the AM or PM selection I presume? You want night time events to reference sunrise to establish their start point and vise versa for their end times? I presume the order of the event list is irrelevant?

Not really sure. Probably by the AM/PM, or, how close the time is to sunrise/sunset.

My confusion is clearly based on the last screenshot I posted. Either AM/PM or Sunrise/Sunset are inverted in the scheduler itself. To make matters worse, the Sunrise/Sunset times are for a different Lat/Long -- approximately an hour ahead of mine. No DST involved and it has been accounted for everywhere. BI server time is correct as are the main BI Settings scheduler time and Sunrise/Sunset bubbles. I'm still trying sort that out.

All the above aside, this is what I've concluded so far with your help and basic trial and error..., plus a fair amount of general curiosity about the feature's capabilities with non-PTZ cameras.

So the event scheduler provides a start time only for an event based on the time entered whether or not Sunrise/Sunset is referenced and presumably requires a new event before it will end..., unless events are AM/PM period specific and simply end with the onset of the next time period -- if not actually requiring a new event to terminate an existing one. Haven't quite determined that yet.

Sunrise/Sunset simply applies a dynamic variable to the start time corresponding to actual Sunrise/Sunset in a given geographical area/region based on the Lat/Long entries entered in the main BI Settings Scheduler. I believe Civil Twilight can also be used to extend the relative range of the Sunrise/Sunset mode. BTW, the Main BI Global Schedule does not need to be active for the Event Scheduler or the Sunrise/Sunset/Civil Twilight features to work..., at least in my limited experience with the feature using v5.7.4.2. If a Global schedule is active, setting the Camera Scheduler to Override Global schedule is recommended to eliminate any conflict between the Main Schedule and Event schedules anyway.

MikeBwca wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 5:00 am PTZ does not come into play. This can be done on all cameras... PTZ, Non-PTZ, 180, 360...

Understood. However, and even though basic adjustments like contrast, brightness, etc., are possible with basic non-PTZ cameras, the Event Scheduler receives its control input from PTZ based menus and options. These areas wouldn't typically be explored by users with non-PTZ cameras, or the Event Scheduler even seeming applicable to non-PTZ cameras without knowing otherwise.

MikeBwca wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 5:00 am Noise reduction, if I'm understanding what your referring too, can be reduced by adjusting Contrast/Brightness, and other camera settings like wdr,

Again understood. And again wishing such a feature were conveniently available in the Event Schedule Functions Menu to assist refining the enhanced Brightness/Contrast capabilities for improved night time camera performance. LOL

This brings up another important area that relates to the PTZ 'brand' aspect of even a non-PTZ camera using the features provided in the PTZ and Event Functions menus. I earlier wondered how the Event Function selection was communicating to the camera (if it even was) and/or whether camera settings adjustments were required to be accomplished instead through the PTZ/control menu by some generic communications means or maybe ONVIF and then correspondingly entered as the desired Event Function.
My initial experience did not 'apply' the selected adjustment to the camera directly from the Event Function list, only the reference to the selected choice which required being 'set' via the actual PTZ/control menu. This intermediate step was quite annoying so I started pecking around for a solution or workaround and discovered the following in the camera's main menu PTZ/Control tab.

Much like Find/Inspect scans and implements a camera's video parameters into its Blue Iris configuration, selecting the appropriate camera brand or protocol for its PTZ functionality seems to basically do the same thing. After selecting Reolink ONVIF I was able to adjust the Contrast/Brightness directly from the Event Control Function selections with real time results which eliminated the previous intermediate step required via the PTZ/control menu/sub-menu. It also provided considerably more adjustment range than the previous method. Very cool.

So now to figure out the wonky Event Control issue. I would assume it has been corrected by now..., probably with the version immediately following the last update before my support expired.

For anyone still following this, here is what I've been fighting and why..., a very simple detail that's easy to miss.

The problem: (The 9:12:27 in the entry box is incidental and irrelevant.)



The result:



The solution:




In this particular situation, the longitude is 82W. I used various sources to populate the entry box (including Google Maps) and kept encountering the same issue. I Googled my ass off looking for a solution but didn't come across anything at all even referencing the issue. I obviously also missed the subtlety of the various lat/long examples for my location. So I punted.

A carefully worded post on IPCT received a response within 10 minutes from one of the more 'prolific' contributors over there. An exchange of several posts eventually led to the observation that the longitude entry was actually incorrect by missing the leading ' - ' designation for 'W'. One keystroke and the OK button..., fixed. The existing event schedule was also automatically corrected from the back-assward entries along with the incorrect Sunrise/Sunset times. (Thanks to 'wittaj' over there for the help.)

For whatever reason the +N, -S, +E, -W legend below each entry box just never registered with me. To make matters worse, an additional brain fart somehow had me thinking thinking 82 long was E for me anyway -- and I knew better. Dumb ass. I have no explanation for why the various copy/paste operations seemingly never included the ' - ' designation for W longitude..., unless I inexplicably kept removing it thinking it was an error or artifact. I should have known better because I do, but world geography class was 50 years ago for me, and "who will ever need to know this stuff 50 years from now anyway" now has an answer. LOL

So double check the Lat/Long entries carefully if experiencing similar problems with Sunrise/Sunset based scheduling. Blue Iris doesn't necessarily know the specifics nor will it auto-populate the coordinates by simply using the Google maps link -- even with location services enabled on the Blue Iris server. Even if it does, inspect the results closely for correctness!

I wondered why you appeared to be in China but thought it was obfuscation

I'm not far off the Greenwich prime meridian here, so it's 0. something for me. Wouldn't make much difference if I got that wrong.