Blue Iris Help
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Table of Contents 1. Welcome ............................................................................................................................................................. 2 2. What's New......................................................................................................................................................... 2 3. Getting Started ................................................................................
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 1. Welcome Welcome The Quick Start (See 3.) page will assist you with first-time configuration and will guide you to other pages which will help to familiarize you with this software's many features. Please visit the What's New (See 2.) page to see what's been added or changed most recently. Please consult the FAQ page (See 13.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Google Cloud Messaging added for the Android client app. Progress on the app is proceeding ahead of schedule and should be released before the end of the month. 3.18.02 - March 4, 2013 • • • • The cursor keys are now active in the Cameras window to select among the cameras. The Enter/Return key now acts as an equivalent to double-clicking a camera window. Use page up/down to move between the main interface and cameras open in desktop windows.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software A web server connection (no login or other access) is no longer logged unless you also have the "play sound" enabled on the Options/Webserver page. You may request from /admin?profile=x to change the active profile temporarily. Use x=-1 to lock/unlock. You may now specify to receive both images as well as the 10-second MP4 movie with an email alert. You may now attach an image to your SMS alert if your carrier supports MMS.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software occurs first, the schedule will also resume normal operation when the schedule calls for a profile change. 3.14.03 - January 7, 2013 • • • The camera properties Record (See 7.4) and Motion/trigger (See 7.3) pages have been once again reorganized, this time in favor of separate profile-selection tools at the top of the Record page instead of moving any Record options to the Motion/triggers page.
Blue Iris Help • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Replaced the '0' PTZ preset button with a '10' Changed alert list for iOS app to not include deleted items, which caused them to flash on/off on the app, and may have led to a crash Apple approved the app version 1.01 but iTunes back-end is closed until the 28th, so it will be released then. 1.02 is planned to be a universal app which will fit much better on the iPad. 3.13.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 3.12.00 - December 7, 2012 • • • • The iOS client app is nearing completion and the JSON interface (See 14.) continues to expand. Several more graphic elements in the Blue Iris UI have been updated to reflect artwork used on the iOS app. Each camera title bar now contains up to four icons to replace the previous two.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The red circle on each camera window that indicates motion sense/trigger has been replaced with a red alert symbol Rate-control (RC) look-ahead has been disabled on the H.264 streaming code in an effort to reduce latency; you may also set b-frames to 0 on the Webserver (See 8.) stream configuration pages for minimum latency. Also a bitrate calculation correction has been made to these streams to improve quality on low fps cameras. 3.10.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 3.10.12 - October 10, 2012 • • • This version is primarily a security release focusing on two areas: the web server and the video encoding/decoding components. There may be circumstances where erroneous or malicious requests to the web server may result in crashes; white-box testing continues in order to resolve any issues here. If you discover any reproducible methods to cause a crash, please inform me immediately.
Blue Iris Help • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Aero (Windows desktop display technology), virtual machines, multiple monitors, and remote desktop. In place of a possible 64 cameras each allocating display buffers and each scaling and drawing to the display, the software now manages this as a single resource.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Compiled with a newer version of the AAC audio encoder for MPEG4 files as well as an updated H.264 decoder. Bugs fixed related to bit rate-limited encoding. 3.08 - August 8, 2012 • • • • Major enhancements have been made to the motion detection camera properties (See 7.3) page as well as to the underlying motion detection algorithms. It should now be much easier to visualize and understand the effects of the various sensitivity settings.
Blue Iris Help • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software A new Joystick options page (See 11.) has been added to allow the use of a DirectInput compatible joystick for camera PTZ control. It's now possible to record directly into MP4 format (See 7.4) with AVC/AAC encoding. You do give up several advantages of the BVR file format, but this option does save you a step if you often export your video. A fix for Foscam FI89xx/compatible support which sometimes resulted in failed connections.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software only a specific wired or wireless connection for example. Note that if your local IP addresses change, you may need to revisit the Options/Web server page to update the LAN IP list. You may specify an external executable or script to run in response to PTZ commands (See 7.9). 3.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Fix for the broken MP4 email alert and a return to the less-CPU-intensive H.264 encoder methods for webcasting and recording. 3.01 - February 20, 2012 • • • There may been many new camera definitions and bug fixes. The H.264 and MPEG4 encode/decode engines have been updated The audio-trigger function (See 7.2) now has the option of whether or not to apply a 1second average to the sound intensity when considering it as a trigger source.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software A new Schedule options page (See 11.) allows you to set a global schedule rather than each camera individually. On the Schedule options page, control the function of the Traffic Signal icon. Use new buttons at the top of the UI to override global and camera schedules to select a particular profile. Use the lock/unlock button to return to normal. The web server is now much more secure.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may also review the version 1.x update list (See 15.2). 3. Getting Started Getting Started When you start Blue Iris for the first time, here's what you'll see: At the top is the toolbar (See 4.) which contains several command buttons. At the bottom is the status bar (See 5.). As you move the cursor over command buttons and other areas of the Blue Iris window, you will see that the status bar is updated with descriptive text.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Step 1. Attach your camera to your computer and install its driver software according to the manufacturer's installation instructions; if you have a network camera, attach it to your network, or make sure it works with your wireless router (you know its internal IP address and can use it in a browser OK). Now, click on the webcam icon (or right-click in the video window). A Camera Properties (See 7.) window will appear. Step 2.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software portforward.com. This is a free site and offers router-specific step by step instructions. Additional information may be found in the first topic on the troubleshooting page (See 12.). Step 6. Once your router is configured, the address that you saw after using the "Find address now" button is the one that you may now use remotely. Enter this address into your web browser's address box with http:// first. So, it will look something like http://67.123.1.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Step 6. Visit the Alerts (See 7.5) page to have Blue Iris sound an alarm, send an email, or alert you in some other way that motion is occurring. 4. The Toolbar The Toolbar The toolbar is a set of icons found at the top of the Blue Iris window. Each icon is actually a button that you can click with the mouse, and corresponds to a particular command or function.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software anything unexpected that happens during operation. There's a page that details Camera statistics, such as the number of frames processed and alerts generated. There's also a page which details the current web server Connections including the current camera or camera group being watched. Snapshot This command saves the camera image that's currently displayed. The file is a JPEG that's placed in the cliplist (See 10.).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Profile Shows the currently active global profile as configured on the Options/Schedule (See 11.) page. Click one of the numbered buttons to override the active global profile with any specific global profile. The first click will temporarily override the schedule with the selected profile; the schedule will resume normal operation when the profile is next scheduled to change or after 8 hours, whichever occurs first.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The "status bar" is the name given to the area found at the very bottom of the Blue Iris window. The status bar contains three important areas. To the left is an area for text messages. You will notice that this text changes as you move the cursor over the Blue Iris window to describe what's below the cursor. Next is a display of your available hard drive space on the volume configured to accept your New clips.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 6. Camera Windows Each camera's video is displayed within its own window with a title bar containing its name. There are two "indicator lights" at the right-hand side of the title bar. The yellow light indicates a warning condition, such as when the camera's frame rate does not match the setting specified on its Video (See 7.1) tab. The red light indicates the camera is either sensing motion or is in the triggered state.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software However, there is a tool and several options to change this: This Layout slider alters the relative size of 1, 2, or 4 cameras in relation to the others. At the far-left, each camera is treated equally. As you move the slider to the right, the chosen 1, 2, or 4 cameras become up to 9 times the size of the other cameras. Change the layout from 1-up to 2-up or 4-up by right-clicking and selecting the corresponding option from the Layout menu.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software To open the entire cameras window in full-screen, use the icon at the top-right of the Cameras window, or right-click anywhere in the Cameras window and select Full screen video. If you have enabled the software option to Auto-cycle camera view, each camera will be shown as full-screen in turn beginning with the initially selected camera. Double-click or press the Esc key to return to the normal view. 7.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may actually give a camera two names--a long name and a short name. The Name appears on the screen as a caption above the live video image. The Short name is used when naming clips on your hard drive and remote server. Note: Each camera's name and short name must be unique--no other camera may have the same name or short name as another. The OK button will be unavailable otherwise.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Adding additional cameras With the demo or if you have licensed the "full" version of Blue Iris, you may add additional cameras by right-clicking anywhere on the Live Video window and selecting Add new camera. You may also use the + icon located at the top/right of the cameras window. 7.1 Video This page allows you to select and configure the video source. Device type There are three capture technologies from which to choose.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software USB, Firewire, Analog When using a capture card, or a USB or Firewire (IEEE-1394) camera that's connected to your PC, you will need to use the USB, Firewire, Analog device type, which uses Microsoft's DirectShow capture technology. Note: you must connect your camera and install its drivers according to the manufacturer's installation procedure before the camera will appear on the device list.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Video Proc-Amp for Motion Profile For analog cameras and USB webcams, it is possible to maintain separate Video Proc-Amp settings (the qualities of an incoming video signal, such as brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, gamma, and sharpness) for each of the motion profiles 1-7.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Download and install the driver from btwincap.sourceforge.net. This installer allows you to first un-install any remnants of any other BT8x8 drivers. If your card is not listed as one that is supported, choose Custom, and be sure to select "no TV tuner" and "no S-video" unless your card actually has those features.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software To connect one of these cameras to Blue Iris, you need to know its IP address and port. If the camera is on your LAN, this address will most likely begin "192.168.x..." However, you may connect to any other camera found on the Internet anywhere in the world (provided you know the address, port, and id/password). Instead of an IP address, you may use a host name (like "yourhostname.com").
Blue Iris Help • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software dependent in terms of the way the stream is formatted. Typical request paths include "/cgi-bin/nphContinuousServerPush" (some Panasonic models) and "/GetData.cgi" (the Gadspot NC1000). Raw H.264 stream. An unformatted H.264 stream is expected. That is, video data alone without protocol or formatting data. RTSP stream. Uses the Real-Time Streaming Protocol over a dedicated RTSP port. RTSP/HTTP stream.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The De-interlace hi-res images option should be used when capturing video at 640x480 resolution (or greater) from a camcorder. These images actually contain two pictures, and it's necessary to digitally remove one of them in order to provide a coherent (jitter free) image. Web cams, however, may not require this processing even when supplying such hi-res images.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Blue Iris takes a snapshot from the current live view and opens a window like this one. This example shows a text (date/time) object, and a graphics object. The graphics object is shown with a transparent background. To move an object, position the cursor over the object, then drag and move the cursor. You will notice that while the cursor is over an object, the cursor changes to a "hand.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Enter the text that you would like to appear on the image. In addition to selecting common and entering custom time formatting macros (See 15.1), you may use user defined macros (See 11.) as well. Use the Set Font and Set Color buttons to change these text attributes. You may also choose a background color and its Opacity (alpha blending %).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You will first be prompted to select a file, and then this window will appear. To change your file selection, click the "..." button. You may choose a transparent background color, and you may set the image's Opacity (alpha blending %). The preview window has a gradient background so that you may see how your image might appear against backgrounds of varying intensity.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Click the "Add" button to see what's installed on your system. Not every filter that will be listed is a candidate to be used in Blue Iris as a video filter. If you have software such as Adobe or ULead installed on your system, for example, you may find some useful (and some fun!) filters to experiment with. The order in which the filters are listed determines the order in which they are applied.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software If your IP camera has a microphone and is able to supply an audio stream, you may select to capture that along with the video. Blue Iris supports audio from many popular IP cameras, and more cameras are being added continuously to this list. If your capture source is a DV camcorder or analog audio/video converter such as the CamGuard USB TV! Pro you can capture audio directly from that device's microphone or audio line input jack.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Set the Delay audio value in milliseconds if you find that audio playback precedes video playback. Currently this must be a positive number between 0 and 2000. To perform the opposite function, that is to delay the video by using a negative value here, is not yet supported. You may choose to Record audio with video clips. The Clip Viewer (See 10.) will playback the audio when you open a clip and press the Play button.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Profile You may choose to edit one of seven profiles. Each profile consists of a completely separate configuration for the motion sensor as well as several video and snapshot recording options. The particular profile that is active at any given time is determined by settings on the global Schedule (See 11.) page, or if you prefer, the camera's own Schedule (See 7.8) page.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Check Enable to use this key Blue Iris feature. The motion sensor is the common way in which a camera is triggered. This allows you to record only when there is "action" in front of a camera, saving large amounts of hard disk space that might otherwise be wasted recording the same images over and over again.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The Object detect/reject option (previously "blob detection") provides for more advanced motion detection, and will be an integral part of motion tracking in a future release. After analyzing the image for overall change, an additional algorithm is applied which attempts to identify a region within the image where motion is occurring. If you have the overlay motion map feature enabled, you will see this region represented by a red rectangle.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The Restore window when triggered option will attempt to open the Blue Iris window when motion occurs if you have minimized it. Use the Trigger camera groups feature if you want other cameras to be triggered automatically when this one is triggered. This might be useful if one camera is better positioned to pick-up motion, but you want an event recorded from multiple angles.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software This may be something like a waving flag or freeway in the background. With the Brush tool selected, you can "paint" the mask, removing the offending sections of the image. With the Rectangle tool selected, you can mask a rectangular area of any size by clicking at one corner then dragging the mouse to the opposite corner. Hold down the Control key while drawing to restore portions of the original image.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 7.4 Recording The Camera Properties Record tab determines whether or not images from the camera will be stored in the Clip List (See 10.) for later viewing, and how they will be formatted. Profile You may choose to edit one of seven profiles. Each profile consists of a completely separate configuration for the motion sensor as well as several video and snapshot recording options.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software There are profile buttons at the top of the Blue Iris window which show the current global schedule profile. If you press any of these buttons, it overrides BOTH the global schedule as well as the individual camera schedules for all cameras. Press the button once to temporarily force a particular profile, or press it twice to hold the profile indefinitely. Record video For each profile, you may choose how video will be recorded.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Select the Mark new files for web archival option to automatically upload all new clips to your Options/Web archival (See 10.) FTP site. Use the Protect new files from automatic storage and deletion option cautiously. This will prevent the system from automatically moving clips to the Stored folder or deleting them according to the rules on the Options/Clips (See 10.) page. Filename It is recommended that you allow Blue Iris to name clips automatically.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Iris will align groups on these intervals. That is, when you start recording at 3:29pm with a 1 hour interval, a new clip will be opened at 4:00pm. Note: while a clip is open for "recording" it will appear in the clip list without a thumbnail image if it's in AVI or WMV format. Once it is closed, it will appear and may then be viewed.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The AVI format has the advantage of being easily shared from PC to PC, while Blue Iris DVR files may only be read by Blue Iris (however, it is possible to export AVI clips of a .bvr file). The Blue Iris DVR format allows videos to be read and written simultaneously, as well as for videos to exceed 1GB, both of which are limitations of the AVI file format.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software the number of frames you are capturing per second to quickly calculate your disk space requirements over time. A Key frame is a complete frame. All other images that are captured into the movie file are incomplete, and consist merely of the "changes" since the previous frame. This compression technique is called "temporal" compression, and allows for more efficient use of the hard disk.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 7.5 Alerts When triggered by motion, sound, or an external source such as a Digital I/O device (See 11.), Blue Iris is capable of alerting you in any combination of several ways (that is in addition to recording the action for later review). The option of When to fire these alerts gives you the option to make these alerts global.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Click the "..." button to select a pre-existing file from your system's hard drive. Use the Volume setting to lower the volume to a specific percentage of the original if necessary for balancing other system sounds. The timers determine the amount of time for which the sound will play, and the amount of time to pause between sound alerts if the camera continues to be triggered. Use the Test button to hear the sound before closing the window.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Choose your modem from the connection device list, and enter the phone number to call. It's necessary to enter all required digits here, regardless of system dialing profiles. In addition to the numbers 0-9, * and #, you may also use these characters: A-D These are actually touch-tone characters that are not on common phones, but which may be recognized by some systems as part of a command sequence ! 1/2 second hook flash (for 3-way calling, etc.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Use the Test button to place the call with a status window which provides immediate feedback from the modem as to the status of the call. Run a Program This feature allows you to create your own customized alerts. Use the "..." button to locate the program, script, or other file that you would like Blue Iris to execute. Enter any necessary parameters. There are several macros which you may include in the parameters line as follows: &CAM ...
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Using the Sealevel SeaDAC Lite (P/N 8112 and similar), you may send a signal to an external device when the motion sensor is triggered. The Sealevel 8112 has 4 digital inputs and 4 digital relay outputs (numbered 0 to 3). In addition to the device and its drivers being installed, you must also have the SeaMAX.dll in your Blue Iris program folder. To configure this and other devices, see Options/Digital I/O (See 11.).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software In addition to the server name from Options/Email (See 11.), you must also specify the recipient's email addresses. You may choose to simply enter the email address (name@whatever.net), or you may use a format like the example above, which provides a "friendly" name along with the actual email address. For multiple recipients, separate each address with a semicolon (;). The Subject line may contain one or more of these macros: &CAM ...
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The iOS client app may receive push notifications from your Blue Iris system. You may use this mechanism to replace SMS and Email alerts. In addition to enabling this Alert, you must also go to the Options/Mobile devices (See 11.) page to specifically select the devices that will receive the push notification. Furthermore on the device itself, you must choose to accept push notifications from the Blue Iris client app.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Webcasting is segmented into two basic groups, JPEG/ActiveX and Windows Media. Note: In general, only JPEG and ActiveX will be used and should remain enabled. Only disable this option and/or enable the Windows Media option for unique and advanced configuration requirements. Available Webcasting Technologies Blue Iris supports five distinct webcasting technologies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages as shown here: ActiveX/H.
Blue Iris Help Media Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software • • • • Flash Media Live • • Must enable Windows Media in the camera's webcasting setup page Efficient stream, but high CPU utilization Uses an embedded Windows Media Player ActiveX object remotely, so again Internet Explorer is required Ability to "push" to a Windows Media Server for mass distribution Full license version only Easily distribute to a large audience with a service such as UStream Configuring JPEG and ActiveX Streams JPEG webcas
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software For optimal efficiency, you should select the Windows Media Video 8 and Audio 9 codecs. If you or others will be viewing over very slow connections, you'll want to keep the total "bitrate" under 40 kbps. That is, you if select 8 kbps for audio, you should enter 32 for video. When using broadband (DSL and cable modems), you might want to experiment with bitrates in the neighborhood of 1000 (1Mbps) instead.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software For advanced uses, instead of streaming directly to a maximum number of client connections, you may choose to push your stream to a Windows Media server or service website. In addition to an address, you may also be supplied with a "publishing point" to use. Enter both the address and publishing point into the "Push to server" box using the format http://address:port/publishingpoint. If the port is 80, the :80 is optional.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Profile You may choose to post during any combination of Profiles. The particular profile that is active at any given time is determined by settings on the global Schedule (See 11.) page, or if you prefer, the camera's own Schedule (See 7.8) page. There are profile buttons at the top of the Blue Iris window which show the current global schedule profile.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may wish to have a collection of the 10 most recent images, for example. When you select to Maintain a ring, a three digit number will be appended to the filename. This number will cycle from 000 to the number of images that you specify (minus 1) as each image is uploaded. So, the first image will have "000" the second "001" and so on.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software the startup and shutdown folders" option, Blue Iris will upload files that you specify when Blue Iris is started (or a camera is created), and when Blue Iris is shutdown (or a camera is destroyed). Blue Iris will upload all files contained in the following folders: C:\program files\Blue Iris\Cameras\\Startup C:\program files\Blue Iris\Cameras\\Shutdown Target You may post the images to either the built-in web server (See 8.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The graph shows a colored bar wherever the camera is active. The color corresponds to the active profile. By default a camera is active 24/7 (24 hours per day, 7 days per week), using profile 1 (green). You will see 7 green bars representing this, one for each day of the week. To prevent confusion and simply matters, it is recommended that you only use the global schedule.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 7.9 PTZ Many cameras have an integrated mechanical system for adjusting the viewing angle and zoom, known as "Pan Tilt Zoom" or PTZ for short. This property page allows you to enable Blue Iris's PTZ controls. Choose DirectShow if your USB or IEEE-1394 camera has PTZ capability (one popular example is the Logitech Orbit). For Network IP cameras, there are a number of manufacturer-specific protocol options from which to choose.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software icon will allow you to save the new name to the list. If an existing name is selected, the X/Delete icon will allow you to remove it from the list. Note: Before you can use a preset in Blue Iris, you first must use the network camera's web interface directly to create the preset and/or set it to the desired PTZ position. With some cameras, the preset names that are used are actually the ordinal numbers, "1", "2", etc.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may select any of the buttons 1-10 to move immediately to a preset number 1 through 10. Hold down the Shift key while clicking in order to call one of the presets 11-20. Note: Motion Detection is disabled for a minimum of 5 seconds following any PTZ activity in order to prevent the motion sensor from being triggered and to allow your camera to adjust to the new view.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Use the Add, Edit and Remove buttons to create a list of daily events such as PTZ presets, brightness, contrast, and IR light mode (as supported by your camera and Blue Iris). The Search-back at startup/reset option will cause Blue Iris to search the list from the current time backward until an event is found for each type of event.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may specify a combination of profiles for which the event will be valid. Use the Schedule (See 7.8) to automatically set the active profile or use the profile buttons at the top of the Blue Iris window to set the profile manually. 7.10 Watchdog This page allows you to configure options to monitor the camera for a loss of signal or to periodically reset the camera after a specified up-time.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software column on the Alerts (See 7.5) page. For email and SMS alerts, the message subject will indicate the camera's condition. By default, alerts are triggered just once. However, you may choose to Continue triggering until the signal has been restored. Periodic Reset Use this feature to simply auto-reset your camera after a specified period of up-time.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The home page that is installed with Blue Iris (its name is default.htm) contains a window for live video, and a window with thumbnails of the four most recent clips. There are also options to switch cameras in multiple-camera configurations, and to open any clip on the clip list (See 10.). Because of the ActiveX control that is used, this page will only be used by Internet Explorer. Other browsers will open JAVA-based pages, either jpegpush.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software If you want to access the Blue Iris Web Server from another PC on your LAN (local area home or business network), open a browser and type into the address bar the Blue Iris computer's name (e.g., http://officepc) or LAN IP address (typically http://192.168.x.x). For your convenience, a list of LAN IP addresses in use by your PC is generated. This list is for reference only; it is not necessary to select from this list.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software address "127.0.0.1" always refer to your own PC. Note: your PC's LAN IP address (192.168.x.x) is internal, and cannot be used in a browser outside of your local network. Remote, external (Internet) access The Router's IP address is the IP address that must be used from OUTSIDE of your LAN for remote access to Blue Iris.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The H.264 encoding objective may be either Constant quality (typically used for recording; uses a variable bitrate or VBR) or Average bitrate (used to limit bandwidth as over a network connection). A quality setting of 100% is considered "lossless" but will use an unbounded amount of bandwidth. You may also select a maximum keyframe interval, known as the Group of Pictures or GOP.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software page. If you select to authenticate Non-LAN connections only, users connecting from within your local home/office network will not be prompted, while those connecting from the Internet will be prompted. Select the Secure only authentication option in order to use the new login.htm page. If you un-select this option, Blue Iris will also accept plaintext or "basic" authentication.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Direct image, video and command requests In addition to serving HTML pages, Blue Iris can also act as a "video server." There are a number of methods for retrieving images and video from the Blue Iris web server for use on mobile devices, converting a USB camera into a web camera, or for any other purpose.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software /cam/{cam-short-name}?pos=x Performs a PTZ command on the specified camera, where x= 0=left, 1=right, 2=up, 3=down, 4=home, 5=zoom in, 6=zoom out /cam/{cam-short-name}?pos=100 Causes a snapshot image to be captured from the specified camera. /h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.h264 Pull a raw H.264 stream (MIME type video/H264). This stream will play in a tool like VLC, and may be used in future versions of the ActiveX control.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The first stats page contains a list of system messages. There are three classes of messages: Information -- the application startup time, for example. Warning -- a resource conflict, for example. Warnings cause the warning symbol to appear in the Blue Iris status bar (See 5.). Error -- a server connection could not be established, for example. Errors also cause the warning symbol to appear in the Blue Iris status bar (See 5.).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software In addition to the messages page, the stats window contains a page summarizing the activity on each camera. This page tracks the amount of time for which each camera has been online and the total number of frames processed. There's also a count for the number of times the motion has been sensed, the camera triggered while active, and counters for the number of frames broadcast, the number of images posted, and the number of new clips created.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software When a connection becomes idle, it becomes grayed, and is moved down the list as necessary to keep active connections at the top of the list. When a connection is added or is reactivated, it appears at the top of the list. If you've configured the option on the Options/Server page, a sound is played when a connection is activated. 10. Working with Clips The term Clip in Blue Iris is used to refer to a movie file.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Notice that when the Viewer window is open, the live camera window is moved to the lowerright hand corner. If you have more than one camera, you may cycle through them by doubleclicking on the "Cameras" window title bar. If you click on the live video image, the viewer will be closed. The Clip List The clip list is located to the right of the Cameras window: As alerts and clips are created, "thumbnail" images are created on the clip list.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Alerts Represented by the red hazard icon. This folder contains snapshot images taken when cameras are active and triggered. Each alert snapshot acts as a bookmark into a video clip. If you open an alert snapshot, the clip that contains the alert event is opened in the viewer window. If the reference clip is no longer available on your system, the alert JPEG itself is displayed. New Represented by the green "play" icon.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software While viewing the New folder (or one of its subfolders), right-click on a clip and select Store to move it to the Storage folder. From the Stored folder, you may Un-store clips to move then back to the New folder. If a clip is in a subfolder, that subfolder is automatically created in the Stored or New folder tree. That is, when you Store a clip in New\Home, the folder Stored\Home is created if it does not yet exist.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Again, a bar graph is displayed, this time representing the number of clips or events listed for each hour of the selected day. You may scroll through the clips by clicking and dragging the mouse in the timeline view. As you do so, the clip list will be scrolled to display the clip with the nearest-matching time and a red line will be drawn in the timeline view to indicate that position precisely.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Deleting Clips When you right-click on a clip and select the Delete menu, you have a choice of Recycle or Destroy. When you recycle, clips are moved to the Windows recycle bin. When you destroy, they are permanently deleted. Editing Clips The clip viewer allows you to edit clips by moving the two markers you see below the position slider--there's a green or "start" point and a red or "stop" point.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software When you right-click on a clip and select the Export menu, you have a choice of Move, Copy or Email. The Move and Copy options allow you to browse your computer's hard drive for a place to put the file. If you selected Move, the original clip is removed from your Blue Iris folder. When you select Email, the clip is added as an attachment to a new email message which will be sent by your email client (for example Outlook Express).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software minutes. In addition to the quotas you specify, Blue Iris also attempts to automatically enforce a rule of maintaining at least 1GB free on the hard drive in order to prevent failed recordings. By default, Blue Iris does NOT use the Windows Recycle Bin when deleting clips. It has been found that doing so greatly adversely affects performance when many clips are being deleted and the recycle bin itself is at capacity.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The initial page is labeled About and contains copyright and registration information. There's also a field to specify a System name. This name is used to identify your system when a client connects using the JSON (See 14.) interface. You may use the Export/backup settings button to copy the entire contents of the Blue Iris registry key to a file for backup or transport to another PC. The file that's created is a standard Windows registry file.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Startup This page allows you to control various aspects of the software's startup behavior. Application Use the Run Blue Iris as a Win32 service option to start Blue Iris when your computer starts up, without requiring a login (advanced users only please). When the PC or Blue Iris is restarted, Blue Iris will run on the "LocalSystem" account (a privileged account not requiring login, but having no user interface).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software a specified time period. This allows you to the opportunity, for example, to leave the house before the system becomes "armed." During this count-down to green, the signal will show a yellow light and display the time remaining at the bottom of the Blue Iris window. If you choose the Delay a green signal option, Blue Iris will show a yellow traffic signal for a specified amount of time before automatically turning green.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software This page contains miscellaneous software behavior options: By default, the clip Viewer is automatically opened whenever the Snapshot or Video Record icons are used. You can turn these features off by removing the appropriate checks. Also by default, video clips automatically begin playback when they are opened and automatically loop back to the beginning when the end is reached.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Select the Automatically play live audio on selected camera option to hear your live camera audio whenever the camera is selected. A camera is selected by clicking on its video. To unselect all cameras, click anywhere outside of a camera's video window. Your camera's audio must be supported by Blue Iris, and audio streaming must be enabled on the camera's Audio tab (See 7.2).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Click "Add" to add a shortcut to the list. Highlight an existing shortcut and choose either "Edit" to change it, or "Remove" to remove it from the list. Your key combinations should include the Control, Shift, and/or Alt keys to avoid invoking functions accidentally. Macros In addition to standard time formatting macros (See 15.1) such as %c, you may also add userdefined macros to your text overlays.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may update a macro dynamically in one of three ways: 1. Click Set to file in order to browse for a text file; the macro will be changed to the file's path. Blue Iris will read and use the contents of the file specified as the macro text. This allows you to use an external application to dynamically change what you see on your video--you might place the current temperature, for example. 2. Change the macro's registry value directly.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software An account with Administrator privileges may perform remote administration, which is currently limited to altering the state of the Traffic signal icon, and using the snapshot button. You may also choose to require administrator privileges to use PTZ controls by setting that option on the camera PTZ properties (See 7.9) tab. For privacy or to limit bandwidth, you may un-check the box to allow Remote audio streaming via the ActiveX control.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may enable Time restricted access which will limit the times during the day and/or week that a user account may be used. The only distinction at this time is between active and inactive. While active, the profile number is irrelevant. You may choose to override the default connection sound with one specific to the user.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You may select a preset email server, or select User defined to enter your mail server's address manually. The default port for outgoing SMTP mail is 25, but you may override this if your server users another port (sometimes done for security purposes). If your server requires authentication (that is, "relay" mail is not allowed), you may specify a login name and password.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software There are presently no Preset FTP server addresses, so you must choose User defined and enter the server name manually. The server address and login credentials are supplied by your website or FTP service provider. The default FTP port is 21 and should not be changed unless you are instructed to do so by your FTP service provider. The Base folder setting will be pre-pended to the destination paths of all uploads to this server.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software In addition to tracking mobile device client connections, this page will allow you to "pair" with each device, in order to allow your Blue Iris to send "push notifications" to these devices. Check the boxes in the Push column corresponding to the devices which should receive push notifications. You must also enable push notifications on the Alerts (See 7.5) page in camera properties. Finally, make sure that the executable BlueIrisApplePush.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Arduino The Arduino UNO is an open-source project board, available very inexpensively at electronics hobby shops or online via eBay. The UNO must actually itself be programmed to respond to data it receives via the serial port from Blue Iris. When an alert is triggered, Blue Iris will send a single byte of data to the UNO, an ASCII number 0-7 representing the output number specified on a camera's Alerts tab (See 7.5).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software By default, every minute of every day will use profile 1 (green). Use the controls on this page to assign the various profiles to different times of the day or week. If time is "cleared" this indicates no active profile (an inactive state, represented by the ~ symbol in the toolbar). When a camera is inactive, no recording, alerts, or image posting will occur. Otherwise, each camera may define for itself what effect a particular profile will have.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Time markers The bubble icons at the top of the schedule represent times at which the profile may change. You may drag these or draw new ones. The currently selected time marker is shown in blue, and its current time is shown above the schedule graph. While selected you may enter a time manually if you prefer. The software will automatically remove or combine these markers if you move them to within 30 minutes of each other.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software This value represents the number of minutes for which a temporary profile selection will remain in effect. A temporary profile selection is made by clicking one of the buttons 1-7 or ~ at the top of Blue Iris window. The timer is in effect when you see the stopwatch icon to the left of the profile numbers. Click the stopwatch icon to return to normal schedule operation.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Network IP camera PTZ capability and Blue Iris support of these capabilities vary widely. PTZ support for a given camera will fall into one of these categories: • • • Single step: You must move and re-center the joystick for each step movement. This type of PTZ is not ideal for use with a joystick. Manual stop: Move the joystick to initiate motion, then re-center the joystick to stop movement.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Login to the router. If you don't know the password, consult the router's manual for the default password or the method to reset it. Go to the Advanced tab On the Virtual Server Rules tab, add an entry for Blue Iris; it might look like this: This example shows that any Public (Internet) traffic arriving on port 80 will be sent to your PC running at local address 192.168.0.100 (also using port 80).
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software to Tools, Internet Options, Security, and click on "Custom level...". Make sure "download signed ActiveX controls" is not disabled. Make sure that "run ActiveX controls" is not disabled. Make sure that "script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting" is not disabled. Also, you need to be logged into Windows as an administrator to install the Blue Iris ActiveX control.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Can you switch to the H.264 codec? This is your most efficient choice, and also creates smaller files. See the Recording (See 7.4) page for more information. If you are running multiple cameras, can one of them be eliminated? Can you minimize the Blue Iris window? When it is minimized, no CPU time is used to draw to the screen.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software need to exclude Blue Iris from a list of 'web browsers' by locating the blueiris.exe and placing a red x. The example below shows how another program, 'msnmsgr.exe' is excluded: Internet Explorer becomes unstable after Blue Iris has been running for awhile This condition is often due to faulty Antivirus software unable to deal with video streaming. This has been observed with the AVG free edition.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software My analog cameras show only black & white and/or are distorted This may be the result of using PAL mode with an NTSC camera or vice-versa. If you are using an NTSC camera, make sure the height is set to 480 or 240 in Blue Iris. PAL resolutions would have heights of 576 or 288.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software How do I backup and/or restore all settings or move them to a new PC? You can use the new Export button from the Options (See 11.) page. Right-click and Merge this onto the new PC. The caveat is if you are going from a 32-bit OS to 64-bit or vice versa. If going from 32 to 64, you need to edit the .REG file before import to add the value /Wow6432Node after the /Software node wherever it appears in the file.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) interface exists to provide methods for remote administration of your Blue Iris system. It will be the gateway used by new client apps including those for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android mobile devices. It will also be used by the next generation of web pages used to access Blue Iris via browser in order to provide more secure authentication. For a description of JSON, see http://www.json.org/.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software flags: the following flags are defined: 1: the offset is in time (milliseconds) 2: the alert was triggered by the motion detector 4: the camera was in a no-signal state at the time of the alert 8: the alert was triggered by an audio event 16: the alert was triggered by an external source such as DIO, JSON command, or manual trigger date: file creation date, expressed as the integer number of seconds since January 1, 1970 color: 24-bit RGB value (red lea
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software camlist Returns a list of cameras on the system ordered by group. Cameras not belonging to any group are shown beneath the "all cameras" group. Disabled cameras are placed at the end of the list. reset: send a value of true for this argument to reset the statistics for the cameras. data is an array of objects (note the [] surrounding a JSON array), each describing a camera or a camera group.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software audio: is audio supported, true or false width: width of the standard video frame height: height of the standard video frame nTriggers: number of trigger events since last reset nNoSignal: number of no signal events since last reset nClips: number of no recording events since last reset cliplist Get a list of clips from the New folder camera: a camera's short name or a group name; "index" will return clips from all cameras startdate: expressed as the in
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software obj: object name msg: the text of the log entry login Blue Iris will respond with a "result" value of "fail' and a "session" value.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 0: Pan left 1: Pan right 2: Tilt up 3: Tilt down 4: Center or home (if supported by camera) 5: Zoom in 6: Zoom out 8..10: Power mode, 50, 60, or outdoor 11..26: Brightness 0-15 27..33: Contrast 0-6 34..35: IR on, off 101..120: Go to preset position 1..
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software msec: the number of milliseconds to hold the output enabled if force is not specified. play: play a sound file from the application Sounds folder.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 15. Addenda 15.1 Time Formatting Blue Iris uses the following set of codes when formatting dates and times. Wherever it is appropriate to enter a date/time format string (such as when placing a text object over the captured image), you may embed these codes in any order you choose.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Month as decimal number (01 – 12) %M Minute as decimal number (00 – 59) %p Current locale's A.M./P.M.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software %% Percent sign You may place a # character immediately following the % to eliminate leading zeros in many of the formatting codes. For example, %#H will show 9 at 9am instead of 09. Time Zone Correction For time zone correction in a text object overlay, add the special sequence {+n} to the beginning of the string, where n is a number 1-23, and the sign is either + or -.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software point and after the stop point; you may choose to replace the current video or create a new file. When you export clips from the cliplist, you are shown a progress meter, and are given the option to cancel. The rabbit/hare speed control in the Clip Viewer now has a range of 1/8 to 8x; previously this was only 1/2 to 2x.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The "phone alert" now supports modems without automated voice capability. The low-level BT878 driver now supports PAL sources Free space on the drive used to record clips is displayed in the status bar. Clip recording may not take place if this number falls below 1 MB. The reliability and stability of the FTP image posting feature has been greatly enhanced.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 1.54 • • • IP cameras that stream ASF format video (Windows Media format) are now supported. The Linksys WVC11B is one such popular camera. The Windows Media Technologies component must be installed--it is available from www.blueirissoftware.com. Clip playback will now use the VMR (Video Mixing Renderer) when using Windows XP. This allows for more reliable playback on multi-monitor systems.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software is enabled, the most recent image is first renamed into the ring before the next image is uploaded. 1.52 • • • • • • • The web server (See 8.) supports multiple usernames/passwords. The camera stats window will display the username that was used to authenticate to each IP address. The web server may also be configured to automatically get the system's current IP address on a periodic basis.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Re-licensing is required to update to this version. Special pricing is available for registered 1.0-1.4 customers. 1.40 • • • A webcasting flaw was eliminated. This flaw introduced a bottleneck, preventing MPEG/JPEG webcasting from reaching maximum frame-rate potential. Now with a LAN or sufficiently high-speed connection, it is possible to see 15 fps or higher at a reasonable quality. Improved multi-camera support.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The "screen capture" code has been revised to be smoother and more efficient. The actual capture operation no longer causes Windows to "hang" as the screen is captured. Also, the captured resolution is no longer set to 1/2 of the screen resolution, but instead is limited to 1024 pixels in width and/or 768 height. This limitation exists because the MPEG codec may be unable to compress images of larger size.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 1.33 • • • For Motion Detection (See 7.3), the definition of "make time" has changed. Previously, every frame within the make time window had to contain motion in order to trigger the motion sensor. This did not work well for higher frame-rate setups. Now, it only takes 2 motion frames within the make time window to trigger the motion sensor. That is, once motion is detected on a frame, the timer begins.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software SMTP-AUTH support for authenticated email alerts. The LOGIN and PLAIN methods are currently supported. Also, the email alert "test" function now displays interaction with the mail server for debugging purposes. 1.15 • • • Support for MPEG-2 video sources (e.g., Sony MicroMV and Adaptec Videoh DVD). It is recommended that you have the ULEAD MPEG Decoder installed (install ULEAD Video Studio trial software).
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Windows XP visual style now used for all common controls. You'll only notice a change if you're using Windows XP! New Advanced Motion Sensor (See 7.3) options for more reliable operation in low-light conditions. 1.10 • • • • • FTP files to your remote website (See 7.7) to indicate whether or not your webcam is available. The browse-your-homepage feature (the Earth icon) now opens the browser as a Blue Iris window.
Blue Iris Help • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software New status bar (See 5.) icon to indicate active webcam connections--this takes the "eye" icon. Movement is now indicated with a new four-headed arrow icon. Enhanced webcasting connection statistics (See 9.). Idle connections are "logged" and move to the bottom of the list Option to play a sound when a webcasting (See 7.6) viewer connects. 1.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Webcasting (See 7.6) "server push" model allows a client to decode a continuous JPEG image stream. More Clip options (See 7.4) to control the way in which clips are recorded. 1.02 • • • New interface design Live view now moves to lower-right corner when clip viewer is open Several bug fixes 1.01 • • • True Webcasting (See 7.6) using the Windows Media ASF format.
Blue Iris Help • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The Options page also has a new button to export or backup your entire Blue Iris configuration from the registry. The Trim (See 10.) feature now allows you to specify MP4 format with H.264 encoding. You may specify a volume setting (1-100) for sound alerts (See 7.5). A potential pitfall for H.264 decoder instability with some IP cameras has been resolved. 2.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software the Options/Web server (See 8.) page, you may now configure these streams independently. The use of the pre-trigger frames (See 7.4) recording option is now much easier on your system resources. These images are now maintained in RAM as 12-bit I420 (YUYV422) blocks of memory instead of the previous full 32-bit RGB DIBs, saving considerable RAM.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software utilization for extended periods). If you have seen Blue Iris inexplicably use high system resources for large blocks of time, this may be the culprit. By placing a hyphen (-) at the end of a preset name/number, it is excluded from the preset auto-cycle. 2.57 • • • • • • The Alternate frame rate option that was previously only available for Continuous recording may now be used for manual and motion based video recording (See 7.4).
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software A new recording option (See 7.4) to record continuously, but cut (create a new movie file) each time the motion sensor is triggered A new Web server option to List only clips from enabled cameras (See 8.). This was previously the default mode of operation, but you may now disable this functionality. 2.55 • • • The Motion Detector (See 7.3) algorithms have been overhauled and enhanced.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software If the console process crashes while Blue Iris is running as a service, you may now re-run the console without having to first reset the service 2.53 • • • • HTTP Live Streaming support has been advanced for iPhones/iPads to request live AVC/AAC streams from /h264/cam1/x.m, where cam1 is the camera's "short name." A requirement for having a sound card that was inadvertently added to version 2.52 has been removed.
Blue Iris Help • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The H.264 codec is not found on the majority of Windows systems. So, if you attempt to create an AVI file with the H.264 codec, it may open on your system only if you install the FFdshow codec. To obtain this, it is recommended that you Google for and install the K-Lite codec pack. If you use only BVR files locally or WMV files, this step is not necessary.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software when the meter reaches 100%, and not just when it crosses the position of the sensitivity slider. 2.48 • • • • The RTSP camera stream option now supports MJPEG streams (RTP/AVP 26), as used by the LeveoOne WCS-0030. The Web Server now supports the HTML "Ranges" header to allow clients to download partial files; as a result it's now possible to serve MP4 files to iPhones. The Stats window (See 9.
Blue Iris Help • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software from the camera, which may not be desirable if either CPU cycles or video display capability is nearing physical limits. Note that all frames continue to be internally processed and recorded as configured. Serial port Pelco-D and Pelco-P protocols are now supported from the camera PTZ (See 7.9) page. New DDE commands: "schedule=1 or 0" to enable/disable the schedule for a camera, and "profile=x" to override the active Motion Sensor (See 7.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The JAVA/JPEG remote page requires that you install JAVA from http://java.com. JAVA version 6 update 21 has been tested and does fixe the IE crash that would sometimes cause IE to hang/crash when navigating away from the JAVA/JPEG page. The efficiency and throughput of the Web Server has been greatly improved for larger file downloads, such as the ActiveX EXE installer. 2.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The ActiveX control has been updated to version 1,0,0,29 which allows a larger XVID frame size, allowing for large index (all cameras) streams. H.264 streaming cameras that support the RTSP protocol may be added using the RTSP stream network IP camera device option. It should now be possible to connect a camera to a Windows Media (ASF stream) server by using the WM/ASF stream Network/IP camera device type.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The XVID DLLs have been updated to version 1.2.2 with additional memory safety features enabled The Trim/Export function now employs a worker thread to prevent UI "not responding" messages; the Cancel button should now also function during the operation 2.36 • • • • • Serivce/Console communication now supports up to 2048x1536 resolution cameras to be previewed. Also, a GUI bottleneck in drawing console camera images has been fixed.
Blue Iris Help • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software BVR playback speed now more accurately reflects the position of the playback speed control slider Several potential bugs affecting the use of the "run as service" option have been repaired Support for ACTi MJPEG cameras (requires firmware update) 2.33 • • • An alternate phone# may be entered on the Telephone Alert (See 7.5) page to be used in the case of Watchdog Timer (See 7.10) alert. For each motion sensor (See 7.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software A new DDE command, "global" with item "signal" ... send "0" to set red traffic signal, "1" green and "2" yellow. Several new IP cameras now supported 2.32.00 • • • • • • Tested and working with Windows 7 Several new IP cameras now supported Removal of the "Run Blue Iris automatically when you login to Windows" option from the Startup options (See 11.) page. This feature only worked with XP, or when UAC was disabled, which is not recommended.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Selecting "Close application" from the System Tray's popup menu will now always close the application. After version 2.31.09, it would first minimize the application, then close only when used again. Minimize and Options menu items added to the System Tray popup menu. 2.31.09 • • • • Fixes to MPEG4/RTSP to allow G.711 uLaw audio to function Lorex LNE3003, AirLive WL-2000CAM, Zavio F312a RTSP support with G.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The de-interlacing feature now allows you to choose a new setting, "stretch top half" which fixes video coming from certain Vivotek models which apparently stream 2 images in a single frame in this way Audio from the DLink 950G is now supported when using the video-port (5000 by default) By (extremely) popular demand, the remote viewing HTML pages have been modified to allow the video to stretch to fit the browser window.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The Push to Windows Media Server feature now checks for writing status errors once each minute and will attempt to reconnect the stream as necessary If you have more than one camera, there's a new Auto-cycle camera view in full-screen video mode option to perform a "patrol" function. To activate this feature, enable the option on the Software Options page (See 11.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software upon system performance. Once this warning is posted, Blue Iris will impose "wait states" on the camera's streaming thread, which may lead to a full receive buffer, which as a result may cause the image or PTZ commands to appear delayed, and possibly out of sync with audio. You should correct the condition by properly setting the framerate in your camera to match the Blue Iris setting if possible.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software jamiepyoung. Previously, if Blue Iris detected an iPhone, he was taken to "jpegpull.htm" instead of "default.htm." An attempt to increase speed optimization after moving to a new compiler VS2008 in version 2.21.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The ActiveX control has been updated to version 1,0,0,21. Its digital signature has been extended 2 years (now expiring 10/2010), and there is a new optional parameter bHideUI, which when set to "TRUE" will hide the camera/file title and PTZ toolbar. An attempt is made by the web server to identify mobile device connections and forward them to the appropriate default page; iPhones using Safari to jpegpull.htm, others to cell.htm.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The camera Record (See 7.4) page now has the option to break recordings at specific file sizes measured in tenths of a GB. The default is 4.5GB, the approximate amount of data which can be written to a DVD-R.
Blue Iris Help • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software For time zone correction in a text overlay, add the special sequence {+n} to the beginning of the string, where n is a number 1-23, and the sign is either + or -. For example, a text overlay of {+3}%c will display the time 3 hours ahead of local time. The camera Record (See 7.4) page contains a new option for Continuous recording. You may also specify an alternate recording frame rate if you wish to record at a lower frame rate.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software The maximum number of cameras has been increased to 25. Please note that Blue Iris will not stop you from attempting to exceed the capabilities of your PC. If your CPU runs at 100% utilization for an extended period of time, the user interface may become unresponsive and data may be lost or corrupted. See the troubleshooting (See 12.) section for help with lowering your CPU utilization. 2.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Support for audio from the DLink DCS-2000, as well as any DLink camera that uses the Vitamin Decoder version 2.1. Support for the Vitamin Decoder 2.1 Auto-Detect Server function which should allow any new DLink or Vivotek camera based on this technology to operate. You will find a new IP camera device type "DLink Vitamin Decoder Auto-Detect" for this purpose. Support for G.
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software that the responsiveness of other alert types is not compromised. You may now specify a scale value for images attached to email alerts. New SMS text message alert. This alert uses your outgoing email server to send a message to your cell phone carrier's SMS gateway address. You may use this alert type separately or together with email alerts. 2.13 • • • • • • New cell.htm for mobile devices that supports multiple cameras including the Index.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 2.11 • • • • • • Support for the Sony SNC-DF70N MPEG4 camera Enhanced support for audio capture from devices such as the CamGuard USB TV! Pro. On the camera's Audio tab, select "DirectShow camera." When a camera is not enabled for webcasting, it will no longer appear on the list of cameras in the remote view.
Blue Iris Help Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software 2.09 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • JAVA/JPEG remote viewing now works with the JVM 1.4 or newer, and specifically has been tested and is working with the Safari browser on the Mac. In addition to JPEG video overlays, you may now use GIF, PNG and BMP file types. Startup and Shutdown files are now correctly copied to the destination folder when you use the "post files to a folder" option on the camera's post page (See 7.7).
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software A new option on the camera's image Post (See 7.7) page allows you to post regardless of whether the camera is active according to the recording & alert timer. A camera's PTZ commands are now available from the context (right-click) menu, which is especially handy when you are viewing the camera in a desktop window. PTZ commands may now be given keyboard shortcuts.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software observed under stress conditions, however, and I will work with the XVID development team in an effort to solve this, as I believe this codec is ideal for this application to replace the older and unsupported MP42 codec. Support for the Gadspot 4000 and 4600 IP cameras with MPEG4 streams. Requirements are that XVID is installed (xvid.org) and the camera is using the newer firmware (no "new prediction" in the video stream).
Blue Iris Help • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software the keyframe setting. Because inter-frame compression greatly reduces the amount of hard-disk space required to record video, I will continue to search for a better choice for compression to replace MP42 and XVID. Disabled and un-initialized cameras no longer appear on the camera list on the web server's home page. 2.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software You now have the option of not using temp files for FTP image posting and archiving. Sites like photobucket.com do not allow the necessary remove/rename commands necessary to upload to a temp file. A bug was fixed to allow the use of the MJPG codec at 100% quality. The Web Server (See 8.) now distinguishes between admin and non-admin users when you enable authentication. Only admin users may use the "snapshot" icon remotely.
Blue Iris Help • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software files\Blue Iris\UScreenCapture.ax". You may still choose to use the older technology, "DirectDraw Blit." The AVI file format has been disabled as a recording format on Windows Vista. You may still export to the AVI format from the BVR format by using the clip Trim feature (move the green and red triangles and right-click). AVI files are automatically limited to 1GB (operating system limitation) while recording. 2.
Blue Iris Help • • • • • Copyright © 2012 Perspective Software Clip folders. In addition to the previous Current (now known as New) and Archive (now known as Stored) folders, you may now organize your clips with subfolders. Clip protection. You may mark clips as read-only, preventing them from being automatically deleted. You may also protect entire folders. Web archival. You may mark clips manually or automatically for archival to your website via FTP. PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera support (See 7.9).
