Frigate - 24/7 high quality recording. | Home Assistant | Page 1

lunar wadi Jul 4, 2025, 12:56 PM

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What sort of config options am I looking at to achieve this?

I want to ditch my Reolink NVR. The drive is dead, and Frigate has now been rock solid for me for a year, and Frigate+... I'll never go back to any other detection.

The NVR's role was a 24/7 dumb recorder on the high quality stream. Can I have Frigate assume this role, in addition to monitoring the low quality streams for motion/AI detection and saving the higher quality clips of that? (My Reolink cameras seem capable to allow more then 1 device using the high quality stream at a time).

Note It's possible I'm already achieving the above, I'm just not sure how to review the 24/7 high quality stream in the web browser?

Excerpts of what I think is relevant config, for 1 camera as a sample

  front:
    ffmpeg:
      input_args: preset-http-reolink
      inputs:
        - path: 
            https://192.168.1.202/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_ext.bcs&user=admin&password=
          roles:
            - detect
            - audio
#        - path: 
#            https://192.168.1.202/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_main.bcs&user=admin&password=
#          roles:
#            - record

    motion:
      mask:
        - 1,0,1,0....
        - 1,1,0.91...
    zones:
      door:
        coordinates: 0.61,...
        inertia: 3
        loitering_time: 0
      CatDriveway:
        coordinates: 0,0.536,...
        loitering_time: 0
        objects: cat
    review:
      alerts:
        required_zones: door

...

record:
  enabled: true
  retain:
    days: 5
    mode: all
  detections:
    retain:
      days: 40
      mode: motion
    pre_capture: 15
    post_capture : 15
  alerts:
    retain:
      days: 40
    pre_capture: 15
    post_capture : 15
objects:
  track:
    - person
    - cat
    - raccoon
  filters:
    cat:
      # July 18 : 0.50 -> 0.45
      threshold: 0.45
    person:
      # July 18 - 0.65 -> 0.60
      threshold: 0.60
    raccoon:
      threshold: 0.2

lunar wadi Jul 4, 2025, 4:10 PM

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Digging deeper I see that my cameras (8K) probably won't work well with frigate for the high quality stream 😦

queen briar Jul 5, 2025, 7:09 PM

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Presumably you're using a lower resolution sub-stream for detection?

Just provide Frigate with the higher quality stream for recording

Reolink cameras with >5MP resolution can be finnicky but there are configurations that seem to work as long as you have sufficient system resources

It's worth trying rather than just assuming it won't work

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The URL looks like a Dahua one? So as long as your system can handle it then it's definitely worth trying

Just change _ext to _main to get the high resolution feed... looking at your code you should just be able to un-comment those 5 lines, they already have the correct feed

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 12:20 PM

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queen briar The URL looks like a Dahua one? So as long as your system can handle it then it'...

It's the reolink URL. If I change it to _main in VLC, it doesn't work.

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Which I think is because it's >5K which means h265 and not h264?

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Do I need a go2rtc section in my config? or can I just change my camera url to be rfsp://

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Oh, my camera can do both RTMP and RTSP! Had to enable it. Found a 3 year old reddit thread that suggests RTMP was more stable, any thoughts/feedback?

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 1:11 PM

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Either should be fine, try one and see if you're happy with the stability - if not, try the other 🙂

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 1:37 PM

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queen briar Either should be fine, try one and see if you're happy with the stability - if n...

Ok I got both streams working.

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How do I look at the high quality recording stream in frigate? the overview shows the low quality streams.

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And, it looks like recording is working, saving files in 10 meg chunks. Can I have it save in much larger chunks on disk? maybe 1gig?

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 2:24 PM

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Looks like no. I'll ask for a feature on GH discussions.

Is there a good way to monitor RTSP to see how it's working? Since I use the low quality HTTP FLV stream, the high quality RTSP is only recorded, so it's a bit "behind the scenes". Monitor the logs for ffmpeg errors? anything in the dashboard I can view?

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:34 PM

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The old school way: stick the same URL into VLC and watch it

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 2:35 PM

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queen briar The old school way: stick the same URL into VLC and watch it

🙂 And VLC will error out if there's a problem?

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:35 PM

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More that you'll likely see an issue if you watch for a few minutes, I assume

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:36 PM

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lunar wadi How do I look at the high quality recording stream in frigate? the overview show...

Under the camera:

live:
  stream_name: doorbell_main

Or whatever your high quality sub is called

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:38 PM

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lunar wadi And, it looks like recording is working, saving files in 10 meg chunks. Can I ha...

10 second chunks, I believe

But no, you can't change that - you can use the API to pull a larger file apparently, I've never tried it (I just view in HA when needed)

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 2:39 PM

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Yeah I prefer large hourly files because it's just easier to manipulate when I need to send something to the cops

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It happens so rarely.

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:42 PM

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If you need to send something to the police go into the UI > Review > Motion > The camera you want to export from

An Export button appears, you can enter a start and end time, and it'll export to your media/frigate/exports folder

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Eg I have some much larger files here (500MB etc) that I've exported

It's a bit of a faff to get the correct timestamps etc especially if you want to do it with multiple cameras, but if it's something you do rarely it's no big deal

dapper pivot Jul 9, 2025, 2:43 PM

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you can also just use the choose from timeline option so you don't need to enter timestamps, just drag on the timeline

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:45 PM

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dapper pivot you can also just use the `choose from timeline` option so you don't need to ent...

While you're here, any chance we can have an "X:Y:Z forward/back from this point" which uses the current location as a reference?

99% of the time if I want to export, I've just watched the part I want to export and just want to say "Export the last 2 minutes before this point" or something

dapper pivot Jul 9, 2025, 2:47 PM

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maybe, but at least when I have used it you watch a part of it and then decide you want to export, but generally you didn't stop watching at the exact moment that is optimal for exporting since you'd usually want to export the entire time the object is in the frame. Using the timeline option is best since it shows you a direct preview as you scrub of the start and end point so you know exactly where the export will start and stop

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:49 PM

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Hmm, I was about to say the timeline option is pretty awkward on mobile but either it's been improved since I tried it, or I was just using it wrong originally. You're right, that's plenty good enough

dapper pivot Jul 9, 2025, 2:53 PM

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the timeline itself has been improved in each version (meaning like performance), but the behavior is the same as it has been

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0.16 brings even more performance improvements to the timeline

queen briar Jul 9, 2025, 2:57 PM

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I'm looking forward to 0.16 a lot. Will try to avoid derailing this thread too much by listing why, but it looks great, thanks 🙂

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 3:13 PM

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dapper pivot you can also just use the `choose from timeline` option so you don't need to ent...

where is this?

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ohhh

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when you click Export

dapper pivot Jul 9, 2025, 3:14 PM

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Screen_Shot_2025-07-09_at_09.14.30_AM.png

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 3:14 PM

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yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that's pretty sick 🙂

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althouhg preview export is very slow....

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Hmmm maybe broken?

lunar wadi Jul 9, 2025, 3:31 PM

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ok works better if i actually fix my streams 🙂

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RSTP glitch?

lunar wadi Jul 10, 2025, 1:20 AM

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Ok i flat out watched a 10 second clip, and people walking is jerky. I guess that's RTSP life.

I found an older (1yr) reddit thread that says by going via the NVR, it might help things.

lunar wadi Jul 10, 2025, 12:18 PM

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Did not help. I think I'm going back to the NVR unfortunately for the 24/7.

dapper pivot Jul 10, 2025, 1:15 PM

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that is usually a config issue, either using the wrong input args or something else

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can also sometimes just be a camera issue, my reolinks did that back when I used to use reolinks

lunar wadi Jul 10, 2025, 1:18 PM

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dapper pivot can also sometimes just be a camera issue, my reolinks did that back when I used...

It's all of them. It's just like weird stuttering, non-fluid motion when someone is walking, or trees swaying.

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VLC doesn't have many dropped/skipped frames on the clip

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Can DM you a clip if you want, but I know you guys don't really want to spend time on broken RTSP.

dapper pivot Jul 10, 2025, 1:20 PM

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it is usually a stutter when the next i-frames come through

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if you are restreaming need to make sure restream preset is used

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and if you are using reolink make sure you are using the reocmmended reolink streaming settings

lunar wadi Jul 10, 2025, 1:48 PM

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go2rtc has no bearing on this right? I'm not using it.

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  front:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: 
            https://192.168.1.202/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_ext.bcs&user={FRIGATE_REO_USERNAME}&password={FRIGATE_REO_PASSWORD}
          input_args: preset-http-reolink
          roles:
            - detect
            - audio
        - path: 
            rtsp://{FRIGATE_REO_USERNAME}:{FRIGATE_REO_PASSWORD}@192.168.1.202/Preview_01_main
          roles:
            - record

lunar wadi Jul 10, 2025, 1:48 PM

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dapper pivot if you are restreaming need to make sure restream preset is used

I'm not restreaming

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and globally,

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args: preset-nvidia

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(rtx3060)

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I did set the i-frame interval on reolink to 1x i think as per the recommendations

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#Frigate - 24/7 high quality recording.