Just wanted to jot these down as I come across possible improvements / enhancements.
Trim down the alert video to 5 seconds each side of the trigger instead of 30 seconds. Watching a day’s worth of events would be shortened by 80%, since my events last less than 1 minute each. As it is now, I have to sit through 60 seconds of nothing to see 5 seconds of something.
It’s hard to line up the timeline to replay short motion detected events that are less than a minute. The sliding timeline does not automatically “snap” to the nearest event. I often have to try several times to get the little blue line to sit just right under the red line. Very frustrating.
There is no way for me to save off a copy of a motion-detected event without disconnecting my camera, removing the SD card, putting the SD card into my computer, searching for the timestamp directory with the event, and copying off the file. And if I want to create a movie with an entire day of motion-detected events, I have to import hundreds of files, one by one, in the right order, into my video editing software to build the final movie. Very frustrating (and so time consuming that I don’t even try since the first time).
You can expand the timeline by using a pinch-out gesture. This give you more precise control over the playback point. Reverse the action (compress the timeline) by pinching-in.
With the newest version of the app, you can record to the phone's camera roll during playback. This is a way to save short video segments. I say "short" because it's real-time. You would have to wait in real time for it to record if you want to capture longer segments.
Thanks, RickO, for the tip about pinch-expanding the timeline. Much easier. Still would like it to “snap” to beginning (and shorter lead-in time to event).
I’ll have to try the “record to camera option”. Thanks, again.
Yep, the “record from playback” method only helps for a pretty narrow set of use cases. What would be really helpful:
Better playback functionality in general. Scrubbing, variable playback speed (from real-time to ridiculously fast), jump back/forward 10 secs, "marking," etc. DVR-level controls. Including the snap-to-event idea mentioned earlier here. Take a cue from other cams that create tick marks on the timeline near events.
Download a clip with timecode bounds, either as marked via functionality in 1 or raw input. The clip should also have variable playback speed - on-demand timelapse creation.
Also, anyone else with an iPhone X really stymied by trying to do anything with the timeline in landscape mode as it lives in the same space as the app switcher bar?
I’d like to get a mode where the motion triggers does not automatically cause a notification or new clip, but shows up as events (different color) on the timeline. Together with the “scrub” (or a “skip to next event”) it would be a great way to review the daily activities.
The record-from-playback is also a nice addition, but feels like a bad workaround. It would be great if you could either choose to just “export” the full movement event, or perhaps set a stop/start and export it to the iPhone’s video library.
A desktop app feature; may have to be web-based, but that's okay. With the ability to monitor all cameras (or at least four) at the same time, as well as a "DVR" feature.
An outside, weather-proof, wi-fi camera, with an extra-long power cord.
Since I’m not (yet) in Beta, I have a couple questions about the inclusion area(s) … 1) how are they drawn?, 2) how many can there be?, 3) can they be overlapping?, 4) right angles only?, 5) can they be individually removed or edited? Any other details would be appreciated …
EDIT: regarding the option “Notify me of follow-up replies via email” that appears when posting … am I the only one who’s no longer receiving these email notifications? It seems they stopped a week or two ago …
Thanks. Glad to see that this capability is coming, but I could SURE use two zones with one of my cameras (front porch and adjacent stairs to front door, while excluding nearby street light). Perhaps I’ll create a screen grab with overlays and post over in the Beta forum.
It would be extremely helpful to be able to change the alert notification to something unique only to this app. It would help me distinguish a normal email alert vs a very important wyzecam alert.
Also a way to globally batch download alert videos to my smartphone on a schedule or on demand would be terrific.
Suppressing notifications for a specified duration or until defined date and time
Not sure if this has been suggested or not, but with push notifications finally working on the Android again, I couldn’t help have the desire to use a “Suppress notifications for x-hours, or until a specific date and time”. It’d be handy for those odd days when there is activity that normally doesn’t occur during the regular alert schedule.
A feature I would very much appreciate is to have the information from the editable camera name field watermarked/superimposed on the screen in the opposite position from the time/date stamp. (Custom information in the top Left and, opposite that, the time and date stamp where it is now, on the bottom Right.)
I would use this feature on every camera and on every frame of video recorded and I believe many here would like to have that feature as well.
Since two of my ver 2 units are monitoring my condo 1,400 miles away - and won’t be touched by a human for seven months - it is imperative that any firmware update (or anything else, for that matter) not need human intervention at the camera, else the unit(s) becomes a useless annoyance during the months until my return.
Because where I had to place my camera on the porch to get the best coverage without cars on the street triggering the camera neither a box or a rectangle fit my needs, I wish for the corners of the Motion Detection Zone to be independent of each other so a trapezoid could be made to avoid false triggers, what do you think?