Converting before FTP archiving

[m_listed]

Hi, I'm interested in marking notable clips from the app as I see them and having them upload themselves to an external site (FTP, SMB, etc.). I used to use the flag option, but flagging in Blue Iris is pretty useless other than protecting the clip from being deleted. You have to go in and export them manually every now and then. There's no way to have them automaticallygo anywhere. I thought an alternative would be the export option. However, that rather poorly-named option replaces the file instead of keeping the BVR and copying the file somewhere else, and it only exports as AVI. Then I thought of the archive option. I thought it was great, I set up the FTP server, ready to go... but it only uploads in the BVR format.

I don't want my clips always recording in BVR because I want the hardware accelerated benefits of BVR as well as its speed. So is there really no way to save a clip to an offsite location in a normal format like MP4 from the app?

 

[m_listed]

I thought I found a workaround, but discovered a host of bugs that prevent it from working. That seems to be my general experience with BI sometimes!

You can make BI upload to FTP, and then have it do something with the file after upload in the backup settings. I made it back up and move the file to a certain folder after uploading. I made this folder have a size and age limit of 0, after which it would move the file back to the normal storage folder, but not before queueing it for conversion/export by SMB to a network folder. Which would do exactly what I wanted to do (FTP would have been more flexible, and SFTP even better since no one uses FTP in 2020, but hey).

Except Blue Iris has a bug where it won’t save settings if you choose any folder other than Stored to move the file to after FTP upload. It lets you choose any folder, it just won’t save the settings.

I got around this bug by renaming my Aux 2 extra folder to Longterm, and making the Stored folder my temporary export folder. This worked. So now we end up with a backed up BVR and a normal MP4 on the network drive!

Alas, I discover another bug. This works when you archive a file from the console, where it’s pretty useless since you can just do export/convert directly. But if you Archive from the app, it fails when it attempts to move the file to your temporary folder with error 32. Which apparently means the file is in use. I don’t know why that error only occurs when you queue the file for backup from mobile.

 

[fenderman]

Hi, I'm interested in marking notable clips from the app as I see them and having them upload themselves to an external site (FTP, SMB, etc.). I used to use the flag option, but flagging in Blue Iris is pretty useless other than protecting the clip from being deleted. You have to go in and export them manually every now and then. There's no way to have them automaticallygo anywhere. I thought an alternative would be the export option. However, that rather poorly-named option replaces the file instead of keeping the BVR and copying the file somewhere else, and it only exports as AVI. Then I thought of the archive option. I thought it was great, I set up the FTP server, ready to go... but it only uploads in the BVR format.

I don't want my clips always recording in BVR because I want the hardware accelerated benefits of BVR as well as its speed. So is there really no way to save a clip to an offsite location in a normal format like MP4 from the app?

There are many inaccuracies in this post. First, when you export, you have 3 file container options not "only" avi. MP4, AVI, Windows media. The option is not "poorly named" as you CAN choose whether to overwrite the current file OR create a NEW file. This is clear as day when you select the export option.

I think you meant to say "I want my clips" not "I dont want my clips".
Alas, we have discovered another user error.
With respect to your other issues, if you truly believe its a bug, email support.
Finally, there is no reason to waste resources converting to mp4. You can backup your clips in BVR and play them back with the demo version of blue iris.

 

[m_listed]

You’re right, I made a typo on “I want my clips”, but apart from that, there are no inaccuracies or user error. “Export”ing from the iPhone app doesn’t give me any sort of options, it simply replaces the BVR with an AVI in-place. Is your app asking you for options when you do “Export” on a clip?

Converting to MP4 doesn’t take any resources anyway since it’s recording in H264 and not re-encoding while exporting. MP4 is a much more accessible format to from any kind of device, unlike proprietary BVR.

 

[TonyR]

“Export”ing from the iPhone app doesn’t give me any sort of options, it simply replaces the BVR with an AVI in-place. Is your app asking you for options when you do “Export” on a clip?

To each their own but when I want to get serious regarding converting, exporting, etc. I do it on my BI server, not on my iPhone. But that works for me....YMMV.

 

[fenderman]

You’re right, I made a typo on “I want my clips”, but apart from that, there are no inaccuracies or user error. “Export”ing from the iPhone app doesn’t give me any sort of options, it simply replaces the BVR with an AVI in-place. Is your app asking you for options when you do “Export” on a clip?

Converting to MP4 doesn’t take any resources anyway since it’s recording in H264 and not re-encoding while exporting. MP4 is a much more accessible format to from any kind of device, unlike proprietary BVR.

There is no mention of a mobile device in your first post. The conversion always uses resources even if there is no reencoding. Ui3 allows you to export in mp4. If you want that function in the mobile app email support.

 

[m_listed]

Cool, didn’t know UI3 got MP4 export functionality. I’ll ask Ken to make the app export behave normally as well. Or at least fix the bug where FTP moving runs into that error when used from the mobile app. And when I said “app” I meant the mobile app, but I can see how that could be ambiguous to some people.

To each their own but when I want to get serious regarding converting, exporting, etc. I do it on my BI server, not on my iPhone. But that works for me....YMMV.

Yeah, I’ve been doing that for a few years now. It’s getting old though. I want to do my day-to-day interaction with Blue Iris from the mobile app. That includes saving notable clips off-site in a viewable manner. Ken must have thought the same, since he put the the Export and Archive options into the mobile app in the first place. They just... don’t work quite as well as you’d expect.