Accessing the recorded events in the DVR.


The quickest and simplest method is to connect a laptop to the DVR box with a network Cat 5 cable. Use a 'crossover' cable, which allows one machine to directly access the other without a network hub box. Now open a internet browser (FireFox is recommended) and point it to the running DVR: type the url in the address window and press 'enter'.
An example: http://192.168.220.19/zm. The IP address of the DVR is on the label on the box.
The ZM_Console will appear as per the snap shot, below.

The Zone Minder control console

Each recording is called an 'event' and is about 10 minutes long. Depending on the settings, each 'event' will consist of about 12,000 individual stills. The zm console shows you what has been recorded in the last hour,day,week,month. There will be one line for each individual camera. Depending on what you have ordered, our DVR can accommodated up to four cameras. The 'archive' column shows how many events have been archived - preserved from periodic deletion. The DVR is set to delete the oldest non-archived events as the storage space becomes full. Clicking on an 'events' column will open a 'recorded events window', and, an 'event filter window' as per the snapshots below.

Table of recorded events.


Event Filter window

It is very important that you do nothing to the event filter window. Just click on the close command. In the recorded events window, each event has it's own line, with a thumbnail of the first frame on the right. The entry shows the date,time,duration and number of frames. Each event has a check box to the right. Checking an event will highlite the available commands: "view,archive,edit,export,delete".
The 'view" command will open the 'event playback window", as per the snapshot,below.
event playback window

The view command can also be activated by clicking on the name of an event.
The "event playback window" also has commands which are pretty much self explanatory. Clicking on 'stills' opens the event folder as individual still photos.

The event as a series of still frames



Lets give an example:
An incident of some sort has been recorded. At the earliest possible opportunity, the DVR box should be accessed (of course, use the switch on the panel to turn it on). Connect with a laptop, start the browser, and open the DVR box with the browser. Locate the event of interest.
You should replay it to verify you have the correct event. Also, make a note of the event ID, you will need it later. You should immeadately archive this recording so that it will not be erased later.
You now have the recorded event preserved on this particular DVR box. It is also possible to copy this event out so that it can be installed on another machine - i.e. the laptop you have connected to. A snapshot of the "event export window" is below.
event export window

Check off the first 3 boxes, and select the format - tar for unix, zip for windows/dos.
This is going to take some time, as you are going to be generating a package with about 12,000 frames in it. Depending on your browser (and OS) the archived event folder should now be on the local machine (desktop). When unpacked, you will have a folder with about 12,000 frames in it. It may be possible to view them in sequence with a slide show type of program, but is not a very eligant solution as the computer will probably have a strange way of sorting the files.
If the laptop you have downloaded this archive file to is correctly configured, it will also be possible to "play" the event on the laptop.
This particular option is beyond the scope of the basic DVR setup. We will have to configure a laptop for you. Please contact us for pricing.