Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2023 March 7

= March 7 =

CCTV camera footage cut in half or 2/3rds by eliminating every other minute or only saving 30 seconds every 2 minutes.
Is there an adobe express or xconvert or something similiar online that has some function where you can save every other minute of security camera footage?

The major problem is not if it is possible but if some online site or even a downloadable software can batch 24 files of an hour each and process them in a reasonable time or quickly.

My goal is to save each days security camera footage for years but really I don't need every single minute of it. Looking to make this as effortless as possible.

The only real solutions I see are coding equations that I am not all that versed in and seem like they take as much work as just saving 60 whole minutes of video.

Any and all help and suggestions appreciated! 2600:1702:690:F7A0:E9C0:A545:86F4:CE27 (talk) 08:21, 7 March 2023 (UTC)


 * What you appear to want is to compress the footage so as to need less memory space for storage. There are ways to virtually skip parts in which nothing is happening. See High Efficiency Video Coding. Techniques called "Smart H.265" and "Smart H.265+" claim even higher compression rates. --Lambiam 13:42, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Could this be encoded using HandBrake, or is it some other software? (Just in: Explodicator too lazy to make a web search? More at six.) Explodicator7331 (talk) 16:10, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Really appreciate both responses! The problem I see with compressors is that they are great if you have one or two or 10 files over a week and can wait an hour.  But if you have 400 files all an hour long it becomes more work than its worth.  Again the overall problem is I would like to cut around 300 hours of video in half or 2/3rds every week.  For free if I can and compressors will do them for free 5 at a time but the workload is impossible.
 * That said just as a logical work task cutting every other minute out would be easier for a code to do then compressing all 60 minutes.
 * Will be more than happy to do the research Explodicator7331 thank you for pointing me in the right directon!2600:1702:690:F7A0:E9C0:A545:86F4:CE27 (talk) 19:55, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Even with a lot of files, it shouldn't be that hard to script. The bigger issue is power consumption and time taken. With a modern I think an Intel CPU QuickSync should get something like 200+ FPS for 1080P30 HEVC. Similar or more with a NVENC although unfortunately Nvidia consumer GPUs tend to be limited to 3 simultaneous streams (albeit this is generally hackable). [//www.reddit.com/r/Tdarr/comments/uguvim/what_fps_should_a_gtx_1650_super_be_getting_h264/] [//forum.videohelp.com/threads/395766-high-core-count-cpu-for-x265-encoding-good-idea] [//www.elecard.com/page/article_intel_vs_nvidia] I'm not sure if the 3 stream limit matters anyway since it doesn't sound like it really matters for you since it doesn't sound like you care when any particular file finishes so if you do do 3 simultaneous which each finish faster or 10 simultaneous with each taking longer it doesn't matter and I think 3 might be enough to get the maximum from the card, but I'm not sure. I suspect 300 hours could be done in 30 hours, probably even 20 maybe even 10 depending on your settings. (I'm assuming you video is at most 1080P30.) Power consumption shouldn't be too bad since AFAIK the video encoding part isn't particularly demanding although the computer with the CPU or GPU will need to be up this whole time. Nil Einne (talk) 09:26, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
 * ffmpeg does this sort of thing by a command line. The advantage of this is that the same command can be issued for each day or hour of files, and the user does not have to repeat the instructions each time on an interactive screen. The pattern of chopping will depend on what someone may want to get out of the footage later. ffmpeg can also just compress. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:57, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks going around with all these suggestions but did manage to get ffmpeg to cut it into separate jpegs with this code I managed to get out of the wizard key: -vf fps=fps=1/90 -q:v 6 "%fp\FF_frame_%fn\%fn_%04d.jpg" but wanted to change the last part to mpeg and "frame" to mpeg.  I am also puzzled on the output I have managed to rightclick on the file for will try saving the files.   Knowing what I am looking for what code would you suggest for ffmpeg?  Thanks!2600:1702:690:F7A0:E9C0:A545:86F4:CE27 (talk) 00:32, 8 March 2023 (UTC)
 * You can cut to .mp4's by making the output .mp4 type:  then recombine all the even numbers. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:26, 8 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks a million Graeme Bartlett! One last thing I maybe misspoke before I am using FFmpeg Batch AV Converter and have been playing with the code and other sources so it is different with the Batch AV converter.
 * UPDATE: I get this error on that code Graeme:  [NULL @ 0000019d5d2cd6c0] Unable to find a suitable output format for 'pipe:'


 * 2600:1702:690:F7A0:CD9B:30FE:3B84:CE4E (talk) 00:42, 9 March 2023 (UTC)