What Happens When Power Goes Out With Blue Iris Open

Options

The Options toolbar icon is second from the left.  Click this button to open the following window:

The About page contains copyright and registration information.  There's also a field to specify a System name.  This name is used to identify your system when a client connects using one of the smart-phone client apps.

You may use the Export settings button to copy the entire contents of the Blue Iris registry key to a file for backup or transport to another PC.  The file that's created may only be imported here with the Import settings button.  If you have a version 3 settings export, double-click the file on your Windows desktop to import or merge the file into the registry.  If installed onto a new PC, it will still be necessary to re-enter the license key on the new PC.

There are several Software update options to always ensure that you're working with the latest version each time you start the software.  Blue Iris always checks for an update when you start-up; if you choose the Prompt at startup option, Blue Iris will immediately ask you to install the update.  The Re-check every day option provides further assurance that you are always aware of new developments on a daily basis.  The update notice will be posted to the Stats page message window.  If you additionally choose the Auto download and install option, Blue Iris will automatically download and install the update, and then re-start.

As the update is being downloaded, the progress is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the Blue Iris window.

Startup

This page allows you to control various aspects of the software's startup behavior.

Window

By default, the software will attempt to remember its last window size and position each time it is launched.  You may instead choose to run quietly.  In this case, a splash screen will not be displayed, and the main Blue Iris window will not open.  If you are running an unregistered version, however, the registration screen will always be displayed.  You may also choose to startup in full-screen video mode.

Operating system

Use the Run Blue Iris as a Win32 service option to start Blue Iris when your computer starts up, without requiring a login.  When the PC or Blue Iris is restarted, Blue Iris will run on the "LocalSystem" account (a privileged account not requiring login, but having no user interface).  You may run Blue Iris again as a "console" that will interact with the service.  The console can edit settings, restart cameras, and view stats and messages.  Important notes about running as a service:

• You can manage the service from the Windows Service Manager: right-click the Computer icon and select Manage.

• Remember to provide write access to your storage devices for your service account.

• You may switch the service account to your own account in order to provide the service the same access rights.

• The service will automatically restart if there's a software failure; this will be written to the status/messages log as "Restarting after unexpected shutdown."

• You may set the service for a delayed start after Windows in order to provide your NAS time to come online.

By default, when you run the software, you must be using an administrator account and/or answer Yes to the UAC prompt (the one asking to allow the software to make changes to your computer).  However, if you uncheck the box for Require run-as Administrator for the console or when stand-alone, you may allow the console (or the application if not running as a service) to run "as a user."  When running in this way, the user may not make any changes to the Blue Iris settings or camera properties.  In addition, the user will only be able to manually delete and move clips if they have write access to the folders without administrator privileges.  Note also that unless you are running as a service, some features may not be fully functional, such as the web server and automatic software updates.

The default program shortcut that is installed to Windows runs the BlueIrisAdmin.exe, which guarantees the UAC prompt.  You may wish to change this to point directly to BlueIris.exe, which does not require the UAC prompt.  In this case, you may always still right-click the icon and select "run as administrator" as necessary.

The Blue Iris window always on top option will override your ability to move the Blue Iris window "behind" other windows on your desktop.

Most Windows programs display a smaller window in the taskbar at the bottom of  your screen.  When you minimize these programs, the taskbar window remains, and you may click it to re-open the program.  With Blue Iris, you instead may select to use a system tray icon.  When you minimize Blue Iris with a system tray icon, the taskbar window is removed.  To restore Blue Iris, double-click the system tray icon, or right-click it for other options.  Here's what the system tray icon looks like:

You have the option of securing the Blue Iris system tray icon with a password.  Without this password, it will be impossible to re-open the Blue Iris window from the system tray.  The password entered here is case sensitive.  To remove the password protection, delete all letters and spaces from the password box.

The options to prevent the Windows screensaver and to Prevent Power Management allow you to override these Windows features which may interfere with your use of Blue Iris.

Application

In order to prevent the accidental shutdown of the software, you may choose to Prompt before exiting when not running as a service.  When running the console for the service, closing the console does not stop the service so this option does not apply.

If you choose to begin with a red traffic signal then the traffic signal icon in the toolbar will be red when Blue Iris starts.  This means that nothing will be recorded, ftp posting  will be disabled, and no alerts will be issued until the signal turns green.  You may manually switch the signal after startup by clicking on it.  You may also choose to have the signal set to green after a specified time period.  This allows you to the opportunity, for example, to leave the house before the system becomes "armed."  During this count-down to green, the signal will show a yellow light and display the time remaining at the bottom of the Blue Iris window.

If you choose the Delay a green signal option, Blue Iris will show a yellow traffic signal for a specified amount of time before automatically turning green.  This gives you time to leave the room or house before the surveillance begins.

Keyboard shortcuts

This page allows you to assign Blue Iris functions to key strokes of your choosing.

Click "Add" to add a shortcut to the list.  Highlight an existing shortcut and choose either "Edit" to change it, or "Remove" to remove it from the list.  Your key combinations should include the Control, Shift, and/or Alt keys to avoid invoking functions accidentally.

Macros

In addition to standard time formatting macros such as %c, you may also add user-defined macros to your text overlays.  This page allows you to assign text to be substituted for occurrences of "%1", "%2", ... "%9" when they are encountered in text overlays.

You may update a macro dynamically in one of three ways:

1. Click Set to file in order to browse for a text file; the macro will be changed to the file's path.  Blue Iris will read and use the contents of the file specified as the macro text.  This allows you to use an external application to dynamically change what you see on your video--you might place the current temperature, for example.

2. Change the macro's registry value directly.  You will find that macros are stored in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris\macros.

3. If your external application supports DDE, you may connect to the DDE server "BlueIris" with the topic "macro" and "poke" the macro text to the item "1" through "9".

Users

This page allows you to enter name/password pairs that will be used by the web server.  In a future release these may be used to provide varying levels of access at the console as well.

You may specify as many different username/password combinations as you wish.  Use the Add, Edit, and Remove buttons to make changes to the list.  You may also right-click and double-click to Edit.  Here is the Edit user window:

An account with Administrator privileges may perform remote administration, which in the case of the mobile clients includes deletion of clips.

Although you may provide the Remote PTZ privilege here, you may choose to require administrator privileges to use PTZ controls on a per-camera basis by setting that option on the camera PTZ properties tab.

For privacy or to limit bandwidth, you may un-check the box to allow Remote audio streaming via the ActiveX control.

Choose the Limit to camera groups option in order to specify which camera groups the account may access.  Cameras must first be assigned to groups on their General properties tab.  NOTE: Using this option also prevents the account from viewing the "all cameras" index stream.

In order to allow users to only view live video, un-check the View recorded clips option.

You may impose Time limits on both the number of minutes/stream and minutes/day.  The minutes/stream setting has the effect of imposing an "idle time" restriction--a user may not endlessly watch live video for instance.

You may enable Time restricted access which will limit the times during the day and/or week that a user account may be used.  The only distinction at this time is between active and inactive.  While active, the profile number is irrelevant.

You may impose Bandwidth limits in the form of lower quality JPEG and H.264 compression.

Choose LAN only and the software will attempt to deny use of this account to anyone outside of your LAN (local network).

In order for a push notification alert to be sent to one of the client apps, the device must be selected for push on the Options/Mobile page and that device's most recent user account must have this Send push notifications option enabled.

You may choose to play a sound when this user logs in.

Email servers

This page allows you to enter the login credentials for one of more outgoing email servers that will be used to send Email and SMS alerts.

Use the Add, Edit, and Remove buttons to make changes to the list.  You may also right-click and double-click to Edit.  Here is the Edit window:

You may select a preset email server, or select User defined to enter your mail server's address manually.  The default port for outgoing SMTP mail is 25, but you may override this if your server users another port (sometimes done for security purposes).  If your server requires authentication (that is, "relay" mail is not allowed), you may specify a login name and password.  If your server requires a secure connection using SSL or TLS, the option is now available.

You may choose to simply enter the From email address (name@whatever.net),  or you may use a format as you see in the example above, which provides a "friendly" name along with the actual email address.

Use the Test button to immediately send a test message.  A window will appear which will contain the complete mail server "conversation" for debugging purposes.  Note that the process may take several seconds between steps and is not complete until you see an error or "Completed."

FTP servers

This page allows you to enter the login credentials for one of more FTP servers that will be used to post images to a web space or to archive your video to an offsite location.

Use the Add, Edit, and Remove buttons to make changes to the list.  You may also right-click and double-click to Edit.  Here is the Edit window:

There are presently no Preset FTP server addresses, so you must choose User defined and enter the server name manually.  The server address and login credentials are supplied by your website or FTP service provider.  The default FTP port is 21 and should not be changed unless you are instructed to do so by your FTP service provider.

The Base folder setting will be pre-pended to the destination paths of all uploads to this server.

Passive transfer is necessary for some firewall and gateway configurations, and when you get failed data channel errors.  Use the Temporary files option to mitigate the risk of writing to a file which may also be simultaneously read by a user of the website.  The entire file is uploaded before it is renamed into position.

Use the Test button to upload a small file in order to check your settings.

Mobile devices

When the Blue Iris iOS, Android, or Windows phone client is used to connect to your Blue Iris server, an entry for each device will appear on the Options/Mobile devices page.

In addition to tracking mobile device client connections, this page will allow you to "pair" with each device, in order to allow your Blue Iris to send "push notifications" to these devices.  Check the boxes in the Push column corresponding to the devices which should receive push notifications.  You must also enable push notifications on the Alerts page in camera properties.  Finally, make sure that the executable BlueIrisApplePush.exe in your Blue Iris program files folder has been allowed through your Windows Firewall.

Geofencing is a device location services technology that allows the device to notify a server when the device enters or exits a defined region.  If location services and geofencing  are enabled for the Blue Iris client app on your mobile device, the app will notify your Blue Iris server whenever the device leaves or enters a defined circular region.  You may define what Blue Iris should do in response to these events by selecting a device and then using the Enter geofence and Exit geofence buttons.

Select Only if ALL devices are inside/outside to prevent a single device's status from triggering the actions.

You may specify a number of actions to be performed as a device enters or exits its geofence region.  These actions include changing the traffic signal icon, the active profile, the schedule preset, as well as triggering a camera, sending a push notification, running a script or simply playing a sound on the PC.

There are a large number of potential uses for this functionality apart from simply "arming" and "disarming" Blue Iris.  For example, when the "run" option is used in conjunction with other home automation software, you may use Blue Iris to turn on/off lights.  Or, you can be notified when your children leave or are about to return home.

Digital I/O

This page allows you to configure digital input/output (DIO) devices for use with Blue Iris as trigger sources or alert mechanisms.  You might, for example, want your home alarm system's PIR or other sensors to trigger Blue Iris to record and sent alerts.  You may also want Blue Iris to trigger other external systems when it has sensed motion via its video or audio sources.

Arduino

The Arduino UNO is an open-source project board, available very inexpensively at electronics hobby shops or online via eBay.  The UNO must actually itself be programmed to respond to data it receives via the serial port from Blue Iris.  When an alert is triggered, Blue Iris will send a single byte of data to the UNO, an ASCII number 0-7 representing the output number specified on a camera's Alerts tab .  Blue Iris also monitors for incoming serial data, and interprets each incoming byte as the 8-bits representing digital input numbers 0-7, which may be used to trigger the camera .

Sealevel Systems

The Sealevel SeaDAC Lite (P/N 8112 and similar), although more expensive than the UNO, provides a more turn-key solution.  You may simply connect your digital inputs and outputs; there's no project-board programming involved.

Control

Select Inputs are normally closed to reverse effect of the "on" and "off" states of the inputs.  Instead of triggering when in the "on" state, triggering will occur in the "off" state.

Select the Set red traffic signal icon according to input option along with an input bit and the software will set the traffic signal icon in response to a change in this input bit.  When "on" the traffic signal will be red.  When "off" the traffic signal will become green.  To switch this orientation you may use the Inputs are normally closed option.

Joystick

This options page allows you to enable and configure a DirectInput compatible joystick for camera PTZ control.

If a DirectInput compatible joystick is found attached to your PC, it will be initialized and its name will be displayed.  If you connect or disconnect a joystick, use the Refresh button to update the status display.

Use the Control Panel button to open the DirectInput driver's calibration tool.  You must perform a joystick calibration after connecting it for the first time.  This allows software to recognize the proper center position and maximum travel of the various axes.

In addition to up, down, left and right, many joysticks offer a third axis to be used for zoom--possibly implemented by twisting the control stick.  Joysticks designed for applications such as this will also offer an array of buttons.  Blue Iris uses these buttons to call preset positions.

Network IP camera PTZ capability and Blue Iris support of these capabilities vary widely.  PTZ support for a given camera will fall into one of these categories:

• Single step:    You must move and re-center the joystick for each step movement.  This type of PTZ is not ideal for use with a joystick.

• Manual stop:    Move the joystick to initiate motion, then re-center the joystick to stop movement.  With some models, such as Foscam FI89xx compatibles, support for additional directions such as up-left and up-right are now supported.

• Full range:    The camera responds with varying speed on multiple axes depending on the position of the joystick.  This type of PTZ is most ideal for use with a joystick.

There may be many cameras which support the "full range" mode of operation for which Blue Iris currently only supports the "manual stop" or even "single step" methods.  Over time and on an as-requested basis, this support may be upgraded.

Audio

This page allows you to configure the microphone that will be used for the camera Talk function where supported by the camera and Blue Iris.

Select the Device as well as the Input on the device that will be used.  The format should be 16-bit mono.  The sampling rate will be determined by camera or output device's requirements.  A Gain slider and test meter will allow you to visually see the functionality and volume of the microphone.

Cameras

This page contains miscellaneous software behavior options:

You may choose how double-clicks within camera windows are handled.   The default is to open the camera in full-screen mode.  Instead, you may choose to open the camera in a desktop window or to open its properties window.

Use the Priority camera display selector to choose what occurs when using the single-camera button that's beneath the Group selector box of the Cameras window.  By default, this button causes the selected camera and its clips to alone be displayed in the main window.  However you may also choose to use it to bring the selected camera into the "1-up" (first and larger) position in the Cameras window.

During live camera auto-cycle, you may specify both the delay between camera switching, as well as whether or not to prioritize cameras which are sending motion or are triggered.

Select the Automatically play live audio on selected camera option to hear your live camera audio whenever the camera is selected.  A camera is selected by clicking on its video.  To unselect all cameras, click anywhere outside of a camera's video window.  Your camera's audio must be supported by Blue Iris, and audio streaming must be enabled on the camera's Audio tab .

There is an option on each camera's Motion/Trigger to "restore window when triggered."  This is used to un-minimize either the camera window or the application window when motion is detected.  However, if the window is already open, but behind other windows, you may also want to bring it to the foreground.  Check the Force window to foreground option to enable this functionality.

You may choose to Limit the preview rate for live video in order to ease demands on your CPU and video card.  If you are running as a service, this setting may have little effect, as the preview rate is already limited by the service-console process memory sharing throughput.

You may choose to Limit the manual recording time to a specific number of seconds.  When you use the toolbar icon to begin a manual recording, it will automatically stop.

When the option to Change border color to reflect camera state is selected, you will see camera borders change to blue when there is motion or red when the camera is either triggered or recording.

By default, video is not displayed during remote terminal sessions.  This is to prevent the interface from becoming unusable due to continuous screen updating.  However, if you feel that you have a fast enough connection and need to see the video, adjust the Display video during remote terminal sessions setting to allow for occasional or continuous live camera updates.

Other

This page contains miscellaneous software behavior options:

Viewer

By default, the clip Viewer is automatically opened whenever the Snapshot or Video Record icons are used.  You can turn these features off by removing the appropriate checks.

Also by default, video clips automatically begin playback when they are opened and automatically loop back to the beginning when the end is reached.  If you would like your clips to play sequentially, select Next video from the the At end of video list.

Traffic signal and camera pause

You may now define the effect of the traffic signal icon's "red" state.  By default, recording, alerts and image posting are disabled.  However, you may wish to completely disable the web server or disable camera PTZ patrol options.  If webcast "push" operations are paused, connections are broken to any Windows Media server or Flash Media Live Encoding server.

These options also affect the function of the camera pause feature.  When a camera is paused, it is equivalent to using the traffic signal on that particular camera in isolation.

Advanced

By default, the mouse wheel will perform a digital zoom-in when you scroll the wheel toward you and will zoom-out when you scroll the wheel away from you.  You may reverse this operation if you wish.

By default, a very fast software graphics scaler is used when displaying video.  Although fast, you may notice minor artifacts of this scaling process.  If you have CPU cycles to spare, you may increase the visual quality of the camera preview images by adjusting this setting to either Bilinear or Bicubic.  The additional HighQ option is provided for experimentation.  Note: once changed, you must either restart Blue Iris or reset each camera for the change to take effect.

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Source: https://www.houselogix.com/docs/blue-iris/BlueIris/options.htm

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