I have been using the MKVExporter to create a several second video from the recording server. The file size varies quite a bit between samples at different times. In order to reduce the file size as much as possible, I now only retrieve a one second video clip. File sizes are anywhere from 400K to 1.9MB.
Can anyone explain these differences? The camera now points to a screen that scrolls data periodically, so maybe if very little change, the file is smaller. This video will most likely capture a scene with a lot of movement.
In order to make this work well, I need to find a way to make this output file small and consistent. Our file transfer setup experiences a delay on the larger file sizes.
Is there a way to get a single frame (shapshot) with a predictable file size?
Can the file resolution be decreased in the output file?
You might already know that MKV Export is a highly effective way to export the footage that was sent by the camera unaltered.
The expertise on how to best take advantage of the size of this format might be greater at forums focusing on general video handling or specific handling of the MKV format.
At Milestone Technical Support we do not have the expertise to advice on the best approaches for tweaking this.
I hope that other Milestone partners with bigger insight might answer your question, but I would also suggest seeking information in other forums.
I found that for inexplicable reasons exporting to MKV format produces 2 video streams, the second of which is always in MJPEG and almost always not working. The size of this second track varies a lot in relation to the encoding used by the camera and can also be very large in size.
I am using the C# Milestone API and thanks to your post I looked into the MKV format a little more. Since that format appears to be no more than a container for other formats, I will be looking for a C# library that I can use to extract the video formats and hopefully remove what is not needed or convert it to some other format.
Freddy. I agree fixing this would be ideal. I wonder if I am using the latest API and if there is a fix in something newer. There aren’t many options in the API for pulling video data so it seems like this should get attention.
