How much video storage is included in the initial $5 video add-on? And how much video (minutes, videos, etc) can I expect from the 250MB increments of storage?
The initial video add-on provides 50MB of storage. That will provide you with roughly 30 clips of video at 640x400 resolution per day before you run out of storage space. Each clip is on average 30 seconds in length.
The 250 MB of storage will provide you with roughly 150 clips of video at 640x400 resolution per day before you run out of storage space.
Obviously, if the resolution of the clip is increased, the number of clips you can expect to get is decreased. Unfortunately, Alarm.com does not provide any information about higher resolution clips but with a little bit of math I was able to come up with a rough estimate of how many clips you can expect to get with the highest resolution (1200x800).
Every 50MB will provide you with somewhere around 90 total clips per month at 1200x800 resolution.
Note that this is not per camera, so if you have multiple cameras taking clips, you will burn through your storage more quickly.
The $5/month add-on gets you the same thing as the stand-alone cloud video service - 50MB storage.
http://suretydiy.com/product/diy-alarm-com-cloud-video
How much video in minutes or clips depends a lot on your saved video settings, which you control. These are the settings that affect video storage space with some values that different cameras can have.
- What resolution are you recording at? The bigger the resolution the clearer the picture (more dots per inch) but the more storage space per clip.
| 2GIG HD100 | ADC-V520IR |
|---|---|
| High - 1280x720 Medium - 704x480 (default) Low - 352x240 | High - 1280x800 Medium - 640x400 (default) Low - 320x200 |
- What frame rate are you recording at? The more frames (pictures) per second the larger the clip.
The 2GIG HD100 and the ADC-V520IR both offer 1, 2, 3 or 5 frames per second.
- What image quality are your recording at?
2GIG HD100 and ADC-V520IR both offer:
Highest (Largest Recorded Clips)
Standard (default)
Reduced (Smallest Recorded Clips)
- How long are the recorded clips? The longer the clip, the larger the clip.
| 2GIG HD100 | ADC-V520IR |
|---|---|
| 15 seconds 20 seconds 25 seconds 30 seconds | 10 seconds 15 seconds 20 seconds 25 seconds 30 seconds 35 seconds 40 seconds |
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How often are you uploading clips? If you’re using video motion detection outdoors then you’ll probably be uploading a lot of false motion clips so you’ll need more space. If you’re recording every time the front door of an office opens then then you’ll probably be uploading a lot of clips as well. If you’re only recording during alarm events then you probably won’t upload many clips at all.
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How much motion is in the video? It’s compressed with h.264 which aggressively shrinks video size when there isn’t much change from picture to picture. A video clip of an empty room will be smaller than when you’re throwing a house party.
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How much color is in the video? A night time black & white video is a lot smaller than a daytime full color video. The more color variation in the picture, the larger it is.
All that being said I’ll give you a couple examples…
I have a 2GIG HD100 recording at 704x480 resolution, 5 frames/second, standard image quality, 15 second clips recording indoors, day and night. The clips on that camera range from 20KB up to 500KB depending on motion and color. That’s about 800 clips per 250MB storage block.
I have an ADC-V520IR recording at 1280x800 resolution, 3 frames/second, standard image quality, 15 second clips recording indoors, only during the day. The clips on that camera range from 250KB up to 750KB depending on motion. That’s about 500 clips per 250MB storage block.