Sentry Mode...too much recording.

[AKinDC]

So what exactly does sentry mode record when it's activated?
Every time I have a Sentry mode event, there is almost 11 minutes of footage, so it's really hard to figure out exactly what the incident was.
Since you can't scrub through cleanly, you pretty much have to watch the whole 11 minutes to figure it out. Why can't the recording be cues up to the actual event?

 

[whatthe2]

So what exactly does sentry mode record when it's activated?
Every time I have a Sentry mode event, there is almost 11 minutes of footage, so it's really hard to figure out exactly what the incident was.
Since you can't scrub through cleanly, you pretty much have to watch the whole 11 minutes to figure it out. Why can't the recording be cues up to the actual event?

Typically the last complete file is the trigger. It saves the prior 9 minutes or so along with the triggered event.

 

[Knightshade]

So what exactly does sentry mode record when it's activated?

Nothing. Sentry never records.

Every time I have a Sentry mode event, there is almost 11 minutes of footage, so it's really hard to figure out exactly what the incident was.

When sentry goes to alert or alarm mode, what it actually does (pertaining to video) is move the previous ~10 minutes of dashcam video into the sentry folder.

Dashcam is what does the recording....so if that's not working you won't get any recordings moved by sentry but it'll otherwise still work (the display, the loud music if it alarms, etc...)

Since the trigger is moving the previous 10 minutes, what triggered it will always be in the last 1 or 2 minutes of the recording, so you can effectively skip ahead to roughly minute 9 and see what you see.

Why can't the recording be cues up to the actual event?

A recent update supposedly added some JSON file that logs the relevant event time- so this might be a feature coming soon.

 

[RobbL]

Looking forward to the next step in the UI. Came back to the car today and it said that three events had occurred. But when I clicked through, it just showed the new UI with the different camera views. Of course, a great step forward compared to having to remove the drive and bring it inside to connect to my computer. But the next step is clear. If three events happened, I should be able to click and see the three events lined up one after the other from whatever camera and without having to scrub through to the right moment.

 

[Ldog]

Looking forward to the next step in the UI. Came back to the car today and it said that three events had occurred. But when I clicked through, it just showed the new UI with the different camera views. Of course, a great step forward compared to having to remove the drive and bring it inside to connect to my computer. But the next step is clear. If three events happened, I should be able to click and see the three events lined up one after the other from whatever camera and without having to scrub through to the right moment.

Sometimes I get the alert and there is nothing there (?)

 

[DrtyJrze]

Yea, I’m not really sure what the benefit of seeing 9 minutes BEFORE the triggering event is.

Would probably be better if it only saved 5 minutes total (2:30 before and 2:30 after triggering event), and when you review the alert it starts the video at 2 minutes (30 seconds before event) and the driver can then decide if the need to review further before or after the triggering event.

 

[JulienW]

Yea, I’m not really sure what the benefit of seeing 9 minutes BEFORE the triggering event is.

Would probably be better if it only saved 5 minutes total (2:30 before and 2:30 after triggering event), and when you review the alert it starts the video at 2 minutes (30 seconds before event) and the driver can then decide if the need to review further before or after the triggering event.

If you have an event you can never have too much info. For instance a car may pull next to yours and the people sit in it and decide to do break your window but others are walking by so they wait. You may need to go back 8 minutes to see the license plate before the window break.

Auto scrub is a great idea and hopefully Tesla will add it to right before the event. But keep in mind we couldn't even view it on our screen a couple of months ago and there was no Sentry mode at all 6 months ago.

 

[DrtyJrze]

If you have an event you can never have too much info. For instance a car may pull next to yours and the people sit in it and decide to do break your window but others are walking by so they wait. You may need to go back 8 minutes to see the license plate before the window break.

Auto scrub is a great idea and hopefully Tesla will add it to right before the event. But keep in mind we couldn't even view it on our screen a couple of months ago and there was no Sentry mode at all 6 months ago.

I guess if we go down that rabbit hole why not record and keep everything? You know, just in case someone was scoping out your car 3 weeks ago and finally decided to make their move today...

There’s a balance between practicality and protection. I’d bet that 9.9 out of 10 times those previous 9 minutes show nothing useful. I doubt someone will be waiting around to break into my empty car, they’ll move on to another target.

Maybe they should let us set our own record time. So if you want a 2 hr window (with adequate storage) and I only want 5 Minutes we can both get what we want. That would be an easy update.

I agree, the feature should only improve with time.

 

[snailboat]

Auto scrub is a great idea and hopefully Tesla will add it to right before the event. But keep in mind we couldn't even view it on our screen a couple of months ago and there was no Sentry mode at all 6 months ago.

Sentry has been out for over a year at this point (15 months?). It took them this long to get a Sentry viewer out that is unusably slow and unreliable. If you try to scrub to roughly the time of the trigger event (~1 minute before the end of the recording) it just locks up. At least that's been my experience. Meanwhile there are like a dozen different fast. fully-featured 3rd-party solutions for watching Sentry videos (mobile apps, web apps, etc) made by people in their free time that came out within the first months after Sentry's release. I just don't think viewing sentry in-car is a very high priority for Tesla at this point.

 

[Zythryn]

I would far rather have too much info than to little.
10 minutes seems a good balance between missing something and not being too onerous.
Especially since you can start at the most recent file and work backwards.

 

[Knightshade]

Sentry has been out for over a year at this point (15 months?). It took them this long to get a Sentry viewer out that is unusably slow and unreliable. If you try to scrub to roughly the time of the trigger event (~1 minute before the end of the recording) it just locks up. At least that's been my experience. .

Not mine- I never have an issue jumping to any particular time in the video.

If your viewer locks up every time I'd put in a service ticket.

 

[Wennfred]

Sentry mode & Dashcam is still broke, hoping 2020.16 will fix it.

Fred

 

[TraumaDoc]

I would far rather have too much info than to little.
10 minutes seems a good balance between missing something and not being too onerous.
Especially since you can start at the most recent file and work backwards.

Unless you park in a multistory at work, and the charging bay is: a) tiny and b)right next to the exit, and you get 279 sentry events, every. single. day.

 

[DCGOO]

Yea, I’m not really sure what the benefit of seeing 9 minutes BEFORE the triggering event is.

Context

 

[Rothgarr]

A recent update supposedly added some JSON file that logs the relevant event time- so this might be a feature coming soon.

I always review the files on my computer. Even if it put a character somewhere in the filename to indicating where an event happened in the clip would be so much more user-friendly.