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Changelog

DVR-Scan 1.6

1.6.2 (December 17, 2024)

  • [feature] Vastly improved region editor UI:
    • Reimplemented entire UI with Tcl/Tk to provide much more consistent experience across platforms
    • All options now have dedicated UI controls in addition to keyboard shortcuts
    • System-specific shortcuts like undo/redo now work as expected
    • Various performance and usability improvements including zoom/pan and shape selection
  • [feature] Add new variance-threshold config option to control how MOG2 controls which pixels are described by the current background model #163
  • [feature] Add new --thumbnails option to extract images from each event, use --thumbnails highscore to save frame with highest motion score #159
  • [feature] Add --use-pts option to allow using presentation time instead of frame number for timestamps #170
  • [bugfix] Fix incorrect framerate detection in Windows builds #174
  • [general] Updates to Windows distributions:
    • Python 3.9 -> Python 3.12
    • OpenCV 4.10.0.82 -> 4.10.0.84
    • Ffmpeg 6.0 -> 7.1

1.6.1 (May 18, 2024)

Release Notes

DVR-Scan 1.6.1 includes some important fixes and improvements for the region editor. Minimum supported Python version is now 3.8.

Changelog

  • [bugfix] Corrupt frames are no longer encoded and are skipped when encoding #151
  • [bugfix] Fix region-editor config file option having no effect #154
  • [bugfix] The region editor now always prompts on any unsaved changes #161
  • [general] The region editor no longer prompts for a save path if -s/--save-region was specified
  • [general] Regions added via command line are now be merged with those loaded from the load-region config option
  • [general] Add new learning-rate config option to control how fast the background model is updated
    • Value between 0.0 and 1.0 controls how much weight is placed on next frame, or -1 for auto
    • 0.0 implies no update to the model, 1.0 will re-initialize it completely on each frame
    • Default value of -1 is for automatic, which is unchanged from previous releases

1.6 (October 15, 2023)

Release Notes

DVR-Scan greatly improves masking capabilities with the new region editor (user guide):

example of region editor example of region editor

Multiple regions can now be defined with any shape, size, and complexity. Region data can be saved to a file and loaded again. Regions can also be specified by command line.

There are also several other bugfixes and improvements, such as improved seeking performance.

Changelog

  • [feature] New region editor -r/--region-editor allows creation of multiple regions without shape restrictions, replaces -roi/--region-of-interest
  • [feature] Multiple regions of interest (rectangular or polygonal) can now be created:
    • Using the new region editor by adding the -r/--region-editor flag: dvr-scan -i video.mp4 -r
    • New -a/--add-region replaces -roi/--region-of-interest option: dvr-scan -i video.mp4 -a 5 5 20 5 20 20 5 20
    • Regions can now be saved to a file: press S in the region editor or use -s/--save-region
    • Regions can now be loaded from a file: press O in the region editor or use -R/--load-region
    • Config files can specify a region file to use by default with the load-region option, replaces the region-of-interest setting
  • [feature] New -fm / --frame-metrics option draws motion score on each frame to help tune detection parameters
  • [cli] Short flag -v is now used for --verbosity, replaced by -V for --version
  • [cli] -roi/--region-of-interest is now deprecated, replaced by region editor and add/save/load region flags
    • Specifying this option will display the ROI in the new region format allowing you to update usages more easily
  • [general] Improved seeking performance, using -st/--start-time is now much faster (#92) -detection-parameters)
  • [general] Noise reduction kernel can now be disabled by setting -k/--kernel-size to 0 (#123)
  • [general] Include stack traces in logfiles when setting --verbosity debug
  • [bugfix] Add max-score option to config file to fix CNT mode always treating first few frame as motion, default is 255.0 #119
  • [bugfix] Fix timecode format HH:MM:SS[.nnn] being rejected for start/end time (#141)
  • [bugfix] Fix incorrect RGB mapping for config file (values were treated as BGR instead)
  • [other] Config option timecode has been renamed to time-code to match the command-line option
  • [other] Config options that started with timecode- have been renamed to start with text-, and are now shared between the time-code and frame-metrics overlays:
    • time-code-margin is now text-margin
    • time-code-font-scale is now text-font-scale
    • time-code-font-thickness is now text-font-thickness
    • time-code-font-color is now text-font-color
    • time-code-bg-color is now text-bg-color

Known Issues

  • Some prebuilt archives include documentation which references the load-region config option with the incorrect name (region-file) #153

DVR-Scan 1.5

1.5.1 (August 15, 2022)

Changelog

  • [bugfix] Fix crash when opening multiple input videos (#95)
  • [bugfix] Fix incorrect warning regarding frame decode failures at end of video

1.5 (July 30, 2022)

Release Notes

  • Significant performance improvements on multicore systems
  • Support wildcards/globs as inputs for scanning entire folders (-i folder/*.mp4)
  • Allow use of ffmpeg for better output quality (-m ffmpeg) or codec-copying mode (-m copy)
  • Configuration files are now supported, see documentation for details
    • Can specify config file path with -c/--config, or create a dvr-scan.cfg file in your user config folder
  • Windows binaries are now signed, thanks SignPath.io (certificate by SignPath Foundation)
  • Experimental Nvidia CUDA® support has been added (set -b MOG2_CUDA)
    • If installing via pip, requires manual installation of OpenCV compiled with CUDA support
    • If downloading Windows version, make sure to download the GPU-enabled build (dvr-scan-1.5-win64-cuda.zip)
    • CUDA-enabled builds are not code signed, and do not include the CNT method
  • Minimum supported Python version is now 3.7
  • Minimum supported OpenCV version is now 3.x

Command-Line Changes

  • New options:
    • -c/--config - set path to config file
    • -d/--output-dir - set directory to write output files (default is working directory)
    • -m/--output-mode - set output mode (one of: opencv, ffmpeg, copy)
    • -mo/--mask-output - path to write motion mask for analysis
    • --verbosity and --logfile - control output verbosity and path to save output
  • -i/--input now supports globs/wildcards to scan entire folders, e.g. -i folder/*.mp4
  • Change default value for -l/--min-event-length to 0.1 seconds, previously was 2 frames
  • Long form of -roi has been renamed to --region-of-interest (previously was --rectangle-of-interest)
  • -c is now used for --config, previously was for --codec
  • Add experimental MOG2_CUDA option for -b/--bg-subtractor
  • Rename existing MOG option to MOG2
  • --codec has been removed, the value should now be set using a config file

Changelog

  • [feature] Configuration file support and new -c/--config argument to specify path to config files (#77)
    • Breaks existing behavior of -c (was previously the shortform of --codec)
  • [feature] Add support for multiple output modes via -m/--output-mode argument (#27, #42)
  • [feature] Experimental support for GPU-based CUDA MOG2 filter (#12)
  • [feature] Video encoding and decoding are now done in parallel with the scanning logic leading to improved performance on most systems (#52)
  • [feature] Add support for exporting motion masks via -mo/--mask-output argument
    • Useful for detailed analysis or tuning of detection parameters
    • ffmpeg can be used to generate output videos by specifying -m ffmpeg
    • Codec-copy mode, using ffmpeg, can be used by specifying -m copy
  • [feature] Add --verbosity and --logfile arguments to provide more control over program output
  • [feature] Allow scanning entire folders using wildcards with -i/--input (#5)
    • Glob expansion is also performed on each input path directly, so quoted globs also function correctly
  • [bugfix] Fix incorrect results when -st/--start-time is set
  • [bugfix] Event start times are now correctly calculated when using -fs/--frame-skip (#68, #70)
    • Note that all skipped frames within the event window are included in motion event, thus the calculated start time may be slightly earlier
  • [bugfix] Only get screen resolution when required (was causing issues on headless machines)
  • [bugfix] Fix output messages conflicting with progress bar shown during scanning
  • [bugfix] Output events now start from 1 to align with the event list
  • [bugfix] Event end times now include the presentation duration of the last frame
  • [bugfix] Small values for -l/--min-event-length are now handled correctly, previously would cause an error
  • [enhancement] Progress bar now indicates how many events have been detected so far
  • [enhancement] Change default value for min_event_len to 0.1 seconds, previously was 2 frames (#91)

Known Issues

  • Attempting to open multiple input videos will cause DVR-Scan to crash, fixed in v1.5.1 (#95)
  • Variable framerate videos (VFR) are not fully supported, and will yield incorrect timestamps (#20)
  • Video output when using frame skip and -m opencv (default output mode) will result in frames missing from the exported videos (#81)
    • Use -m ffmpeg or -m copy as a workaround
  • Multiple input videos are not supported with -m ffmpeg or -m copy (#86)
  • CUDA builds do not include the CNT option for -b/--bg-subtractor

DVR-Scan 1.4

1.4.1 (February 20, 2022)

Release Notes

This release includes fixes for incorrect event start/end times when using frame skipping, and improvements to the bounding box overlays.

Important: Aside from critical bugfixes, DVR-Scan 1.4.x is the last minor version supporting Python 2.7. Starting from v1.5, the new minimum supported Python version will be 3.6 (see #83 for details).

Changelog

  • [bugfix] Event start times are now correctly calculated when using -fs/--frame-skip (#68, #70)
    • Note that event start/end times may still be off by how many frames are skipped due to loss of context with respect to frame-accurate motion detection
  • [bugfix] Event end times now take into account the number of skipped frames if -fs/--frame-skip if specified (e.g. it is assumed all skipped frames contained motion)
  • [bugfix] Bounding box smoothing now takes into account -fs/--frame-skip (#31)
  • [bugfix] Bounding boxes now cover all frames with motion (#31)
    • In v1.4 only the frames after -l/--min-event-length frames had passed were covered

Known Issues

  • Variable framerate videos (VFR) are not fully supported, and will yield incorrect timestamps (#20)
  • Using -st/--start-time will yield incorrect results
  • If a motion event happens to be exactly the number of frames specified by -l/--min-event-length, the end timecode will be displayed incorrectly (#90)

1.4 (February 8, 2022)

Release Notes

In addition to several bugfixes, this release of DVR-Scan adds the ability to draw a bounding box around the area in the frame where motion was detected. There are also several improves when using -fs/--frame-skip and/or -df/--downscale-factor by ensuring all other option are relative to the original video framerate/resolution.

Important: Aside from critical bugfixes, DVR-Scan 1.4.x is the last minor version supporting Python 2.7. Starting from v1.5, the new minimum supported Python version will be 3.6 (see #83 for details).

Changelog

  • [feature] Add new --bb/--bounding-box option to draw rectangle around the area in the video where motion was detected
    • An amount to temporally smooth the box in time can also be specified after -bb (e.g. -bb 0.5s), where the default is 0.1s
  • [bugfix] Processing errors should now return a non-zero exit code
  • [bugfix] Allow a maximum window size to be set when using -roi (#59):
    • The -roi flag now accepts a maximum window size for the ROI selection window (e.g. -roi 1920 1080)
    • If the screeninfo package is installed, or you are using a Windows build, videos will automatically be resized to the maximum screen size
  • [bugfix] Fix frozen timestamp at beginning of video (#68)
  • [bugfix] Fix output videos not including all of the duration specified by -tb/--time-before in certain cases (#68
  • [bugfix] Fix event start times not reflecting -l/--min-event-length and -tb/--time-before (#68
  • [bugfix] Scanning no longer stops suddenly after a frame fails to decode (#62)
    • If more than 1 corrupt frame is found, a warning will be displayed with the number of frame decode failures
    • If more than 5 frames in a row fail to be decoded, processing will stop and display an error
  • [bugfix] When no events have been found, an empty file is no longer created if -o/--output is specified
  • [enhancement] -k/--kernel-size is now relative to the original video resolution, and will be reduced to adjust for -df/--downscale-factor if set (#46)
  • [bugfix] Output videos now have the correct playback speed when using -fs/--frame-skip by reducing the framerate (#70)
  • [bugfix] The -l/--min-event-length and -tp/--time-post-event parameters are now adjusted to compensate for -fs/--frame-skip if set (#70)
  • [bugfix] An erroneus event (false positive) is no longer generated at the beginning of a video when -l/--min-event-length is equal to 1 frame

Known Issues

  • Variable framerate videos (VFR) are not fully supported, and will yield incorrect timestamps (#20)
  • When using -fs/--frame-skip, event start times do not include all of -tb/--time-before-event (#68, #70)
  • When using -bb/--bounding-box, the amount of time covered by -l/--min-event-length will be missing bounding box overlays (#31)
  • Using -st/--start-time will yield incorrect results
  • If a motion event happens to be exactly the number of frames specified by -l/--min-event-length, the end timecode will be displayed incorrectly (#90)

DVR-Scan 1.3

1.3 (May 23, 2021)

Release Notes

This version of DVR-Scan includes a new, faster background subtraction algorithm (-b CNT). Results may be slightly different when using this method, so any feedback is most welcome.

Changelog

  • [feature] Add new -b/--bg-subtractor argument to allow selecting between the MOG and CNT background subtractor types (e.g. dvr-scan -b CNT). Resolves #48. The following background subtractor types are available:
    • MOG is the default
    • CNT is a newer, faster algorithm (feedback is welcome)
  • [bugfix] When using the -o/--output argument, a file is no longer written to disk if no motion events are found in the input file (#50)

Known Issues

  • Variable framerate videos (VFR) are not fully supported, and will yield incorrect timestamps (#20)
  • Using the -roi flag with high resolution videos can result in the window exceeding the size of the monitor (#59)
  • When using -tc/--time-code the start of the video may have a frozen timestamp (#68)
  • The kernel size must be manually adjusted when using -df/--downscale-factor (#46)
  • When using --frame-skip, the --min-event-length parameter must be manually adjusted, and exported clips will have the wrong playback speed

DVR-Scan 1.2

1.2 (March 10, 2021)

Changelog

  • [bugfix] Fix quiet mode (-q/--quiet) not working correctly (#19, #35)
  • [bugfix] Fix downscale factor (-df/--downscale-factor) having no effect (#46)
  • [api] Swap order of fps and timecode arguments in FrameTimecode constructor to match that of PySceneDetect (#33)
  • [api] Refactor ScanContext class for better usage from Python (#33)
  • [api] Use named logger rather than print statements (#35)

Known Issues

  • When using the -o/--output argument, a file is still written to disk even if no motion events are discovered in the input file (#50)
  • Variable framerate videos (VFR) are not fully supported, and will yield incorrect timestamps (#20)

DVR-Scan 1.1

1.1 (July 12, 2020)

Changelog

  • [feature] Add new -roi argument to allow specifying a rectangular detection window, can select graphically or specify x/y/w/h via command line (thanks @klucsik)
  • [bugfix] Fixed broken OpenCV compatibility layer causing issues with OpenCV 3.0+
  • [general] Released project on pip, pinned OpenCV version requirement

Known Issues

  • Quiet mode (-q/--quiet) does not work correctly
  • Variable framerate videos (VFR) are not fully supported, and will yield incorrect timestamps (#20)

DVR-Scan 1.0

1.0.1 (January 12, 2017)

  • [bugfix] unhandled exception affecting users running source distributions under Python 2.7 environments

1.0 (January 11, 2017)

  • [feature] detects motion events with configurable sensitivity and noise removal thresholds
  • [feature] output events to individual video files, or as a single-file compilation
  • [feature] allows input seeking, frame skipping, and output suppression mode
  • [feature] configurable detection windows and pre/post-event inclusion length