Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

macgeek2005 · Dec 23, 2006, 01:01 AM

Recently i've been using my iSight as a way to make sure that no one touches the stuff around my computer while i'm away or out of the room.

I start recording a video in quicktime, put the computer into screensaver password protected, and turn off the display. It works like a charm. When I come back, I stop the recording, and quickly browse through the video to see what happened in the area.

Since this is a relatively new endeavor, last night was the first night that I had it recording all night long. When I got up in the morning it had been recording for 12 hours, and when I hit the stop button it said "Quicktime could not create a movie" or something like that. It was too long for it.

I must have a way to do this. I've already caught one unsuspecting victim meddling with my pocket knive. I have to have a way to record unlimited.

Thanks.

King Bob On The Cob · Dec 23, 2006, 02:46 AM

iMovie can I believe, it'll split the movie up so it can deal with massive movies.

Or get a motion sensor that will kick on the recording when it's tripped.

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 23, 2006, 11:54 AM

Yes, I recommend SecuritySpy. The demo version puts a message over the movie, but that shouldn't bother you for this purpose. Also, what codec are you using? It's probably a problem with the timescale/movie length but it might just be that the file is too large.

kick52 · Dec 23, 2006, 11:59 AM

do you have enough hard drive space?

you probably do, but its best to check...

macgeek2005 · Dec 23, 2006, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by kick52

do you have enough hard drive space?

you probably do, but its best to check...

12 hours was gonna take up around 770mb. I have more than enough space.

But I completely forgot about iMovie. I'll use that of course.

Thanks.

MattJeff · Dec 23, 2006, 09:30 PM

paranoid? or live in prison? haha jk, why so worried?

SSharon · Dec 23, 2006, 11:59 PM

I've used this Boinx iVeZeen 2.2 - MacUpdate before for similar purposes. Only records when it senses motion.

macgeek2005 · Dec 24, 2006, 12:50 AM

Originally Posted by SSharon

I've used this Boinx iVeZeen 2.2 - MacUpdate before for similar purposes. Only records when it senses motion.

The disk image fails to mount.

I think i'll just do iMovie. I trash anything that isn't of interest to me, so it doesn't waste any more space.

edit: oh, and about the paranoid thing. No i'm not paranoid, it's just my older brother got this REALLY nasty girlfriend that I REALLY hate, and when she's around all she does it poke fun at me and use my stuff. So I decided to try and catch her in the act. Also, I like to see if anyone has been having secret conversations in here.

MattJeff · Dec 24, 2006, 01:13 AM

hmmm i see, and understand. i have roommates i watch closely.

SSharon · Dec 24, 2006, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by macgeek2005

The disk image fails to mount.

I think i'll just do iMovie. I trash anything that isn't of interest to me, so it doesn't waste any more space.

edit: oh, and about the paranoid thing. No i'm not paranoid, it's just my older brother got this REALLY nasty girlfriend that I REALLY hate, and when she's around all she does it poke fun at me and use my stuff. So I decided to try and catch her in the act. Also, I like to see if anyone has been having secret conversations in here.

That usually means it didn't finish downloading. It hasn't been updated in a while but I can send you the app if you PM me.

macintologist · Dec 24, 2006, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by macgeek2005

The disk image fails to mount.

I think i'll just do iMovie. I trash anything that isn't of interest to me, so it doesn't waste any more space.

edit: oh, and about the paranoid thing. No i'm not paranoid, it's just my older brother got this REALLY nasty girlfriend that I REALLY hate, and when she's around all she does it poke fun at me and use my stuff. So I decided to try and catch her in the act. Also, I like to see if anyone has been having secret conversations in here.

Make sure to block the iSight's green light.

Kevin · Dec 27, 2006, 06:16 AM

AND he wants to catch his brother and gf getting it on in is bedroom.

Mastrap · Dec 27, 2006, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by macgeek2005

No i'm not paranoid, it's just my older brother got this REALLY nasty girlfriend that I REALLY hate, and when she's around all she does it poke fun at me and use my stuff. So I decided to try and catch her in the act. Also, I like to see if anyone has been having secret conversations in here.

Judging by this here and the sensitive movie thread you probably deserve to be made fun of. Look at it as an education and move on, grow some balls and grow up.

macgeek2005 · Dec 27, 2006, 06:30 PM

I have a very scary problem which I guess i'll just bring up in this thread so that the mods won't get mad at me.

I had a 8 hour long quicktime file recorded via Security Spy, and I cropped it down to just 20 minutes, (the good stuff), and then I saved it, and quit it. The file still took up 11.57GB. I got a little freaked out, and did "Save As Self Contained Movie", and I saved it on the desktop with the same name as the original. This must be where my mistake took place, because I was telling it to save itself into a new file with the same name in the same place.

All of a sudden, I get a message saying my startup disk is almost full. WTFFFFFFF???????

I open up my hard drive, and theres 21GB left.

There should have been at least 120GB.

I look around. Nothing is taking up extra space. My iTunes download STOPS ITSELF saying that there isn't enough hard drive space left to complete the download.

I spazzed out and forced my computer to shut down. I restarted it. Still 21GB free. I did "Get info" on the quicktime movie.

File Size: 107GB.

WHAT?

So I saved it as a self contained movie AGAIN and this time named the copy something else. It saved it into a 655mb quicktime file, and i trashed the 107GB beast.

What happened to me?

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 27, 2006, 06:42 PM

You edited and saved in what app?

macgeek2005 · Dec 27, 2006, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton

You edited and saved in what app?

Quicktime.

kick52 · Dec 27, 2006, 07:10 PM

hmmm..

there should be enough space free on your drive according to what computer (ram, os) you have, and so forth..

i believe you need alot for VM, so if you have 21gb free, it could be alot less. although, i am unsure if finder counts VM in disk space.

macgeek2005 · Dec 27, 2006, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by kick52

hmmm..

there should be enough space free on your drive according to what computer (ram, os) you have, and so forth..

i believe you need alot for VM, so if you have 21gb free, it could be alot less. although, i am unsure if finder counts VM in disk space.

WHAT?

How did it turn 655mb of video data into a 107GB quicktime file???

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 27, 2006, 07:27 PM

Either you inadvertently copied the movie 9 times before saving, or there was a bug in QT that saved the movie onto the end of itself in a loop 9 times before you killed it. I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again.

I'm pretty sure the Finder doesn't tell you your VM-used space is free space.

Blasphemy · Dec 27, 2006, 10:35 PM

20 minutes of worthwhile footage? Sounds good...

macgeek2005 · Dec 28, 2006, 12:43 AM

Originally Posted by Blasphemy

20 minutes of worthwhile footage? Sounds good...

no actually there was only like 10 seconds of "worthwhile" footage, and I accidentaly deleted it. The 20 minutes I still have, but it's not "worthwhile", except for me. It's valuable to me.

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 28, 2006, 01:04 AM

Originally Posted by macgeek2005

It's valuable to me.

That sounds...vile.

Dakar² · Dec 28, 2006, 08:36 AM

This is very weird.

Blasphemy · Dec 28, 2006, 01:15 PM

Only 10 seconds? Sounds like your bro has control problems. Hah! :-)

the_glassman · Dec 28, 2006, 10:33 PM

Post it up on youtube!