View live video or play back recorded video

Last modified: Thursday November 03, 2022.

The live view and playback features in Video view are combined into a single pane.

When playing back a camera view, use the Playback timeline to efficiently move to the times of interest for just one camera, or enable synchronized timelines on multiple cameras. You can adjust the playback speeds to quickly find and confirm the information you are looking for.

You can play back the video from any camera that was active during the time period you are interested in — not just from cameras set up in your current View.

By default, Video view shows the current live feed from the cameras.

If you have cameras that belong to different Sites with multiple timezones configured in a single Video view, the times shown on the timeline might not all be the same, as they could reflect the timezones for each site.

See Edit your local Alta Video Settings for information about selecting the timezone options.

Task — View live video

  1. Choose Tools Tools > Video view Video view.
  2. Select your preferred video Layouts or Views.
  3. From the live timeline, see any recent activity from that camera.
    Live timeline

    Areas of gray hatching show times where no video has been recorded. Areas of red hatching shows any time where video has been recorded, but you are unable to view it.

Task — Play back recorded video from a single camera

  1. To play back the recorded video from an individual camera, hover over the camera view and click the Enable individual timeline Open.
    Individual timeline controls
  2. Hover over the playback timeline to see the playback controls for that camera.
    Playback timeline
  3. From the Playback timeline:
    • Drag the timeline to the time of interest, or double-click to jump to a point on the timeline.
    • Adjust the speed of playback, or play in reverse, by clicking Playback speed Playback speed and select the required speed and direction.
    • Use the Playback time scale slider Zoom timeline slider or hover over the timeline and use the mouse scroll wheel to adjust the scale of the timeline.
    • Hover over the timeline to display a thumbnail image of the video at that point in time.
    • Pause the playback, and then use the frame-by-frame Frame-by-frame backwards and Frame-by-frame forwards to increment backwards or forward along the timeline.
    • Use the Previous/Next alarm previous alarm/next alarm buttons to move between alarms.

Task — Play back recorded video from multiple displayed cameras

You can view the Playback mode for up to four cameras simultaneously.

  1. To play back the recorded video from more than one currently displayed camera in Video view, click Open all timelines Open for each pane to view the playback.
    All camera views in Playback mode will have their timelines synchronized.
  2. From the timeline for any camera in Playback, you can:
    • Drag the timeline to the time of interest, or double-click to jump to a point on the timeline.
    • Adjust the speed of playback, or play in reverse, using the Playback button Playback speed button to move between 8x backward and 8x forward speeds.
    • Use the mouse scroll wheel to adjust the scale of the timeline.
    • Click Open calendar Open calendar to select and jump to the video for a previous date.
  3. To return each camera to live view, click that cameras' Exit playback mode button Exit playback mode.