Crop – Exacq

Support for cropping exported video was added in ExacqVision Desktop Client 7.8. The following steps require Client 7.8 or higher.

Steps:

Perform a search for the camera(s) and time range you wish to export.
Place the yellow timeline cursor at the beginning and end points of your desired exported time range. Use the Mark Start/Stop buttons on the timeline toolbar, or right-click on the timeline and select Mark Start/Stop.

Select the Crop button from the timeline toolbar, or right-click the timeline and select Enable Crop.

The image above the timeline will display a blue overlay. Click-and-drag to highlight only the region you wish to crop the export to. Only the blue-tinted region will be exported.
When you are satisfied with the region you’ve selected, click the Download and Export Video button from the timeline toolbar, or right-click the timeline and select Download and Export Video.
The dialog window that appears will allow you to enter a filename of your choice and select the exported file type.

<br>

Overview

This is a legacy document for those with ExacqVision Desktop Client 7.6 and earlier. It has been superseded by Article 14544.

If video is exported that contains some relevant content but also contains content that should not be distributed due to privacy concerns, it is possible to crop the exported video to specific dimensions that will exclude non-relevant parts of the scene.
This process is performed outside of exacqVision using free and commonly available applications. These instructions are written for Windows computers, however similar tools may exist for other operating systems.

<br>

Steps to crop video:

1. On the exacqVision Search Page find the video to export.
2. Right-click on the video panel and select Copy to Clipboard.
3. Open Microsoft Paint and paste in the screenshot (CTRL-V).
4. Ensure the “Rectangular Select” tool is highlighted.
5. Position the cursor at the upper-left corner of the area to keep. In the bottom left of MS Paint, write down the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the mouse.
6. Left-click-hold and drag the mouse to create a rectangular selection around the video to keep. In the bottom left, just to the right of the mouse location coordinates, write down the horizontal and vertical pixel size of the selection.
7. Close MS Paint.
8. Export the video in exacqVision as an .AVI video file.
9. Download and unzip the static build of the FFMPEG video converter program, available at http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/, into a directory of your choice.
10. Move the video export to the \ffmpeg\bin\ directory where ffmepg was unzipped.
11. Open a Windows Command Prompt and navigate to the \FFMPEG\bin\ directory.
12. Execute the following command: ffmpeg -i -filter:v “crop=[width]:[height]:[horizontal start]:[vertical start]” [output.avi]

Use your actual values for these variables:
[export.avi] = the name of the video file exported from exacqVision. Note: If your file name has spaces in it, enclose the filename in quotation marks.
[width] = the horizontal pixel width written down in step 6.
[height] = the vertical pixel width written down in step 6.
[horizontal start] = the horizontal start position written down in step 5.
[vertical start] = the vertical start position written down in step 5.
[output.avi] = The name of the new cropped video file that will be created. Note: If your desired file name has spaces in it, enclose the filename in quotation marks.

For example, if the video to keep started in the upper left corner and was a size of 400×300, the command would be formatted as follows:

ffmpeg -i classroom4C_20150730_081900.avi -filter:v “crop=400:300:0:0” cropped_classroom_4C_20150730_081900.avi

<br>