[Config Support]: Frigate just as a recorder, no detection stream

[ferferga]

Describe the problem you are having

I want Frigate to act only as a recorder: no detection, no alerts, nothing fancy. Although I (seemingly) have all the detections disabled, Frigate still spwans ffmpeg processes that I believe are for detection, since they reduce fps and changes scale. There are also OpenVINO logs outputted.

Sample of ffmpeg argument:

/usr/lib/ffmpeg/7.0/bin/ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel warning -threads 2 -user_agent FFmpeg Frigate/0.16.1-e664cb2 -rtsp_transport tcp -timeout 10000000 -i rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_1 -f segment -segment_time 10 -segment_format mp4 -reset_timestamps 1 -strftime 1 -c copy -an /tmp/cache/cam_1@%Y%m%d%H%M%S%z.mp4 -r 5 -vf fps=5,scale=3840:2160 -threads 2 -f rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p pipe:

I would like to know if this is a bug, or there is something I need to fix in my config to reduce the resource usage.

UNRELATED: Frigate should improve the recording management, since all the "Explore" and "Review" sections are tailored to alerts, but records could also make an appearance here.

Version

0.16.1-e664cb2

Frigate config file

mqtt:
  enabled: false

birdseye:
  enabled: false

tls:
  enabled: false

review:
  alerts:
    enabled: false
  detections:
    enabled: false
detect:
  enabled: false

ffmpeg:
  input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
  output_args:
    record: preset-record-generic

go2rtc:
  streams:
    cam_1:
      - onvif://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USR}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PWD}@hostname1.intranet.lan:80#video=copy
    cam_2:
      - onvif://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USR}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PWD}@hostname2.intranet.lan:80#video=copy
    cam_3:
      - onvif://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USR}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PWD}@hostname3.intranet.lan:80#video=copy
    cam_4:
      - onvif://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USR}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PWD}@hostname4.intranet.lan:888#video=copy
    cam_5:
      - onvif://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USR}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PWD}@hostname5.intranet.lan:888#video=copy

cameras:
  cam_1:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_1
          roles:
            - record
  cam_2:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_2
          roles:
            - record
  cam_3:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_3
          roles:
            - record
  cam_4:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_4
          roles:
            - record
  cam_5:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_5
          roles:
            - record

camera_groups:
  Parroquia:
    cameras:
      - cam_1
      - cam_2
      - cam_3
    icon: LuChurch
    order: 0
  Entrada:
    cameras:
      - cam_4
      - cam_5
    icon: LuAirplay
    order: 1

record:
  enabled: true
  sync_recordings: true
  expire_interval: 86400
  retain:
    days: 7
    mode: all
version: 0.16-0

Relevant Frigate log output

2025-10-06 14:09:03.401498115  [ WARN:[email protected]] global cap.cpp:175 open VIDEOIO(CV_IMAGES): raised OpenCV exception:
2025-10-06 14:09:03.401504157
2025-10-06 14:09:03.401507705  OpenCV(4.11.0) /io/opencv/modules/videoio/src/cap_images.cpp:267: error: (-215:Assertion failed) number < max_number in function 'icvExtractPattern'
2025-10-06 14:09:03.401513978
2025-10-06 14:09:03.401515381

Relevant go2rtc log output

-

Frigate stats

No response

Operating system

Debian

Install method

Docker Compose

docker-compose file or Docker CLI command

frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable
    shm_size: 1024M
    environment:
      FRIGATE_RTSP_PWD: REDACTED
      FRIGATE_RTSP_USR: REDACTED
    volumes:
      - /var/lib/frigate:/config
      - /mnt/data/dvr:/media/frigate/recordings
    ports:
     - 8971:8971
    restart: always

Object Detector

CPU (no coral)

Screenshots of the Frigate UI's System metrics pages

No response

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

This is expected behavior. Even when object detection is disabled, Frigate still requires a detect stream for several core features. According to the documentation, "Frigate will always decode a stream to support motion detection, Birdseye, the API image endpoints, and other features, even if you have disabled object detection with enabled: False in your config's detect section" (1).

The ffmpeg process you're seeing with the -r 5 -vf fps=5,scale=3840:2160 arguments is Frigate's required detect stream processing. This happens because "If you only define one stream in your inputs and do not assign a detect role to it, Frigate will automatically assign it the detect role" (1).

To minimize resource usage while using Frigate purely for recording, you should explicitly define a low-resolution detect stream alongside your record stream:

cameras:
  cam_1:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_1
          roles:
            - record
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/cam_1_substream  # Low resolution stream
          roles:
            - detect
    detect:
      enabled: False  # Disable object detection
      width: 640      # Small resolution
      height: 480
      fps: 5

(1)

As noted in the documentation: "If you only plan to use Frigate for recording, it is still recommended to define a detect role for a low resolution stream to minimize resource usage from the required stream decoding" (1).

The OpenVINO logs you're seeing are likely from the default CPU detector initialization, even though detection is disabled. This is normal system behavior and shouldn't significantly impact performance when detection is disabled.

📚 Sources:

1. Getting Started

---

Have another question? Just tag @inkeep.

[ferferga]

@hawkeye217 Why that stream is not decoded only when requested? (i.e when the UI is open) instead of at all times?. There is still something it shouldn't be hapening: why if I set the width, height and fps to 1 (instead of the values suggested by the bot), Frigate crashes because an OpenCV assertion failed?

Frigate is intentionally designed around object detection and object tracking. If you're not wanting to track objects, that's fine - recordings are always viewable for your cameras through the History view. Click on a camera from the main dashboard and press the History button in the top left.

I know and that's great, but in my opinion that doesn't mean that other use cases that are also covered by Frigate may not be supported/support for it should always be inferior. Home Assistant (which this project inspires) makes it easy to customize almost everything, including use cases not intended for the beginning, and does it in a best effort basis as well, but with a flexible enough approach that doesn't force any "convention" in how it must be used.

Not saying recording should be top priority as of now or anything, but that it could get some work at some point.

TLDR: I see there are many assumptions that Frigate will always run with detection enabled and even the UI and features are designed with only that in mind, instead of having a more "flexible" approach like HASS that caters better all use cases.

PD2: Another example is how the live view works: it assumes that the user only want a Live View in the main page if there is movement detected in a stream, but there is no option to force it so it's always on regardless.

If you want to discuss this better on another thread, please let me know so we don't go full off-topic here.

[NickM-27]

Why that stream is not decoded only when requested?

Because it would be a large amount of work to make Frigate work this way, and the vast majority of features will always require it. For example, even just having motion based recording means decoding needs to happen at all times.

If you truly want a barebones NVR experience then choosing the AI NVR is probably not the right choice, and there is likely a software more designed for your use case.

PD2: Another example is how the live view works: it assumes that the user only want a Live View in the main page if there is movement detected in a stream, but there is no option to force it so it's always on regardless.

There is an option to enable continuous streaming if you desire

[ferferga]

@NickM-27 How? I see this discussion #12697 and this PR #12684, but it was closed without merging.
The docs even mention (https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/live/) that the default dashboard will always use smart streaming regardless.

[NickM-27]

Right, the default dashboard. You can create a camera group and that gives you the options to configure continuous streaming

[hawkeye217]

@NickM-27 How? I see this discussion #12697 and this PR #12684, but it was closed without merging. The docs even mention (https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/live/) that the default dashboard will always use smart streaming regardless.

Yes, this is by design as well, because since the UI redesign in 0.14, Frigate used "smart streaming" for the default dashboard. Continuous streaming was introduced in a later version for camera groups.

All of this is covered in the documentation.