Delay in Viewing Smart Life Motion Events — Event Recording - Non-Stop Recording Explained

1. How Smart Life motion events are created

When the camera detects motion, it doesn’t instantly have a finished video clip ready to play. This is why you may see a live view, a previous clip or 'End of Video" message.
The process is roughly:

1. Trigger phase: motion is detected, and a still image (snapshot) is captured immediately — this is what appears in the push notification.

2. Buffering/recording phase: the camera continues recording for a few seconds (usually 10 seconds).

3. Encoding/upload phase: after recording stops, the camera compresses (encodes) that clip and uploads it to either the cloud or the local SD card, depending on how you’ve set it up.

2. Why you see only a snapshot at first

When you tap the notification right away, the app is only able to show you the thumbnail that was already cached on your phone. The video file itself isn’t fully encoded or uploaded yet, so the app can’t stream it. That’s why it displays “end of video” or a blank playback screen — there’s no playable file yet.

3. What happens after 30–60 seconds

After a short delay (usually half a minute or so):

• The camera finishes compressing and saving the clip.

• The Smart Life cloud registers the finished file.

• When you tap View again, the app can now access the complete event file and stream it properly.

• The timeline function lets you move a few seconds before or after the trigger moment because those extra frames were stored in the camera’s pre-record buffer.

4. Why this delay varies

The waiting time depends on:

• Camera hardware: small Wi-Fi cameras have limited CPU and memory.

• Video resolution: 1080 p or higher takes longer to encode.

• Network quality: if Wi-Fi or upload bandwidth is weak, cloud transfer adds more delay.

• Length and complexity of motion: longer clips or busy scenes require more frames to process.

This is why professional systems such as a DVR/NVR avoids this delay because it’s constantly recording and has far more processing power; the small IoT camera must first finish a self-contained “event” before playback becomes possible.

Waiting a short time allows encoding and upload to finish, after which the “View” option plays normally.  If you want to capture all video other than the 'Event Recording' setting alone, you can change the setting to 'Non-Stop recording' 

Event Recording (Motion Clips Only)

With this setting, the camera records short video clips only when motion is detected.
Because these clips are short, a 32GB SD card can store many days or even weeks of motion events, depending on how much activity is in front of the camera.

Benefit:

• SD card lasts much longer because only motion events are saved.

Limitation:

• You only see the moments when motion was detected.

• If something happened just before or after the motion trigger, it may not be recorded.

Non-Stop Recording (Continuous Recording)

If you want full video coverage — not just motion-triggered clips — you can switch the camera to Non-Stop Recording. This makes the camera record 24/7, capturing every moment before, during, and after motion.

Benefit:

• You get complete video history with no gaps.

• Much better for seeing how something started and ended.

Limitation:

• Continuous recording uses SD card space much faster.

How Long Will the SD Card Last?

Each camera includes a 32GB SD card, which stores about:

• ~3 days of continuous (non-stop) recording

If you need more history, the camera supports up to a 128GB SD card, which stores about:

• ~12 days of continuous (non-stop) recording

When the card becomes full, the camera will automatically overwrite the oldest footage, so it always keeps recording without you needing to do anything.

Summary