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Features

phit edited this page Jun 30, 2026 · 2 revisions

Features

Live Streaming

Click a camera in the preview strip or press the button in the status bar to start streaming. The main view shows the live video feed with a ● Live badge.

  • Audio — Click the speaker icon to unmute. Use the volume slider to adjust. The app remembers your volume level when toggling mute, and restores it on restart.
  • Play / pause — Use the play/pause button in the status bar to start or stop the stream. Clicking the ● Live badge also restarts the live stream.
  • Fullscreen — Click the fullscreen button on the video to enter fullscreen mode.
  • Multiple cameras — All cameras can stream simultaneously, and the main area can show several of them side by side. See Multi-Camera View Area.

When a stream is stopped or the camera goes offline, the last captured snapshot is shown as a fallback.

Multi-Camera View Area

The main viewing area is a free-form canvas: you can place several camera streams in it at once and move and resize each one independently.

Adding cameras to the layout

  • Drag a card from the preview strip and drop it onto the main area, or
  • Right-click a preview card and choose Show in Main Area.

An empty main area prompts you to "Drag a camera here." Each camera you add appears as a tile.

Arranging tiles

  • Move — drag a tile by its title bar.
  • Resize — drag any of the four corner handles.
  • Focus — click a tile to bring it to the front and focus it. The focused tile is highlighted, and timeline/playback controls act on it.
  • Click an empty part of the main area to clear the focus.

Tile context menu

Right-click a tile for:

Item What it does
Lock Position / Unlock Position Freeze a tile so it can't be moved or resized (hides its title bar and resize handles)
Remove from Layout Take this tile out of the main area
Lock All / Unlock All Lock or unlock every tile at once
Clear Cameras Remove all tiles from the layout (asks for confirmation)

Right-clicking an empty part of the main area gives a shorter menu with Lock All, Unlock All, and Clear Cameras.

Your layout — which cameras are shown, their positions, sizes, and lock state — is saved and restored on restart.

Note: Recording playback uses the full main area for the selected camera, so the tile layout is hidden while a recording plays back.

Camera Previews

The preview strip shows thumbnail snapshots of all your cameras, updating every few seconds. Click a preview to select that camera in the main view. You can also drag a preview onto the main area to add it as a tile (see Multi-Camera View Area).

Reordering and the preview context menu

Right-click a preview card for:

Item What it does
Move Up / Move Down Reorder the camera in the strip (disabled at the ends)
Show in Main Area Add the camera as a tile in the main view
Edit Open the camera settings form
Remove Delete the camera (asks for confirmation)

Preview Position

Change where the preview strip appears via View → Preview Position:

  • Left (sidebar)
  • Right (sidebar, default)
  • Top (horizontal bar)
  • Bottom (horizontal bar)

You can hide the preview strip entirely via View → Previews.

Recording Playback

The timeline shows a full day of recording availability for the selected camera.

Using the Timeline

  1. Make sure the timeline is visible (View → Timeline)
  2. Select a camera — the app loads that day's recording segments
  3. Colored blocks on the timeline indicate recorded time periods; motion/event highlights are shown along the timeline so you can find activity at a glance
  4. Click anywhere on the timeline to jump to that time, or drag the scrubber handle to seek. The scrubber needle shows the exact time you're pointing at
  5. The recording downloads and plays back in the main viewer with a Playback badge

Recordings are cached per day; refreshing the segment list has a short cooldown to avoid hammering the camera.

Date Navigation

  • ◀ / ▶ buttons navigate to previous/next day
  • Go to today jumps back to the current date
  • The date label shows (Today) when viewing the current day
  • The button is disabled when already on today

Returning to Live

Click the ● Live badge or seek near the current time to switch back to the live stream.

UI Layout Options

All layout preferences are saved and restored on restart, along with the window's size and position. Vigilatus also runs as a single instance — launching it again focuses the existing window instead of opening a second copy.

Menu Item What It Does
View → Previews Show/hide the camera preview strip
View → Timeline Show/hide the recording timeline
View → Statusbar Show/hide the top status bar with stream controls
View → Preview Position Move previews to left, right, top, or bottom
View → Video Debug Overlay Show real-time video stats (see below)

Zoom

Use the View menu or keyboard shortcuts to adjust the UI zoom level:

Action Shortcut
Reset Zoom Ctrl+0
Zoom In Ctrl++
Zoom Out Ctrl+-

Video Debug Overlay

Enable via View → Video Debug Overlay to show a real-time stats overlay in the top-right corner of the video:

  • Resolution — e.g. 2304×1296
  • Codec — e.g. h.264, h.265
  • FPS — Current frames per second
  • Bitrate — Current bitrate in kbps

This is a session-only setting and resets to off when you restart the app.

Language

Change the UI language via View → Language:

  • System default — Uses your OS language (if supported)
  • English
  • Deutsch (German)

The menu bar and all UI text update immediately.

Auto-Updates

Vigilatus checks for updates automatically on startup (NSIS installer version only — portable builds do not auto-update).

  • When an update is found, a dialog notifies you and the download starts in the background
  • Once downloaded, you can choose Restart Now to apply immediately or Later to install on next quit
  • You can also manually check via Help → Check for Updates…

Status Bar

The status bar at the top (toggle via View → Statusbar) shows controls for the selected camera:

  • ▶ / ⏹ — Start / stop stream
  • — Edit camera settings
  • — Remove camera

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