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Video timeline thumbnails
Video thumbnails on the timeline provide a visual preview of recorded footage at different points in time, helping operators locate specific moments without playing back entire recordings.

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    - Concepts
      - Read-only camera capabilities and limitations
        In Security Center SaaS, a read-only camera is a device already managed by another video management system (VMS) and added to a Cloudlink appliance. You can record and monitor video streams from the read-only camera, but you cannot change the camera configuration settings.
      - How camera dewarping works
        Camera dewarping is the transformation used to straighten a digital image taken with a fisheye lens. You can dewarp live and playback video from direct-to-cloud and managed Archiver cameras.
      - Recording profiles
        A recording profile is a configuration for multiple cameras with predefined camera settings, such as retention period, storage location, resolution, frame rate, and bit rate. Recording profiles help you quickly apply a standardized configuration across multiple cameras.
      - Custom camera settings
        Custom camera settings allow you to configure camera options that are not available through recording profiles. After custom camera settings are applied, the camera is no longer associated with a recording profile.
      - Edge recording
        Edge recording is the process of recording and storing video directly on a camera's SD card, allowing cameras to retain recordings independently, rather than in the cloud or in a centralized recording server.
      - Video timeline thumbnails
        Video thumbnails on the timeline provide a visual preview of recorded footage at different points in time, helping operators locate specific moments without playing back entire recordings.
      - Camera analytics events in Security Center SaaS
        Camera analytics events are notifications generated when a camera analytics engine detects activity that matches a configured rule or condition. Security Center SaaS receives these events from supported cameras and makes them available for monitoring, reporting, and automation workflows.
      - Understanding camera metadata in Security Center SaaS
        Camera metadata is descriptive information generated by supported camera analytics. Security Center SaaS uses camera metadata to support intelligent search, investigations, and event monitoring.
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Glossary

Video timeline thumbnails

2026-08-25

Video thumbnails on the timeline provide a visual preview of recorded footage at different points in time, helping operators locate specific moments without playing back entire recordings.

From the Investigation task, or while using intelligent search functions to review video, you can benefit from video thumbnails while hovering on a timeline or scrubbing through video.

View thumbnails while hovering

Hovering the mouse pointer over the timeline displays a thumbnail preview above it. The available thumbnails depend on the visible time range. A shorter time range shows thumbnails at shorter intervals than a longer time range. Operators can adjust this time range while hovering over the timeline by pressing Shift and scrolling the mouse wheel. The timeline displays a range from 30 seconds to 24 hours.

Investigation task showing a preview thumbnail when hovering over a video timeline.

Review video by scrubbing

Dragging along the timeline displays a full-frame thumbnail preview over the current video. A white cursor indicates the position on the timeline. Releasing the mouse moves playback to that point.

Investigation task showing the experience when using video scrubbing to quickly navigate and find a person or object of interest on the video timeline.

Bandwidth and performance considerations

Activating video thumbnails on the timeline consumes approximately 60 Kbps per camera because the system sends a continuous low-resolution stream to the cloud. The amount varies by camera manufacturer.

Where to turn on video timeline thumbnails

You can enable video timeline thumbnails from a recording profile's Properties page, using the Activate video thumbnails on timeline setting.

You can also enable this feature on individual cameras if their recording profile is set to Custom settings.

Note:

The Activate video thumbnails on timeline setting is unavailable on cameras that don’t support video thumbnails.