Continuous recording captures video around the clock, regardless of whether anything is happening in front of the camera. It is the simplest and most reliable recording mode — there are no blind spots, because the camera never stops — which is why it is the default for high-value and high-risk views where missing even a quiet moment is unacceptable, and why it is often required by regulation in sectors like gaming and banking.
Its reliability is the whole point. Motion and event modes can miss an incident if a trigger fails or fires late; continuous recording cannot, because it records everything. For an investigator, a continuous timeline is the most trustworthy: there is no question of "why is there a gap here?". The cost of that certainty is storage — a continuously recorded camera produces the maximum possible footage, roughly its bitrate times time with no savings from inactivity (about 10.8 GB per day per Mbps of stream).
The pitfall is using it everywhere by default. Recording a whole site continuously when many cameras watch low-activity areas can multiply the storage bill several times over versus a mixed strategy, with little investigative gain on the quiet views. The sound design reserves continuous recording for the cameras that genuinely need a gap-free record and uses motion or event recording — or a lower frame rate — on the rest, often combining modes per camera to balance certainty against cost.
The handbook · 7 volumes
Fora Soft Video Engineering Handbook
Continuous recording removes blind spots but multiplies the storage bill compared with motion or event modes. Our seven-volume handbook covers the whole video stack, and for continuous recording start with Volume 1: codecs, bitrate, encoder settings and compression quality that set how much 24/7 footage costs. Volume 6 covers the detection that powers event recording. Written by Nikolay Sapunov, CEO at Fora Soft.
Deciding which cameras need continuous recording and which can record on events?
Send us your camera list and retention rules, and we will propose a recording mode per camera with the storage each option needs. 250+ video products shipped since 2005.
