Record duration is ignored when using direct streams

[wcgenzer]

Description

Maybe this is expected behavior with using direct streams...? Set record duration for any length of time, and it seems to be completely ignored. Actual video length can be anywhere from 30 to 80 seconds when duration is set to only 5 seconds. Automation "waits" for the set duration, and continues after that time has elapsed, but the recording is still taking place, for up to another minute or so.

Reproduction Steps

Create a simple automation to record a video from a direct stream. Set the desired duration to anything, it is completely ignored, and the actual length ends up being some random length of time.

Expected behavior

I expect the duration to be relatively close, maybe within a few seconds, of the desired duration.

If applicable, add error logs.

No response

Device Firmware

1.3.3 Build 250228 Rel.56467n

Integration Version

7.0.0

Using stream component

No

Does camera work via official integrations?

Yes

Camera has all attributes filled out in developer tools

Yes

HASS Environment

Home Assistant OS 2025.9.4

Search for similar issues

Yes

Additional information

No response

[wcgenzer]

Further tinkering/investigating... it looks like it has to do with the elapsed time between calls to record.
If I make a call to record a 10 second video, the next time I make a call to make a 10 second video, the video length will start from the end of the previous one plus the 10 seconds requested for the new one.
So I make a call to record a 10 second video at 5:00:00. Then, at 5:00:20, I make another call to take a 10 second video, the video length will start at 5:00:10, and run to 5:00:30. It's actually buffering the content that long, (no, I'm not using loopback, I tried setting that to 1 second, 0 seconds, and omitting it all together, has no impact at all) I can see it on the timestamp from the camera. It never seems to actually "stop" recording. So now, I'm concerned, if there is a LONG delay, say hours, or days between recordings, how long will the video be?? So far, I'm taking videos minutes, or several minutes apart. I can work around this by making two calls, one to record a short 1 second video, then a 2nd call right after to record the actual length of the video I want. It always ends up being within a second of what duration I want, as expected. (usually)

[JurajNyiri]

Can you try enabling / disabling option use stream from home assistant and see if the behaviour changes?

[wcgenzer]

I had it disabled. I enabled it, restarted, and now it seems to be behaving as expected. Still using the direct stream. I thought it needed to be disabled to use direct. If I use any other streams, the recordings end up choppy/garbled. Direct produces a MUCH nicer video.

[JurajNyiri]

Thanks for checking that. The recording is something that is controlled by HA, not directly by this integration. But will keep this open in case we find something that can be fixed on integration side. The whole direct stream and how it works is pretty non standard due to proprietery protocol used for stream.