Table of Contents
Monitor vs Record Mode
When adding cameras to TetherX, you can choose between Monitor and Record mode. This choice affects what features are available and how many cameras your TetherBox can handle.
Monitor Mode
Monitor mode tracks camera health without recording footage.
Key benefit: You can monitor 10x as many cameras as your TetherBox's recording limit.
Tip: A TetherBox Pico with a 10-channel recording limit can monitor up to 100 cameras in Monitor mode.
What Monitor mode does:
- Pings the device to check connectivity
- Uses the camera's API to check health status (where supported)
- Requests a stream every minute to verify the camera is working
- Reports issues in the Integrator Report
- Sends health notifications to integrators/admins
- Provides snapshot-based live view (typically 1fps or less) if the camera supports snapshots - not all cameras do
Record Mode
Record mode includes everything from Monitor mode, plus full recording and event features.
What Record mode adds:
- Records footage locally and/or to the cloud
- Creates timelapse and "best image" snapshots for events
- Performs motion analysis to generate events
- Monitors camera analytics events (line crossing, intrusion, etc.)
- Creates URLs for control room monitoring software
Which Should I Use?
| Use Case | Recommended Mode |
|---|---|
| Full surveillance with playback | Record |
| Health monitoring only | Monitor |
| Exceeding TetherBox channel limit | Monitor for overflow cameras |
| Cameras on slow/unreliable connections | Monitor (record critical cameras only) |
| Temporary monitoring during installation | Monitor |
Changing the Mode
- Go to Admin → Cameras
- Select your camera
- In the Details tab, find the Mode dropdown
- Select Monitor or Record
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Last updated: January 30, 2026