Setting up for the first time

Work in this order and you'll spend far less time deleting junk clips later.

• Pick your camera and microphone under Sources. The preview starts as soon as the window opens.
• Draw a region around the part of the scene you actually care about. Everything outside it is ignored completely, which is the single most effective way to prevent false alarms.
• Watch the motion meter while someone moves through the scene, and set sensitivity so real movement crosses the trigger mark and an empty room doesn't.
• Choose where clips are saved, and set a retention limit so the folder can't grow without bound.
• Press Start Monitoring, the last step in the sidebar. Until you do, OdinCam shows the picture and the meters but writes nothing — which is exactly what you want while tuning.

Leave it running against an empty room for a few hours and count the false triggers. That's the only test that really tells you whether your settings are right.