Recommended MotionEye Settings (version 4.3.2 at the time of writing) capturing a large area with walking people with an ESP32-CAM (OV2640)

Recommended MotionEye Settings

ESPHome camera settings:

  resolution: 640x480 #Not more needed in my usecase
  max_framerate: 10 fps
  idle_framerate: 0.1 fps
  jpeg_quality: 10
  agc_gain_ceiling: 128x
  aec_mode: auto
  aec2: true
  
ESPHome create a webserver for streaming:

esp32_camera_web_server:
  - port: 8080
    mode: stream
  - port: 8081
    mode: snapshot
    
Connect the MotionEye to the ESPCam via IP plus port 8080 "Network Camera"

Motion Detection Settings:

Go under "Video Device" and set the "Extra Motion Options" to "despeckle edeEedDed". Do not touch the "despecle filter" button in the motion detection afterwards.

Go under "Motion Detection" and set:
- Auto Tuning Treshold: off
- Threshold to 0.1%
- Maximum Change Threshold: 1000 px
- Auto Noise Detection: off
- Noise Level: 0%
- Light Switch Detection: 0%
- Motion Gap: 5 sec
- Captured Before: 10 frames
- Captured After: 10 frames
- Minimum Motion Frames: 1 frame
- Mask: on
- Mask type: editable

Then edit the mask and select all areas where no "important" motion is expected. Save the mask and save the settings.

Go to "Movies" and set:

Movie Passthrough: yes (no reencoding, just save the stream from the camera on disk)
Recording Mode: "Motion Triggered"
Maximum Movie Length: 0 seconds (disable limit)