I meant getting the camera to send the file to a NAS or a FTP site. Both my cameras can do this directly as well as storing on the cameras SD card. Not all cameras offer all these options but ones that do are <$120 If your camera does not have the option then I can understand setting it up in the way you have done. Getting a camera to do it has the advantage that you can tell the camera to store x seconds before an alarm occurs so you do not miss the event.
Check this post out as ffmpeg is very flexible as you already know.
