A method at a server system includes: receiving a video stream from a remote video camera, wherein the video stream comprises a plurality of video frames; selecting a plurality of non-contiguous frames from the video stream, the plurality of non-contiguous frames being associated with a predetermined time interval; encoding the plurality of non-contiguous frames as a compressed video segment associated with the time interval; receiving a request from an application running on a client device to review video from the remote video camera for the time interval; and in response to the request, transmitting the video segment to the client device for viewing in the application.