Multi-mode video event indexing includes determining a quality of object distinctiveness with respect to images from a video stream input. A high-quality analytic mode is selected from multiple modes and applied to video input images via a hardware device to determine object activity within the video input images if the determined level of detected quality of object distinctiveness meets a threshold level of quality, else a low-quality analytic mode is selected and applied to the video input images via a hardware device to determine object activity within the video input images, wherein the low-quality analytic mode is different from the high-quality analytic mode.