1. A method for multi-mode video event indexing, the method comprising: applying background subtraction via a programmable hardware device to a video stream input to detect foreground object activity as a difference between current frame image information and static information of a contextual background of video input images from the video stream input; determining a level of the detected foreground object activity with respect to the video input images from the video stream input; selecting from a plurality of video analytics modes and applying an object tracking-based analytic mode via a hardware device to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images to track a foreground object, in response to the determined level of detected quality of the detected foreground object activity meeting a threshold level of quality; selecting from the plurality of video analytics modes and applying a non-object tracking-based analytic mode to the detected foreground object activity of the video input images via a hardware device to determine object movement from extracted foreground object appearance attributes without tracking the foreground object, in response to the determined level of detected quality of the detected foreground object activity not meeting the threshold level of quality; and writing results of the tracking the foreground object and the object movement determination from the extracted foreground object appearance attributes to an index.