To encode or not to encode.... i9-9900K

[ManFromKC]

New to Blue Iris.

Only one camera is hooked up right now for testing. Looking to replace my Nest system. Will be 4-6 total cameras. Going with Amcrest 1179s from Amazon, I flashed one to the dahua firmware.

I have a pretty powerful system running Blue Iris. i9-9900K, 32GB Ram, (2) 500GB NVME drives, 1050Ti Vid Card. I have it saving direct 2 disk, New folder is on an NVME, and after 20GB it sends to the Stored folder on an Unraid server that has a 1TB cache drive with 20TB of free space.

With the system, what are the options for encoding? Anyone have any settings that currently offer the closest to original while saving space? With just the one camera system usage doesnt even blip on the radar. With only 4-6 cameras plus Hardware acceleration, I shouldnt have any issues encoding.

Current camera settings. Seems like right now its going to be about 1.7-2GB per hour. Give or take a little.

 

[looney2ns]

Not to be rude, but you are close to making the same mistake as you did with the Nest.
If you haven't yet, study this: Cliff Notes
Also be sure to study the BI built in help.
And these attachments.

 

[wittaj]

Leave it at direct-to-disc or you will completely mess it up and cause more problems and will result in lesser quality and more storage used.

Here is a thread from just the week of someone messing up their system trying the re-encoding in BI.

Low Quality with H264 Re-Encode

First I'll explain my issue when I'll explain what I'm trying to accomplish overall. I love this software and I assume I'm doing something wrong. MY ISSUE My issue is that when I attempt to change the "Video file format and compression" settings I get low quality video (looks like ~480p) no...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[ManFromKC]

Not to be rude, but you are close to making the same mistake as you did with the Nest.
If you haven't yet, study this: Cliff Notes
Also be sure to study the BI built in help.
And these attachments.

I read the links. Not sure how this is related to same mistake as Nest? I've had these nest cams for YEARS. Pre-IQ cams, pre-google, 3 are indoor cameras that are outdoors in some cheap chinese outdoor bullet enclosures. I cant knock them, they served their purpose for years in sub-zero temps and 100+ degree summers without a hiccup. They are still running 24x7 and it was -5 here in KC last night. I cant remember the last time I had to reboot one.

With that said. I'm tired of the crappy night resolutions, having redownload my own video from cloud, and the Home Assistant integration sucks for Nest. The technology is dated and these Amcrest 1179s for $50 blow the Nests out of the water in every aspect. Not even a comparison.

Maybe you thought the Unraid server was cloud based? Everything is local with UPS backup. Nest is my last device system that is cloud. Ive got a fully automated house ran via Home Assistant & Node Red, Unifi network with local VPN access and multiple SSL reverse proxy sites running including Blue Iris for app access.

A lot of googling brings up posts that are 3-4+ years old. Technology changes daily and I wasn't sure if there was an update to the Blue Iris software/encoding features. When I can take a 45GB Blu-ray, knock it down to 10-15GB and come pretty freaking close to original without noticing a difference besides on TVs that are 75" and larger.

This will be nothing like the Nest. Thanks.

Thanks wittaj, your post was helpful. Ill keep everything direct to disk and just adjust via the internal camera settings if need arises.