Am I Missing Out Not Using DeepStack?

[danimal86]

I'm on 5.3.6.2, and my support had expired late last year. I'm pretty happy with the software, so i'm thinking i'll pony up the 35 just for the cause. Will my 1 year start from today or will it start from the day it expired?

Also, thanks to the helpful people on here, i've got substream setup and my cpu (i7 4790/16g ram) sips only about 5% when nothing much is going on. I remember watching a few videos about it when it first came out, but it does image recognition to help fine tune alerts? Is that pretty much it?
How much cpu usage does deepstack use? I'm running 5 8mp stationary cameras and 1 ptz with tracking. is this going to be hitting my cpu hard?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[wittaj]

I believe it starts when you pay up again.

In addition to DeepStack, the recent updates have included the ability to record substream until a trigger and then switch to mainstream. It can be a huge storage saver and allow one to record 24/7.

Deepstack is a great tool and can help eliminate false triggers, but if you are using the camera AI to trigger or have fine tuned your BI motion that you do not get any or many false triggers, then it is a resource on the computer that isn't needed.

If you use Deepstack on every camera and have the camera motion set really sensitive so that it is always sending stuff to Deepstack, then yes it will hit the CPU hard.

So many of us have toyed with DeepStack to play with it and see what it is about, but then we start dialing it back. Do I really need to have DeepStack tell me it is a car going down the road for example? But for my few non-AI cameras that don't get a lot of motion but would trigger for clouds, yes this works very well to only notify me when a person is present.

 

[danimal86]

I believe it starts when you pay up again.

In addition to DeepStack, the recent updates have included the ability to record substream until a trigger and then switch to mainstream. It can be a huge storage saver and allow one to record 24/7.

Deepstack is a great tool and can help eliminate false triggers, but if you are using the camera AI to trigger or have fine tuned your BI motion that you do not get any or many false triggers, then it is a resource on the computer that isn't needed.

If you use Deepstack on every camera and have the camera motion set really sensitive so that it is always sending stuff to Deepstack, then yes it will hit the CPU hard.

So many of us have toyed with DeepStack to play with it and see what it is about, but then we start dialing it back. Do I really need to have DeepStack tell me it is a car going down the road for example? But for my few non-AI cameras that don't get a lot of motion but would trigger for clouds, yes this works very well to only notify me when a person is present.

Ooo....i like the idea of the main/sub recording, since i do record 24/7.

My problem is that all but one of my cameras (as of now) faces the street, so if i car drives by, it gets a ton of alerts. I dont have any notifications setup up for alerts, but i've been messing with the software after its been just chugging along without any input from me for a while. I've got some time to get it setup really nice, so it would be cool to be able to tone down all the car alerts and start to have some notifications. I'm guessing could use the "Use zones and hot spots" setting and unselect the middle of the road and away?

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, the ability save a ton of storage space is awesome now.

Yes, you could go in and create a zone that is everything but the road, then it will not record for anything on the road. Hotspot will trigger for anything, so use that one sparingly or not at all.

Or you could clone the camera which doesn't use appreciable overhead or CPU and you have this main camera record and go to mainstream for every car (if that is important to you), and then set up the clone camera and define a tight area in front of the house that you only want to be notified for motion in that area.

 

[danimal86]

Ok, i wont use hotspot.

I guess i dont mind cars getting triggered on the cameras that cover the driveway/front of house, but there are some cameras that cover the front door and can see the street in the background, i would like to minimize the car false alarms for those two cameras so i only get clips when its an actual person not just the zillion cars that walk by. Maybe this is where deepstack would come into play?

 

[wittaj]

Yes, DeepStack can do that, as can simply using a zone and only having the area highlighted that you are interested in trigger. By default, BI does the whole field of view, so the zones can narrow it down. I would start there first and then add Deepstack if you are getting to many false triggers.

 

[danimal86]

Ok, i'll try messing with the zones today.

Does the switchover from sub/main stream work really well? I'm worried about having a bad quality video if i need it if it didn't switch over.

 

[wittaj]

Yes, it works really well. Most of us have added a decent pre-buffer so that it kicks into mainstream prior to the motion.

You could always up the substream quality as well, but too much and the savings go down.

I have been using it since it was introduced several months ago and it hasn't missed anything.

 

[looney2ns]

OOoohhhh I didn't know that, are there quick instructions on how to set that up? I quickly looked in the "Record" tab and see the checkbox for "Record dual-streams if available" but don't think that is it? I haven't changed camera settings in awhile so out of touch a bit. Thanks.

edit - is it the "Continuous + Triggered" option in the drop-down only that activates this?

Read the builtin BI help file, it's all in their.

Also this:

https://www.youtube.com/c/BlueIrisSupport/videos

 

[looney2ns]

OOoohhhh I didn't know that, are there quick instructions on how to set that up? I quickly looked in the "Record" tab and see the checkbox for "Record dual-streams if available" but don't think that is it? I haven't changed camera settings in awhile so out of touch a bit. Thanks.

edit - is it the "Continuous + Triggered" option in the drop-down only that activates this?

See the wiki at the top of the page.
And

https://www.youtube.com/c/BlueIrisSupport/videos

 

[bradner]

Thanks!

 

[The Automation Guy]

I'm on 5.3.6.2, and my support had expired late last year. I'm pretty happy with the software, so i'm thinking i'll pony up the 35 just for the cause. Will my 1 year start from today or will it start from the day it expired?

Your new 12mo support time starts from the day you pay (if you were already expired from the last support period). It definitely does NOT start from the previous expiration date (unless you are still in your current support time frrame in which case it simply adds 12mo to the existing expiration date). That's a wonderful feature of BI IMHO. I went over a year without paying for support, but recently paid for another 12mo time period recently with the addition of sub stream support, etc. It's money well spent.

Personally I don't use Deepstack, but I do use the AI built into my Dahua 5442 series cameras. The AI functionality is legit (whether it's built into the camera or via an external source like Deepstack) and has greatly reduced the false triggers in my system. It's probably worth the effort to get it set up if you don't have AI enabled cameras.

Since I don't have Deepstack set up, I can't speak to the amount of CPU power it uses. However, you are not required to run Deepstack on the same computer as your BI system. It's probably easiest to have it on the same computer if you have the extra horsepower, but it can always run on another machine and BI will simply get the triggers from that other machine when an event is detected.

 

[wittaj]

OOoohhhh I didn't know that, are there quick instructions on how to set that up? I quickly looked in the "Record" tab and see the checkbox for "Record dual-streams if available" but don't think that is it? I haven't changed camera settings in awhile so out of touch a bit. Thanks.

edit - is it the "Continuous + Triggered" option in the drop-down only that activates this?

Yep Continuous +Triggered is it. Or you can do Continuous + alerts if you only want it for confirmed deepstack alerts. Personally I use the triggered as I would rather have the mainstream event just in case deepstack didn't pick it up.

 

[danimal86]

I just paid for another 12mo.
Is 5.4.9.16 good to go, or should i do the "highly-stable" 5.4.7.11?

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'm running 5.4.9.16 and no problems here that I have seen. Memory utilization starts low, ramps up to almost double, then settles back down almost to startup levels after 12-16 hours.

Depending on your CPU DeepStack may or may not perform well. If you have an NVidia, CUDA capable, card hanging around or already in the machine the GPU version works quite well compared to the CPU version in my experience.

 

[danimal86]

I'm running 5.4.9.16 and no problems here that I have seen. Memory utilization starts low, ramps up to almost double, then settles back down almost to startup levels after 12-16 hours.

Depending on your CPU DeepStack may or may not perform well. If you have an NVidia, CUDA capable, card hanging around or already in the machine the GPU version works quite well compared to the CPU version in my experience.

Thanks! I'll go for the 9.16

I'm holding off on the bluestacks. my cpu is an i7 4790, i dont have a spare gpu laying around and i'm not sure what i can fit in my dell sff optiplex.

On a side note, how do you like the DB1C doorbell?

 

[sebastiantombs]

The DB1C is kind of mehh to me. It does give me good front door coverage, along with the other three cameras in the front. I put in a WIFi extender, about three or four feet from it separated by the wall of course, to get the drop outs down. It still drops out regularly. Configuration needs the EZVIZ suite, which kind of looks like Hikvision lite, but even with that choices are limited and you don't have full control. I'm using it with BI, not using their motion detection at all, combined with DeepStack. The app does notify fairly quickly on a doorbell press when we're home but no experience, yet, being outside our LAN.

 

[danimal86]

The DB1C is kind of mehh to me. It does give me good front door coverage, along with the other three cameras in the front. I put in a WIFi extender, about three or four feet from it separated by the wall of course, to get the drop outs down. It still drops out regularly. Configuration needs the EZVIZ suite, which kind of looks like Hikvision lite, but even with that choices are limited and you don't have full control. I'm using it with BI, not using their motion detection at all, combined with DeepStack. The app does notify fairly quickly on a doorbell press when we're home but no experience, yet, being outside our LAN.

Gotcha. A doorbell is the next thing on my list. I thought about just getting a Ring Doorbell and not paying the monthly/early, but id rather have something that will integrate with BI.

 

[danimal86]

Yep Continuous +Triggered is it. Or you can do Continuous + alerts if you only want it for confirmed deepstack alerts. Personally I use the triggered as I would rather have the mainstream event just in case deepstack didn't pick it up.

Anything else i should change? What's a good buffer duration?

 

[sebastiantombs]

@danimal86 For the cost of the decent Ring you can get the Dahua villa style doorbell. PoE and a display with it in the kit. I believe the model number is VTO2202 but check with Andy.