BI becomes unstable with new cameras

[Doxxie881]

Hi

I am probably being stupid. I have added 2 new cameras on my neighbour’s system (he is even more IT bone than me!) and I can see the cameras on ONVIF Device Manger and copy the settings across to configure. Individually it works, but when I add the next camera 1 or more of the others drop out with ‘No Signal’. Check the status it sometimes shows as ‘Check IP address and port’ of it has a very slow FPS in red. I have reduced the frame rate on all cameras to 7.5 FPS which seems to help the system stability but when I go back into each camera it has flipped back up to 15 or 20 FPS.

At best I can get the 5 cameras working for a short time but when the FPS drops in Blue Iris Status it drops out. Very grateful for any clues what is happening and why the FPS changes so much both in the status and in the settings.

It was all stable with 3 cameras at 15FPS setting

 

[awsum140]

FPS is set in each camera itself, individually, as is encoding and bit rate. I'd say check them all and set them to 10FPS, h264 (for simplicity right now) and a 4096 maximum bit rate, by logging into each camera through its own web interface then set them up in BI. BI will take whatever the camera sends in terms of video parameters. While you're in there, configuring each camera, maybe consider setting them with fixed IP addresses to keep things a little more stable and "tidy".

 

[Doxxie881]

FPS is set in each camera itself, individually, as is encoding and bit rate. I'd say check them all and set them to 10FPS, h264 (for simplicity right now) and a 4096 maximum bit rate, by logging into each camera through its own web interface then set them up in BI. BI will take whatever the camera sends in terms of video parameters. While you're in there, configuring each camera, maybe consider setting them with fixed IP addresses to keep things a little more stable and "tidy".

Great Many thanks for the quick reply. How do I sort the h264 and bit rate please? Or is that up to each cameras settings via web interface?

 

[awsum140]

I just happened to come in from walking the dog and checked here at the right time.

That should all be in each cameras web interface/configuration page. Keep in mind a lot of "inexpensive" cameras may or may not allow configuration of things like encoding and bitrate, or even setting a fixed IP address.

 

[Doxxie881]

Great. I will pop next door and have a go. Thanks again

 

[Doxxie881]

OL. Managed to get the cameras down to 10FPS and 4096 but 2 keep dropping in and out. As you can see the bitrate drops right off and the BI reports no signal. It seems to affect any 2 of 3 cameras but the other 2 are stable

 

[TonyR]

I just happened to come in from walking the dog.......

C'mon, man.....don't you have that backwards? Now WHO really is walking WHO?

 

[awsum140]

@TonyR Yeah, you're sort of right. He's 145 pounds and not even two yet.

First, what brand cameras are we talking about here? Also shots of the camera config inside BI would help a little as well. I'm anything but an expert but will try to figure this out.

 

[Doxxie881]

Hi

3 are Reolink RLC 410 and 411; one Hikvision and one SV3C. Config screenshots to follow

 

[awsum140]

Looking at these configs and reading your first post showed a possible problem. You copy from ONVIF Device Manager and use those settings. Instead, use the ONVIF discovery that's built into BI. Goto each camera config page and click on "find/inspect". BI will get the config information it needs and use that, automagically. That should, and I stress should, help a bit. No need to use any ONVIF discovery tools, BI does it better for itself.

 

[Doxxie881]

Looking at these configs and reading your first post showed a possible problem. You copy from ONVIF Device Manager and use those settings. Instead, use the ONVIF discovery that's built into BI. Goto each camera config page and click on "find/inspect". BI will get the config information it needs and use that, automagically. That should, and I stress should, help a bit. No need to use any ONVIF discovery tools, BI does it better for itself.

Hi. Yes I tried that as my preferred way of doing it though it does not always find the camera. If I put in the IP address it makes progress, but leaving IP blank before "Find/Inspect" can often show no results

 

[awsum140]

If you know the address it should be entered. That's why fixed IP addresses are a good thing. I'm surprised, usually BI discovery works fine the first try. Are you sure your network cables are in good shape, not CCA and properly terminated? These aren't, by chance, WiFi cameras are they?

Have you tried other camera types? I'd start with various models of each manufacturer.

Here's a screen cap of the config for an SV3C I have running for well over a year. One of these days I'll replace it with a real camera, bought it when I didn't know any better but in the mean time it is working.



I don't have any Hikivision or Reolink to offer though.

 

[Doxxie881]

No CCA and no wifi cameras.

 

[awsum140]

Incidentally, that config is for an SV3C 2mp varifocal. Complete POS.

OK, so they're not WiFi and we're sure of the cable and, I hope, RJ45 terminations. Next question is can you see them properly on their web interfaces? Next, what are the specs for the PC you're running BI on? Are you confident of the network switch?

 

[Doxxie881]

Incidentally, that config is for an SV3C 2mp varifocal. Complete POS.

OK, so they're not WiFi and we're sure of the cable and, I hope, RJ45 terminations. Next question is can you see them properly on their web interfaces? Next, what are the specs for the PC you're running BI on? Are you confident of the network switch?

Yes. Web interfaces are fine. Tested RJ45s. Switch in Netgear and no reason to suspect it given web interfaces OK (if that is a fair assumption). PC is Dell Intel i5 quad 3.1GHz 4Gb RAM doing nothing but running cameras. CPU load under 50%

 

[Doxxie881]

Meant to say running Win 7 Pro

 

[awsum140]

What i5 is it, that can make a significant difference. 50% CPU seems kind of high for five cameras. Have you read the Cliff Notes in the Wiki at the top of the page? I'm running 9 cameras, all 2mp, 10FPS, 4096 max bit rate, direct to disk recording 24/7 on an i7/6700K and BI tops out at 20% with the console open.

It's either config issues, most likely, or the CPU can't keep up for some reason.

I just looked at your config, for what I assume, is the SV3C and notice two differences. The discovery ports are different and, on yours, the box is checked for "skip initial HTTP for DNS and reachability tests".

 

[Doxxie881]

Sorry. Unsure what you mean by what I5. I will change the check box though. Thanks

 

[fenderman]

some of those config pages have no passwords entered.

 

[awsum140]

There are multiple versions of i5 and i7 processors. Some will work fine with BI, some won't.