Blue Iris... a very painful setup. Any suggestions?

[glenag-crete-com-au]

I have two separate Blue Iris installations on Windows 10 Pro 64 bit pc's. Both with decent specs (around the $2000 mark to purchase), and almost no other software installed. It has been painful from day dot. Program updates seem to change the recording settings abitrarily on a regular basis. The video stream quality is far less than what you get directly from the camera. (And yes, I've checked the settings, and experimented a lot). New updates have also led to massive CPU loads - with no changes by myself. After contacting support, they suggested various fixes like reinstallation, and trying different releases (and blocking automatic updates). Even with automatic updates turned off, it still seems to update periodically, it seems like software with a mind of its own.

It's so bad, I suspect the only way to fix this is to use something like Faronics Deep Freeze, and have the machine restart every so often... but that would be a massive security issue, as Windows wouldn't be updated. The Android app mostly works okay (very slowish) on the LAN (via Wifi), however when over the internet takes forever to load video stream, if it even does. It connects fine, just takes forever to load video - even with a good internet connection. Connecting remotely via a web browser is far quicker - it appears the app is the issue. Even via the browser, some cameras freeze or take ages to load - but a direct connection to the camera shows the camera isn't the issue, nor is the Blue Iris host - CPU & ram usage are below 40%. For some strange reason, it seems everything on Windows 10 pcs goes really slow after CPU or RAM usage reaches 40%. The difference between 39 and 40% is huge - pretty much regardless of the program. Weird, I know... but I've proven it many times, over numerous machines. This is not the problem with Blue Iris though; it just seems to be a very glitchy program that should be totally amazing - if only it was stable.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? Or suggestions on what NVR program to use that is actually reliable and user friendly? I don't mind whether free or paid for, I just want something that is reliable and user-friendly, and preferably not a Chinese program (otherwise I'd be using Dahua DSS Express or Smart PSS; these are actually quite good, but have a high risk of spyware inclusions.) I also tried installing Zoneminder, followed the instructions exactly, and couldn't get it to install properly... and from forums it doesn't seem like I'm the only one who's had issues, but I also freely admit I'm no Linux expert, I'm far more at home with Windows. It does read as being out of date / old & clunky though.

 

[IAmATeaf]

What cams are you running, what fps, iframe, bitrate etc…

What’s the specs of the BI PC?

Are the cams on an isolated network or VLAN?

What’s the specs of you internet?

Do have substreams enabled on the cams?

You need to provide as much detail as possible, just saying you have a problem isn’t that much for anybody to go on and try to help.

In answer to your question, no my BI system works fine. I have most of my cams running at 15fps and 2 at 20fps, have substreams enabled on all and have BI configured to use the substreams. My cams are in an isolated network so all cam data is kept away from my home network. My desktop PC is an i5-6500 with 16Gb of RAM, a 256 SSD on which Windows, BI and the BI database reside and I have 2 regular spinning disks into which the recordings get saved. I also have BI updates disabled so that I can choose when I update the system as some updates can break the system so would rather update when I have time to fully test.

 

[saltwater]

It's so bad, I suspect the only way to fix this is to use something like Faronics Deep Freeze, and have the machine restart every so often... but that would be a massive security issue, as Windows wouldn't be updated.

Why do you want to update Windows? I haven't updated Windows 10 since 2020, it's primary purpose is to run Blue Iris. I've de-bloated to the max, turned off Windows update. Once a week I schedule the computer to shutdown and restart, just to clear out any gremlins that maybe there. If there is an unexpected power outage, the computer re-starts when power is back (BIOS setting).

Anyway, I can't fault my system, it does what it's supposed to do, and does it well. I run 13 cameras, the CPU runs < 10%, currently at 7%. I have an HP Prodesk, used business computer, and probably not was well spec'd as your computer, if you spent $2000 on it. There must be something else going on, all the questions raised by IAmATeak are valid.

 

[Flintstone61]

Program updates?

 

[IAmATeaf]

I also forgot to add that me and my family also use the mobile app, not Android but iOS and for us it works fine regardless of if connected to our home network or accessing via mobile data.

I was in India a few months back and even on their crap internet and mobile data I was able to review footage, maybe not as smoothly as in the UK but it worked.

So a lot of things can come into play and need to be taken into consideration but I would start by following the wiki here on optimising BI, hardware acceleration isn’t that big a deal these days with the intro of substreams so if you haven’t enabled them that would be the first thing to get configured to see if that eases the load on the PC.

 

[TonyR]

For some strange reason, it seems everything on Windows 10 pcs goes really slow after CPU or RAM usage reaches 40%.

Like @IAmATeaf I am a BI user and his setup and resultant positive experience is a mirror of mine. I've been a BI user for over 10 years now having installed and maintained versions 3 and 4 and now version 5 on a half dozen dedicated BI servers for myself and 5 clients...all humming right along the last 8 or so years, none derailed in that period except for an occasional ISP, hardware or network issue usually brought on by severe lightning and power outages.

Having built or repaired several hundred PC's in the last 30 years of every O/S you can list, Windows 10 began a new era of intrusion into the user's viewing and surfing habits and subsequent reporting of such to MS for various reasons, mainly marketing and money. The result is excessive and unnecessary CPU usage until all of that is turned off/disabled. Even the eye-candy feature of animating icons and mouse-over popups can add an unnecessary burden on the CPU.

Most people that turn on a new Win 10 or 11 PC go along with the initialization process which bullies the user into setting up an MS account, again, all for harvesting marketing info. You can set up a "local" account, even at the onset if you know how. If you don't, you can always go back and do so.

It's amazing how much crap you can disable in Win 10/11 and improve its performance and still have it do everything you want and lose none of what you got it for in the first place. When a PC is configured to run a program and NOT report network stats, web sites visited and how often and how much you print to MS, it runs MUCH better and accesses the Internet faster and it costs you nothing.

 

[IAmATeaf]

@TonyR that is a good shout and something I had forgotten about.

When I built my PC I searched on how to optimise W10 and disabled a few services which aren’t required on a PC dedicated to just just run BI. I also disabled Windows Updates and driver updates so that I can decide which and when should be installed.

I’m not saying my BI install has been plain sailing! I went through a period where BI would randomly crash, I think it did this for something like close to a year and many others reported these issues but that went away, I did delete cams and re-add them one by one so not too sure if it was that or playing with hardware acceleration settings or quite simply a BI update but I no longer have this issue.

I’ve also had issues with some updates, so for example the last few series of updates have been no good for, either ONVIF triggers stop or the system craps out after 7-9 hours so I’m currently running an older stable release but at the end of the day it’s a security system and provided it works and there are no new features that I need/want in subsequent updates I’m not too bothered but it took me a while to get to this stage/level of acceptance. When I first started I’d update as soon as an update came out as I thought I had to have the very latest!

 

[TonyR]

I'm on v 5.4.7.11 of 6/11/21, use no AI and it does what I need and all that I ask of it, so I'm happy and content.

 

[The Automation Guy]

Honestly for the OP, I wouldn't suggest "optimizing" Windows until you can get a stable BI instance. It will make troubleshooting harder because you'll never know if you accidentally removed some important Windows element that is causing havoc.

That being said, it should be very easy to get a stable BI instance. I have never heard of or experienced BI updating by itself. (EDIT: When I posted this, I didn't pay attention to the fact that the image was posted by Flinstone and not the OP - therefore these next comments might be be appropriate.... Back to the original post now....) Are you sure that the "No Update Prompts" isn't actually just automatically updating BI without any prompts? This is what I would expect that setting to do and it matches your experience. I would think there is a "No automatic updates" option. I have mine set to "notify" of updates, but not automatically install them. I am rarely on my BI computer (because it runs so well) and when I am on it for some reason, I just ignore the update notifications. I tend to use this forum as a gauge to when I should update (usually due to some new "must have" feature after it has been released/tested for a while). It's been a while since I updated......

 

[TonyR]

Honestly for the OP, I wouldn't suggest "optimizing" Windows until you can get a stable BI instance. It will make troubleshooting harder because you'll never know if you accidentally removed some important Windows element that is causing havoc.

"Optimizing" Windows should be done BEFORE using it as a BI server....IMO.
And there are many, many online guides on "how to" that won't produce negative issues.
But since BI is already on I agree about stabilizing BI but at some point optimizing Windows 10/11 (mostly curbing all the jabber back to MS) IS very much worth it.

 

[The Automation Guy]

And just to confirm, this screenshot is in the BI manual and shows a "No Automatic Updates" option. The OP might have this set incorrectly which is why they are getting unexpected updates.