Blue Iris, added 2nd camera, FPS half?

[tweakgames]

Hello.

I am building my basic security system, basically only 2 cams right now, and my, what I though, way overkill server. I have been testing the Blue Iris software, and the first cam was great, 20 fps, 4 MP, added a second, and it wen to 10.x fps on both.

Cameras:
[h=1]DS-2CD2042WD-I[/h][h=1]DS-2CD2142FWD-IS[/h]
Server:
T610
2 quad core E5520 @ 2.27
12 GB memory
2 300 GB drive as C in raid 1
6 300 GB drives as D in raid 5
VMWare - Server 2012 R2 guest, only VM on box.

Switch:
NETGEAR ProSAFE 8 port Gigabit POE switch : GS108PE
Cat5E cables

Blue Iris:
Looks like version 4.2.2 in demo mode.

CPU usage: 12-17% with both camera's going.

FPS both cameras enabled:

FPS one camera enabled:

Any help would be be greatly appreciated. Love the software so far, I most likely have a check box checked somewhere that shouldn't be.

Thank you.

 

[fenderman]

@tweakgames Welcome to the forum. Try increasing the receive buffer for each camera. Properties>video>configuration
Ensure that your antivirus is excluding Blue iris
Try deleting your cameras and add them again.
Test the cameras with vlc and see if its a blue iris issue or the cameras/network...
Try updating to the latest release via the update file on the website.

 

[tweakgames]

Thank fenderman for the super fast response.

I don't have any AV on this test server.
I will remove them and add them again here shortly and test VLC.
I don't see the update file, could you point me to that?

Edit:
Found it!

http://blueirissoftware.com/updates/ for future people.

 

[tweakgames]

Ok, I ONLY upgraded the software, and I got a few frames per second. Changed nothing else. Up to 13.5.

 

[tweakgames]

Ok, I logged into each camera's portal directly and watched, perfectly smooth. (While BI was still running)

I connected to rtsp://ip and entered creds in VLC player, perfectly smooth. (While BI was still running)

I removed camera's and re-added them, dropped back down to 11.5 fps average.

While I was watching the live feed either from the camera or VLC, the FPS didn't change on Blue Iris. That would make me think the camera's and networking is not the bottleneck.

 

[fenderman]

@tweakgames Have you emailed support? I have seen this issue reported a few times but I dont recall what the ultimate resolution was. Do you have another pc to test with?

 

[tweakgames]

I will email support next.

I just tested it on my i5-4690k quad @ 5 Ghz, Windows 7, 16 GB, SSD, and the FPS was fine for both.

CPU was 33%. Also, this computer is not on a normal wired connection, but a "powerline". Didn't seem to have any issue with network speed however.

Thanks for your time and responses. I will email support shortly.

 

[fenderman]

@tweakgamesI seem to recall the another instance of this issue where it was occurring on a server os and older xeon processors...not sure if there is any correlation...dont recall if it was a VM...
Also in your i5-4690 test were you using direct to disc? CPU is high for direct to disk..
are you using direct to disk on the server?

 

[tweakgames]

I have not specifically set anything, so I would assume it is whatever is stock. Where is the direct to disk setting? Also they are 4 MP camera's as max quality and max bitrate.

 

[fenderman]

I have not specifically set anything, so I would assume it is whatever is stock. Where is the direct to disk setting?

camera properties>record>file format
set to direct to disc and BVR container.
D2D, saves the video without re-encoding it (this is how nvr's and other vms software operate) this save a TON of cpu. Your i5 will run at about 10 percent vs the 33.
Downside is not image rotation (in blue iris) and you cannot save the overlays (you can use your cameras own time overlay or add blue iris time when you export (if you save a bvr)).

 

[tweakgames]

Just set direct to disk and restarted BI. Didn't seem to make any difference in CPU usage. Maybe 1 or 2 %?

My guess is that my camera's are already outputting H.264 so there isn't much re-encoding happening?

 

[fenderman]

Just set direct to disk and restarted BI. Didn't seem to make any difference in CPU usage. Maybe 1 or 2 %?

My guess is that my camera's are already outputting H.264 so there isn't much re-encoding happening?

it should make a huge difference...we are all using cameras the output h.264...
Are you running the demo or the full version? d2d used to be disabled, it is now enabled but I have observed a difference between the demo and full...regardless d2d is a must with many HD cameras or the system will choke...

 

[tweakgames]

Sorry about the h.264 side track. I am obviously a noob here. Fail me.

I am still on demo. I had a feeling that there had to be a difference between demo / full, but I wasn't sure yet. Although it is very cheap, and I will most likely get it anyways, I was hoping to make sure this is the correct solution for me before purchasing it.

 

[tweakgames]

Good news, I purchased the software and now the server is flowing proper 20/20 FPS on both camera. Nothing else changed.

Weirdly enough though, I set them both to Direct to Disk, and I get the same FPS as before. I will have to dig into that a bit deeper and find out why. I have enough processing power on the server, (and will soon have 4 more cores), but I'm all for lowering power usage, and leaving some CPU room left for another server for two!

Thanks.

 

[fenderman]

Good news, I purchased the software and now the server is flowing proper 20/20 FPS on both camera. Nothing else changed.

Weirdly enough though, I set them both to Direct to Disk, and I get the same FPS as before. I will have to dig into that a bit deeper and find out why. I have enough processing power on the server, (and will soon have 4 more cores), but I'm all for lowering power usage, and leaving some CPU room left for another server for two!

Thanks.

Great! I emailed the developer with this demo/full version performance hit (specifically with the fps issue) a while back but he could not explain the difference...shoot him an email and see what he says.
Are you saying that when you use d2d the fps drops again?

 

[tweakgames]

Awesome, I will let him know.

No, when I use D2D the frames do not drop again, everything appears to be good with the FPS with both cameras holding steady at 20:20. But the CPU usage drop that you say I should be experiencing, does not happen, and it stays the same with D2D or the stock option.

 

[tittinos]

I have same or similar problem.
I don't think problem is blueiris software, because i have connected many different ip cameras and run all near to 22-25 fps.
But now i have connected cheap cameras like this http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HD-1280-720P-1-0-Megapixels-24pcs-IR-leds-CCTV-IP-Dome-Camera-ONVIF-2-0/32219050692.html?spm=2114.01020208.3.21.SFUQL7&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_3_79_78_77_80_61,searchweb201644_5,searchweb201560_10

they work very well but when i connect more of one camera the fps go exatly the half , around 12.5 fps, also with other brand but similar camera.

I don't understand where is the problem, in fact if i disconnect other cameras and reboot also this next reboot it run with 25 fps.
I have tested andy cable and i have same switch installed.
they have different port and different rtsp, but i don't understand happens this.
I run with licensed blueiris and run with strong processor that run 8 cameras with 21% cpu used.
Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[fenderman]

Welcome to the forum. Try this, for the problem camera on blue iris video configuration page disable use rtsp/stream timecode...see what happens.

 

[bp2008]

It shouldn't even be possible for anything done in Blue Iris to affect the camera frame rate when the camera is sending h.264. h.264 is encoded at a fixed frame rate defined in the camera's web interface. If the decoding software (e.g. Blue Iris) drops any frames, the video would become temporarily corrupt. If half the frames are being dropped as suggested by the FPS readout in BI, you should be seeing terrible video corruption nearly all the time. Particularly when something moves. Possibly even "no signal" errors in BI. Yet I recall reading nothing like that in this thread.

Did BI's video playback actually show any signs of the frame rate being reduced besides the FPS readout? (10 FPS looks quite different from 20 FPS when something is moving)

Was there any visible video corruption?

Did the video pause irregularly or was the video still fairly smooth?

Details like these might help the developer find the problem. For example if the video had no corruption and continued to play smoothly at a lower frame rate, that would suggest the problem is after h264 decoding, perhaps while it is applying the overlay text or scaling the images to fit on screen.

 

[tweakgames]

Hello all.

I have been playing / battling with this for a good month now and finally came to a solution.

For me, I was using a 2012 R2 server on ESXI, and Remote desktop update view settings.

I was getting weird random fps issues, and video lagging behind. It was sometimes not lagged behind when recording, but at other times, 5 minutes behind. I increased my FPS, even on the 2012 r2 server by changing Cameras-> View during Remote Desktop from unrestricted to 5-sec update. That brought it up significantly, but still wasn't a solid 20 fps all the time. Would hover around a solid 20.

I installed a fresh virtual instance of Windows 7 64 bit on a server with about half the power as the original, installed BI trial, added the cameras, reset it up, and had View during remote desktop at unrestricted again. Same low 6-10 fps, even though cpu usage was only at 15%. I changed it to 5-sec update, and bam, all the cameras were max fps, and NO lagging behind! 20, 20, 30, and 30 fps, and logging into the camera directly reflected exactly what BI was seeing, not 5 minutes behind! Solid and happy. My guess is it was a combination of Server 2012 R2, maybe some .net issues, and trying to feed all the frames through remote desktop, even though cpu usage was low.

Hopefull that helps someone, I am pretty pleased with Blue Iris at this time!

Thanks all.