Camera settings for BI

Shadow160

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HI everyone,

I purchased 4 cams, two IPC-T2431t-AS Loryta 4MP turret cams and two Amcrest IP5M-T1179EW-28MM (flashed to dahua firmware. I am setting the video settings in the camera itself so it is set before it even gets to Blue Iris.

Loryta settings
Setting max frame rate to 15 FPS CBR H.265 Resolution I left at default 2560x1440 and when I set frame rate to 15 it changed resolution to 1536kbs.

Substream is set to 15 fps CBR Resolution 704x480 D1 Bitrate 256

Amcrest settings
FPS 15 CBR Resolution default 2592x1944 bitrate 2497

Substream same as above.


Anything standing out here off the bat that I should change?

edit to add.

Adding the to BI there is no loryta make should i set all as generic or choose dahua for those two?

Thanks for the input.
 

wittaj

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Blue Iris simply takes whatever the camera is feeding it to record and do motion triggering if you use that option over the IVS of the camera. Garbage in = garbage out.

Simply type in the IP address and user and password and hit find/inspect and let BI determine the right settings. For most of us they show up as generic.

Bitrate is going to come down to your field of view. Even the same camera model with one on the front and one of the back of the house may need completely different bitrates.

Most of us have found that the 4MP need 8192bitrate. Many of us have found that H264 looks better. The only way to know is to try adjusting. I would start at 8192 and then move up or down until you notice a change in the image quality.

Then you need to not run auto/default settings.

In my opinion, shutter and gain are the two most important and then base the others off of it.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-30 (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night image results in Casper during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

So if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible. HLC at 50, unless for LPR, will certainly degrade the image with motion.
 

Shadow160

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Blue Iris simply takes whatever the camera is feeding it to record and do motion triggering if you use that option over the IVS of the camera. Garbage in = garbage out.

Simply type in the IP address and user and password and hit find/inspect and let BI determine the right settings. For most of us they show up as generic.

Bitrate is going to come down to your field of view. Even the same camera model with one on the front and one of the back of the house may need completely different bitrates.

Most of us have found that the 4MP need 8192bitrate. Many of us have found that H264 looks better. The only way to know is to try adjusting. I would start at 8192 and then move up or down until you notice a change in the image quality.

Then you need to not run auto/default settings.

In my opinion, shutter and gain are the two most important and then base the others off of it.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-30 (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night image results in Casper during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

So if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible. HLC at 50, unless for LPR, will certainly degrade the image with motion.
Cameras deleted and re added via find/inspect.
But my understanding is I still should be limiting to 15fps in the cam management interface, is that incorrect?

My 4MP has a max bitrate setting of 6144 my 5mp can do 8192 Switched to h.264

Thank you for the help
 
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SouthernYankee

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For a surveillance camera a Frame rate and a Iframe of 15 is a very good setting. You are not shooting a Hollywood movie. (movies are at 24 FPS) .
The frame rate and Iframe values for the main stream and substream must be the same values.

I use H.264 on all my cameras. Yes more space and bandwidth but disk space is cheap.
 
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Shadow160

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Agreed, I can archive to my unraid NAS if I need to so storage space is not my primary consideration.
 

wittaj

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But my understanding is I still should be limiting to 15fps in the cam management interface, is that incorrect?
Yes you set the camera to 15FPS in the camera interface, but let BI set it in the BI settings on the camera page. It may show 15, 18 or 30 FPS, but that is internal to BI. As long as you set the camera to 15FPS you will be fine.

Many times people change the setting that shows in BI and it causes issues, so just let BI default to what it thinks it needs.
 

sebastiantombs

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Both of those cameras, Loryata and Amcrest, should allow bit rates to be set higher. Look for a manual setting under the bit rate selection and a bit rate box will appear. Then enter your preferred bit rate manually.
 

wittaj

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Match iframe to FPS (so both 15) and see if that changes the range.

Can you type in a higher number - some of these cameras they give you a range, but you can input in higher.
 

sebastiantombs

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Surprising to say the least. I don't own either of those models but assume that Dahua firmware is fairly consistent across the line with basic parameters. Maybe @EMPIRETECANDY can shed some light on this with the Loryata anyway.
 

looney2ns

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Yes you set the camera to 15FPS in the camera interface, but let BI set it in the BI settings on the camera page. It may show 15, 18 or 30 FPS, but that is internal to BI. As long as you set the camera to 15FPS you will be fine.

Many times people change the setting that shows in BI and it causes issues, so just let BI default to what it thinks it needs.
If you run a camera at 15fps, and leave the BI entry at 30fps, you are eating a lot of memory that is not necessary. If you set a camera to 15fps, set the BI setting to 15fps, if the cameras fps wonders above 15, BI will auto adjust that setting upwards. Just leave that occurs, it will only typically wonder up 1 or 2 fps.
 

IAmATeaf

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I set mine within BI to the same as set within the cam but when I review the settings it’s always changed on some cams. Just checked a few mins ago and some of the cams that I had previously set to 15 were now set to 25 and some to 26?
 

looney2ns

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I set mine within BI to the same as set within the cam but when I review the settings it’s always changed on some cams. Just checked a few mins ago and some of the cams that I had previously set to 15 were now set to 25 and some to 26?
This occurs if the camera actual fps gets above your setting.
 

IAmATeaf

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This occurs if the camera actual fps gets above your setting.
Then the fact that it can change this setting makes no sense at all does it?

Especially if when it gets bumped up rather than limiting results in more resource usage?
 

sebastiantombs

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It makes sense because BI can only accept what the camera sends it. BI cannot, to my knowledge or in any comment I've seen anywhere, change the frame or resolution rates of a camera. Therefor if the rate from a camera goes up, or down, BI has to adjust to the new set of conditions to continue to operate normally.
 
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IAmATeaf

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About time I read the BI manual again

“The max frame rate will always adjust higher, never lower. This value is used internally by
Blue Iris to allocate buffers only, and is not “settable” for network IP cameras. However it is
used to adjust the FPS (frames per second) on USB and other camera types”

So for IP cams we don’t really need to worry about it?
 

wittaj

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^1 - I was just getting ready to post this LOL - for an IP camera, I do not believe we need to adjust based on what BI internally sets? Some of mine have adjusted to 30FPS but I do not see any memory issues?
 
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