CPU usage in Blue Iris against actual CPU usage in task manager

[Thanharossi]

Hello all. Im new here. I found my way here after spending a lot of time searching online for my BI related issue. I have tried to search online but cannot find anything that is related to my query.

The issue I have is that Blue Iris is showing as running at 100% cpu so I am getting very sluggy recording and playback. However, when I open task manager it shows that Blue Iris is only using around 40%. My cpu also only shows as 40% usage. I was wondering what is causing this discrepancy? I have an i7 intel processor and I was wondering if Blue Iris is not able to use all of the processor's potential? Please can someone help me understand this? Is it just me not understanding how BI uses resources?

At the moment I have 6 cameras local onsite around my house. I also have another 7 remote cameras all located at my business which also is added to my Blue Iris so I have 13 cameras in total. They are all reolink cameras. I am wondering if this is too much?

I have tried all the steps located in this article but Blue Iris still runs at 100%.
Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

The only thing I have not tried is the sub stream option because I read that it really reduces quality which is what I do not really want and I am trying to see if there is anything else I can do before having to resort to that.

I think the main thing that confuses me is why task manager shows that my ram and cpu is not maxed out but Blue Iris is. Can any please help.

I am running BI Version: Release 5.3.0.3 x64 (13/07/2020) on a windows 10 os. Cpu is Intel Core i7-4720HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz with 16GB ram. Also this is on a Laptop that is dedicated to BI. I do not use it for any other use. I have attached an image of my task manager and also BI showing running at 100%

Thanks in advance

 

[fenderman]

substream does not reduce recording quality one bit.
You dont tell us your load. The number of cameras is irrelevant.

 

[Thanharossi]

Hi fenderman. Thanks for your reply. The reason why i thought sub streams reduce quality because thats the impression given in this guide where it says sub stream is intended to be used in situations where the full quality of the main stream is unnecessary

Sub Stream Guide

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ipcamtalk.com

But if you say sub stream quality is good then it looks like there is hope yet in the sub stream solution. I havent actually done the above guide yet but i will be sure to try it if you say the quality is not bad. I hope that this will reduce the load.

Also you mention that its the load that is important. Not the number of cameras. How can i find out how much load its under? I would be happy to tell you how much load is used but not sure how to find out.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Sub streams are used by BI as the stream for detecting motion which has the effect that it reduces CPU load. The main stream is still the main stream that gets recorded.

In terms of overall load, post your cam resolution, frame rates and bitrates etc.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Use the Windows Snipping tool rather than a cell phone. Click on the graph icon with the lightning bolt on the upper left of the I console and got to the cameras tab. The bit, fram and iframe rates of each camera are shown there along with the total load. Remember that the I addresses are meaningless so there is no need to "hide" them.

 

[looney2ns]

The laptop is a poor machine to be running BI on, no matter the usage. It will give you grief.
Be sure that you have all the Blue Iris folders excluded from Windows Defender.

In the future, don't buy junk Reolink cameras.
Stick with Dahua or Hikivision international models.

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

 

[Thanharossi]

Thanks for the further responses guys.

IAmaTeaf - so are you saying using substream does not actually reduce load?

sebastiantombs - thanks for the instructions. I screenshot my BI status below. Yes I did hide some IP addresses but these ones are my external facing IP so it made me feel better hiding them

 

[looney2ns]

Enable substreams, it will definitely help with the load.
See my post above your most recent.

 

[Thanharossi]

The laptop is a poor machine to be running BI on, no matter the usage. It will give you grief.
Be sure that you have all the Blue Iris folders excluded from Windows Defender.

In the future, don't buy junk Reolink cameras.
Stick with Dahua or Hikivision international models.

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

Thanks for the tip. I will check windows defender for that too. Reolink seems to be highly rated here in the UK . So far it seems to serve me well. The hardware market was a bit of a minefield but for now I settled with the reolink ones. I agree laptops are probably not the best things to run camera systems on. But I dont think I will add anymore cameras and if I do I would consider getting some sort of real beefy desktop tower. I would hope a desktop would be better. I only used this laptop because it was surplus and what I thought is still ok spec for its age. But clearly it cannot seem to handle the purpose i need it for right now.If you can recommend any thread that talks about specs to run this setup better then please let me know and I will consider it for the future when I upgrade

 

[Thanharossi]

Enable substreams, it will definitely help with the load.
See my post above your most recent.

Got it . I have now excluded the blueiris folder in defender. With regards to sub-stream if it does reduce load then I can give it a go.there seems to be conflicting info here about the sub streams. But I was led to believe the reason it was implemented in BI was to help reduce load. So I will try give it a go see if it helps. But any feedback on the load I am running in my screenshot above would be appreciated

 

[sebastiantombs]

My experience with Reolink is that if you enable the substream the main stream is disabled. I will concede that my single Realjunk camera is an older model and that may have been addressed by Reolink, but I would also be surprised if they put a good enough processor in them to handle dual streams.

As an example of the problems with Reolink, look at the frame and iframe rates being received by BI. The iframe rate should show as "1" and in your capture they aren't even close to "1". The same is true of both the frame rate and bit rate. Even if you configure the camera, itself, for a higher bit rate, their firmware will back that way down. There is no provision in the configuration for you to set the iframe rate. While the video may appear to look fine, as soon as there's motion the video loses quality. Add in the small sensor size and they aren't very good cameras at all, no matter how low their price may be. As with everything in life, you get what you pay for.

 

[looney2ns]

Thanks for the tip. I will check windows defender for that too. Reolink seems to be highly rated here in the UK . So far it seems to serve me well. The hardware market was a bit of a minefield but for now I settled with the reolink ones. I agree laptops are probably not the best things to run camera systems on. But I dont think I will add anymore cameras and if I do I would consider getting some sort of real beefy desktop tower. I would hope a desktop would be better. I only used this laptop because it was surplus and what I thought is still ok spec for its age. But clearly it cannot seem to handle the purpose i need it for right now.If you can recommend any thread that talks about specs to run this setup better then please let me know and I will consider it for the future when I upgrade

Simply because most don't know any better. I already gave you the link to computer specs. You can see the link in the quoted post to me. Reolink also mess's with the shutter speed at night, trying to fool you that the camera is better than it really is.

 

[Thanharossi]

Thanks guys. I will have to use them now as I bought them. But in future when I upgrade I will consider better ones. I should have maybe joined here before I went and bought them. I thought I did enough research but clearly not. But do you have any idea why BI is running at max but my laptop is not? I can still use my laptop ok even with BI running in the background. It just seems that BI runs poorly. Anything else runs fine. Is this just the way BI works on laptop? If there is nothing I can do then I will have to consider new computer as suggested by looney2ns.

Thanks forthe link by the way looney2ns. Sorry I missed it when I first read your reply

 

[looney2ns]

You need a different computer as outlined in the link I gave.
Laptops have very poor performing cpus compared to desktop cpu's.
Laptop will run hot, and has a good chance at failing sooner than later.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Keep in mind a laptop uses a processor that is "optimized" for laptop use. Even in the same family of CPUs the laptop processors are limited when compared to a desktop processor. Running BI on a laptop just won't cut the mustard. It is a very CPU intensive program which a laptop is not designed for.

 

[Thanharossi]

Got it. Thanks a lot. Much appreciated. I will get on the hunt and look around. All the best

 

[samplenhold]

To get to the original question though, does anyone know why BI is reporting 100% CPU and task manager is showing only 46%?

I have noticed differences between the two figures on my machine, but they were only a few percent. Perhaps @bp2008 would know why?

 

[SouthernYankee]

your processor is i7-4720HQ @2.60 GHZ. But it is only running at 1.20GHZ, this the problem with a laptop as it heats up it slows down. That is why you see the speed differences.

Check out Blue Iris Update Helper

There is only one entry for your processor and it is running nearly max out.

Laptops are not design to run 24/7/365, You will Burn it up.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Thanks for the further responses guys.

IAmaTeaf - so are you saying using substream does not actually reduce load?

sebastiantombs - thanks for the instructions. I screenshot my BI status below. Yes I did hide some IP addresses but these ones are my external facing IP so it made me feel better hiding them

View attachment 68530

Is that what I said? Using sub streams definitely reduces the CPU load for the reason as I explained. It uses the sub stream for motion detection, a “smaller” stream therefore less CPU need to detect motion.

 

[Thanharossi]

Calm down IAmATeaf. If you explained it, then you didnt explain it well enough for a new BI user to understand. You said sub stream give the EFFECT that it reduces CPU load. The main stream is still the main stream that gets recorded. So using the word effect sounds like you are saying it does not actually reduce load, it just looks like it does. Thats how I interpreted your explanation. If you dont take any pleasure in helping members then I suggest you dont. I am simply asking for people to explain this to me and so far everyone else has explained in a way that I can understand. I misunderstood your explanation. It happens. So I asked for clarification. I didnt put words in your mouth. Dont worry about trying to explain. The other guys already done a great job of that