Hardware recommendations for 26 4k camera setup

A

Andriko

n3wb
Feb 15, 2019
5
0
vancouver
Hello,

I have 26 4k cameras set up and after hooking up a few to my computer, I realized it's time for an upgrade...

I've looked at a few threads which pointed toward threadripper based builds because it has h265 hardware encoding(correct me if I'm wrong, just what I understood from a few posts). Would a xeon based build be better, or an Intel cpu with quicksync? Also would a stronger gpu help? I also want to have a 4k monitor to view the footage so a 4k capable gpu is a must.

I tried looking at biupdatehelper but it seems to be missing a lot of information such as average megapixels for all the cameras in their setup, frame rate etc. I'd like to run them all at 4k20fps if possible. Although it seems like most are running hedt processors like the i9-7980xe with at least 32 gb of ram for camera counts similar to mine.

Thank you!
(please call me out on any mistakes, this is my first post :))
 
Andriko said:
Hello,

I have 26 4k cameras set up and after hooking up a few to my computer, I realized it's time for an upgrade...

I've looked at a few threads which pointed toward threadripper based builds because it has h265 hardware encoding(correct me if I'm wrong, just what I understood from a few posts). Would a xeon based build be better, or an Intel cpu with quicksync? Also would a stronger gpu help? I also want to have a 4k monitor to view the footage so a 4k capable gpu is a must.

I tried looking at biupdatehelper but it seems to be missing a lot of information such as average megapixels for all the cameras in their setup, frame rate etc. I'd like to run them all at 4k20fps if possible. Although it seems like most are running hedt processors like the i9-7980xe with at least 32 gb of ram for camera counts similar to mine.

Thank you!
(please call me out on any mistakes, this is my first post :))
Click to expand...
the treadripper has no decoding at all. You would need expensive nvidia cards that are inefficient and would not be able to decode all those streams at once.
You have a very high load, you are better off using a different vms, or you will need to use the limit decoding option and use the cameras own motion detection to trigger blue iris. See wiki explaining the limit decoding function.
 
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fenderman said:
the treadripper has no decoding at all. You would need expensive nvidia cards that are inefficient and would not be able to decode all those streams at once.
Click to expand...
Oh, I must have misunderstood. they must have recommended an Intel HEDT then?

fenderman said:
You have a very high load, you are better off using a different vms
Click to expand...
I want to use one computer.

fenderman said:
or you will need to use the limit decoding option and use the cameras own motion detection to trigger blue iris. See wiki explaining the limit decoding function.
Click to expand...
I've set them all as direct-to-disc. Haven't set the motion detection for the cameras yet. Though I do want to upgrade! I'm using and AMD Phenom ii x4 965 from like...2010?...2008?...
 
Andriko said:
Oh, I must have misunderstood. they must have recommended an Intel HEDT then?


I want to use one computer.


I've set them all as direct-to-disc. Haven't set the motion detection for the cameras yet. Though I do want to upgrade! I'm using and AMD Phenom ii x4 965 from like...2010?...2008?...
Click to expand...
Read my post again and ready the wiki
 
In the wiki, read how to choose bi hardware. You don't need 4k cams, and you don't need 20fps. As fenderman suggested, bi isn't the best software for your very large load.
 
The Blue Iris Update Helper site shows details of each system if you click on the rows in the table. Please take all data with a grain of salt because there are a lot of ways it can be misleading. For example it is fairly common for people to create duplicates of cameras in BI for various purposes. Those duplicates consume less resources than the original, but this isn't detected by the data collection routine so it makes such systems look bigger than they really are. Frame rate values can also be wrong, because sometimes the data collection routine can't get true frame rates and must substitute-in the "Max rate" setting for each camera, which is often higher than the true frame rate.

Anyway, 26 4K cameras at 20 FPS each is 4160 megapixels per second, which is more than you should try to run on one Blue Iris system. You'd be hard-pressed to run them at 10 FPS on an i9-9900K utilizing intel hardware acceleration. I actually doubt it would work well. You can push through more video with a high-end threadripper or 16-18 core intel i9 and one or more recent Nvidia graphics cards, but then you're throwing thousands more dollars into the system and it will run hot with lots of power consumption. I'd avoid server CPUs, as they aren't usually as cost-effective and they are usually running relatively low clock speeds.

If you're set on using Blue Iris, expect to need the Limit decoding feature for most of the cameras. There are plenty of different video management software choices which run leaner, but those cost a lot more and probably won't be designed for consumers.

Andriko said:
Also, I read up on the limiting decoding option, when the wiki mentions how only i-frames are detected by the motion detection, does it mean BlueIris only or the camera's motion detection as well?
Click to expand...

Blue Iris only. "Limit decoding" is purely a part of Blue Iris and has no effect whatsoever on the IP camera.
 
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bp2008 said:
The Blue Iris Update Helper site shows details of each system if you click on the rows in the table. Please take all data with a grain of salt because there are a lot of ways it can be misleading. For example it is fairly common for people to create duplicates of cameras in BI for various purposes. Those duplicates consume less resources than the original, but this isn't detected by the data collection routine so it makes such systems look bigger than they really are. Frame rate values can also be wrong, because sometimes the data collection routine can't get true frame rates and must substitute-in the "Max rate" setting for each camera, which is often higher than the true frame rate.

Anyway, 26 4K cameras at 20 FPS each is 4160 megapixels per second, which is more than you should try to run on one Blue Iris system. You'd be hard-pressed to run them at 10 FPS on an i9-9900K utilizing intel hardware acceleration. I actually doubt it would work well. You can push through more video with a high-end threadripper or 16-18 core intel i9 and one or more recent Nvidia graphics cards, but then you're throwing thousands more dollars into the system and it will run hot with lots of power consumption. I'd avoid server CPUs, as they aren't usually as cost-effective and they are usually running relatively low clock speeds.

If you're set on using Blue Iris, expect to need the Limit decoding feature for most of the cameras. There are plenty of different video management software choices which run leaner, but those cost a lot more and probably won't be designed for consumers.



Blue Iris only. "Limit decoding" is purely a part of Blue Iris and has no effect whatsoever on the IP camera.
Click to expand...

Unless you can recommend a software that runs leaner that I don't need to pay a monthly subscription for (one payment is what I'm looking for) then I'm set on blue Iris. If I use the limit decoding option will I still need to get a high end threadripper/i9 and a recent higher end Nvidia card?
 
No, you won't need high-end hardware if you use limit decoding properly, which includes turning off "Require/decode all camera frames when streaming" for all your camera groups.
 
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