How Does BI Come Up with its Times?

[jclguru]

I have a Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I that wasn't keeping time.
It could be anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours off.

Using Hikvision's configuration Time Settings tab, I tried both
NTP and Manual Time Sync.

The Blue Iris OSD would reset, but it would eventually go
wacko again.

At the time I was just using BI's OSD.

I then tried displaying both Hikvision's OSD and BI's OSD on
my display at the same time.

The Hikvision time was always correct and BI would change.

Ok, no problem, I'd just use Hikvision.

But apparently, and this is where I get confused, BI is getting
its time somewhere else?

For example I'm recording Cam4. The OSD shows the correct time,
but the clips window shows a totally different time.

It's even more confusing when I playback.

The window's title bar shows the time it started and its length,
which is correct...the OSD from Hikvision is correct..but the
black box in the lower right shows the totally off time.

The firmware version is V5.3.0 build 150513.

The strange part is, the Foscams that I do have, never a time problem.

If you need any more info, just let me know. I tried attaching images, but its not working...Doug

 

[lviperz]

What version of BI are you running? There was a version that had time issues. I don't remember the version but someone will chime in here shortly.

 

[bp2008]

It was probably one of the 4.0.9 versions as I believe that was the version where Ken (the Blue Iris developer) changed a bunch of code related to stream timing. There were a lot of minor patches to fix timing bugs since then so I strongly recommend upgrading. Blue Iris gets its time from Windows, so when everything is operating normally, BI's timestamp should be within a second or two of the BI server's clock (because the video is typically delayed a second or two). That said, Windows is generally really bad at keeping time accurately even with network time syncing enabled. You may consider running http://timesynctool.com/ if you have trouble keeping the system clock accurate.

 

[jclguru]

I have 4.1.0.

It got so bad..when I look at my available clips, instead of showing like 15 seconds, it'll
show 42 days...cool!

I'll shut BI down and bring it back up and everything is fine, for a few hours at least.
I'll try that time sync tool also.

I'll try the screen shots again.

Doug

 

[bp2008]

Once you install the time sync tool, you can have it act as a network time server so your cams can get their time from the Blue Iris machine if you want.

 

[jclguru]

I have the tool installed and running.

Do I have to do anything else to get it to act like a network
time server or is that what its doing now?

If so, then try the BI time display again?

Doug

 

[jclguru]

Well, I have both times being displayed again (HIK and BI).

As I'm watching the camera, there's a little 'hiccup' in the picture.
When that happens, the BI time goes back to the previous minute.

Doug

 

[bp2008]

Is this hiccup happening regularly enough that you could demonstrate it to the Blue Iris developer?

Also assuming you are on the latest version of Blue Iris, I am sure he would want to heard about it.

Do I have to do anything else to get it to act like a network
time server or is that what its doing now?

There is a checkbox I believe, in the NetTime options, to make it act as a time server. In order for this to have any meaning though, you have to point your cameras at it. To do this, you would go to the Server Address box in each camera's NTP settings area. In that box you would enter the IP address of the machine you installed NetTime on. Then click the Test button. If it fails, you probably have to create a rule in Windows firewall to allow incoming traffic to port 123. I think the traffic type is UDP.

Anyway, if you've got NetTime running then it should be keeping your Windows system time accurate already, and the above is merely optional. I have all my cameras do NTP sync this way because it is more reliable than having them all sync off some horribly overloaded time server out in the wild every 30 minutes.

 

[jclguru]

I caught the 'interference'. Does it look familiar?

This is what's causing the time to get screwed up. Almost every time it reaches
near the end of the minute, I get that line and the time backs up another minute
or two.

The next time, it might make it.

The line is just above the white OSD in the lower right.

Doug

 

[bp2008]

I think that kind of artifact indicates a frame was corrupt. What are your bit rate, frame rate, and i-frame interval settings on that camera?

Though corrupt frames should not be screwing up the timestamp, it could be related.

 

[bp2008]

Is your Blue Iris server perhaps going above 90% CPU usage?

 

[jclguru]

I see it spike every once in awhile over 90%, but it mostly stays under 50%.

For the camera I'm having problems with, that's the only one in BI that won't allow
me to pick a constant frame rate. The adjust automatically box is checked and greyed out.
So even if I have my fps set to 20 via Hik's configuration, BI ignores that and will override
it to as much as 30fps.

Here's my config...

Just so irritating. Would probably be best if this was happening to all of my
cameras, not just one.

I work midnites, so I gotta get some sleep. So I'll follow up with any later replies
later.

Thanks
Doug

 

[bp2008]

Ok. If I may suggest some changes. Try the frame rate set to 15. I Frame Interval to 30. This will reduce the load a bit for the camera. Maybe also try Variable bit rate with the Video Quality on Highest.

Blue Iris since 4.0.9 does not let you set a frame rate for h264 cameras. Believe it or not, Blue Iris never could and still can not change an h264 camera's frame rate. All you could do is force Blue Iris to be misconfigured by setting the wrong frame rate in Blue Iris. Now, that is supposedly not possible because Auto Adjust frame rate is forced enabled in BI since version 4.0.9.

Anyway, if you look at BI's status window it should tell you the exact frame rate you are receiving from each camera. It bounces around a little but it should be very close to whatever you set in the camera. If it is not, that indicates a problem.

If your CPU is unable to keep up with the incoming video streams, even for a moment, frames may be dropped and video problems can occur. It is possible this is happening when your CPU spikes over 90%. Enable direct to disk recording on your cams if you have not done so already, as this is a big CPU saver and it will reduce the spikes that occur during recording (if you are doing motion recording, and not constant recording). If you already have enabled this, try reducing the frame rates some as that is also a big CPU saver. 15 FPS is usually a sweet spot between efficiency and smoothness, but some people like me run their cams as low as 6 FPS due to not having powerful enough CPUs.

 

[jclguru]

Changed everything.

Same problem.

After resetting the camera so BI time was the same as Hikvision's time, after 3 minutes, BI was
5 minutes behind.

Grrrr.

At least the year isn't going backwards

Doug

 

[fenderman]

Have you updated to the latest? 4.1.0 still had the clock issue..

 

[jclguru]

4.1.0.1

Doug

 

[fenderman]

4.1.0.1

Doug

update to the latest.

 

[jclguru]

What version should it be? I went to the web site and it lists 4.1.0.1 as the latest. I've also tried restarting BI and not getting an update.

 

[fenderman]

What version should it be? I went to the web site and it lists 4.1.0.1 as the latest. I've also tried restarting BI and not getting an update.

It should be 4.1.1.5 http://blueirissoftware.com/updates/
Make sure to refresh the page once you get there it will show an older version. If you dont have it set to check for updates on startup it wont prompt you (I would leave it unchecked though, you dont want to update each time there is a new release)..

 

[jclguru]

Will do. We'll see what happens tomorrow.