new BI user - couple general questions

[jamangus]

ok, so I have been playing with BI for a few months. Great software, fits my needs. I am using mostly Hikvision cameras. I saved up a few questions now that I've been through the learning curve:


1. I have a 2TB Purple drive and need to at least double that. Will BI work well if I RAID 0 another drive, or do I need to buy a single larger drive?

2. Under "clips and archiving" I just put everything in "new" then delete, not using "stored". Is "stored" needed for anything other than moving files to a different location? I figured not process files every 5 minutes if I don't need to.

3. What exactly is the bitrate status showing? All of mine max about 1000. But all my cameras are set internally much higher (8192). I guess it's some conversion thing I'm missing...Kbps vs kB/s vs ? I just want to make sure I'm not restricting record quality in BI with some setting I've missed.

Thanks nthego:

 

[fenderman]

@jamangus Welcome to the forum.
1)You can use raid 0 as the controller will make it appear as though its 1 disk...however if a single disk fails you loose all your recordings...
You might consider lowering you cameras bit rate...i have not seen any improvement by going over 4096....
You can also add a second disk and have half your cameras record to one and the other half record to the other.
2) You dont need to use the stored folder.
3) its ok, its just the conversion

 

[jamangus]

forgot a question:

4. Is there a way to sync all camera times to BI server time? (For some reason Hikvision cant seem to get it together with NTP.)

 

[fenderman]

forgot a question:

4. Is there a way to sync all camera times to BI server time? (For some reason Hikvision cant seem to get it together with NTP.)

There is a way to sync the cameras to the blue iris pc...basically you run your own time server on the pc....http://www.timesynctool.com/

 

[Chust]

There's an easier way than timesynctool. ivms has time synchronization. When my cams aren't in sync I fire it up, sync them, and close it. My system isn't on the internet either.

 

[jamangus]

There's an easier way than timesynctool. ivms has time synchronization. When my cams aren't in sync I fire it up, sync them, and close it. My system isn't on the internet either.

I want it them to stay synced always.

Besides, I stopped using the Hikvision software for one BIG reason... IVMS (client software and app) battle with your camera settings. If you open certain screens or menus, they can sometimes change your camera settings...very frustrating.

 

[jamangus]

NetTime.

ok...that took 2 minutes and works perfectly. Thanks :encouragement: