Optimizing Camera Settings

[atothek]

I've read through a few of the wiki pages. Wondering still what camera settings I need to set out of the box. For example, I've configured 15FPS for main and secondary streams and then set 15FPS in Blue Iris.

Is there a guide on camera settings?


I have Dahua OEM or clone cameras and Hikvision clone cameras.

Example questions

• Do I even need the secondary (sub)stream enabled? No idea what it does.
• ONVIF is disabled by default. Do I need it? I noticed Blue Iris always sees my cameras as Generic
• Do you record to both Blue Iris and SD card? What is the advantage of the SD card, just if the Blue Iris server goes down?
• Anything else you view as best practice around video, audio, etc.?

 

[looney2ns]

In most case's, 10FPS is adequate.
Use VBR. 4096 bitrate. These settings will reduce storage space.
Set the Iframe in the camera to the same value as the FPS you choose.

Substream can be used set for lower specs, to view the cam from your phone or such.
If you don't use it, turn it off.
Make sure UPNP is turned OFF.

Most of this is covered in the "Cliff Notes" in the Wiki.

 

[anijet]

...............The frame rate setting in BI does nothing, it's left over from another time................

From the Wiki:
"Also set Blue Iris's "Max. rate" option in camera properties on the Video tab to your camera's actual streaming frame rate, or just barely above. This max rate setting is supposed to auto-adjust itself upward as necessary, but higher values of this setting directly impact your server's memory usage in a huge way, so don't let it be much higher than the camera's true frame rate."

I've found the higher frame rate values in BI use a fair amount of additional memory for no apparent benefit.

 

[bp2008]

@anijet and also prior to BI 4.7.6.0 the "Max rate" option influenced encoding bit rate for streams sent to UI3 or the mobile apps. So if you had a 10 FPS camera with a 30 FPS max rate in BI, then not only would it use extra memory, but its bit rate would be 1/3 of what you asked for with your Streaming profiles. This was just fixed last week.

 

[looney2ns]

From the Wiki:
"Also set Blue Iris's "Max. rate" option in camera properties on the Video tab to your camera's actual streaming frame rate, or just barely above. This max rate setting is supposed to auto-adjust itself upward as necessary, but higher values of this setting directly impact your server's memory usage in a huge way, so don't let it be much higher than the camera's true frame rate."

I've found the higher frame rate values in BI use a fair amount of additional memory for no apparent benefit.

I stand corrected, I could of sworn Fenderman had mentioned it was no longer needed to mess with it.

 

[bp2008]

That is what I used to think too until recently.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Is this in BI or in the camera itself? I can't seem to find max rate in the video tab in BI.
But also, I'm not too concerned with saving space. Would 24FPS be overkill. To some on here I'm sure it is but I have over 12TB of space right now with more to possibly come.
Is is better to use VBR or CBR. I have seen some say CBR.
What does the I Frame intervall actually do for the quality?

 

[John V]

bump!