Please check if my # & type of cams and my rig are good? Crashing issues

[jkelley]

Hello everyone. I'm having an issue with my current PC running BI (dedicated to BI only) and running my cams, the computer will be completely frozen sometimes after half a day, sometimes after a week, and anything in between. I'm wondering if it may be that I have too many cams on this G4560 processor, but I've run the frames down quite low. Sometimes I can see the monitor frozen, others the monitors goes to sleep and wont wake up to mouse/keyboard input. PC appears on (CPU fan is running).

Rig:
ASRock Deskmini 110W Intel Socket LGA1151 Intel H110 Steel Body & Plastic Bezel Black Barebone System
Intel Pentium G4560 - Pentium Kaby Lake Dual-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1151 54W Intel HD Graphics 610 Desktop Processor
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Extreme Performance Memory Model F4-2400C16S-8GRSB
Noctua NH-L9i, Premium Low-profile CPU Cooler for Intel LGA115x
2.5" 250GB SSD, Mushkin I think

Cams:
qty 2 DH-IPC-HFW4433F-ZSA
qty 10 DH-IPC-HDW4433C-A

Cams are configured to (on web portal):
Main stream: H.264H, smart codec OFF, 2560x1440, 10 fps, bit rate type CBR, bit rate 2048, I-frame interval 20, SVC 1(off)
Sub stream enabled: H.264H, (D1) 704x480, 10 fps, bit rate type CBR, bit rate 1024, I-frame interval 20, SVC 1(off)

Some other details:

• Windows 10 Home, fully updated
• I have latest BI drivers, maintenance/support plan installed, I've tried both version 4 and 5 (I think 4 is the only one that works for me)
• I don't record anything continuously, only on motion trigger, and one file per 24-hr
• Direct to disk
• Hardware acceleration enabled
• Running as a service
• Have never seen a temperature excursion, and CPU seems to sit around ~25-30% (if I'm remembering correctly) when no motion trigger events. When there's several concurrent motion triggers it goes up to maybe 80%? At least that's what I've been able to see.
• I've tried wiping the drive and starting clean install of Windows, BI, etc.
• I've removed bloat from Windows 10 Home, and no other programs have been installed on the machine
• I've tried to check Windows crash logs and couldn't find much, it happens at random times, and I'm never using the PC for anything else
• Cameras have static IPs and al of that, I can see the cameras just fine

Do you think I'm jus trying to run too much stuff and it's causing a hardware failure? Any recommendations (if this is the case) on what settings I should drop? Should I try reducing the FPS on the main streams (recorded in BI at 10 fps on motion trigger), or sub streams (used for phone app live view, not recording - I do use a VPN server for this).

Thanks!

 

[mattp]

8GB of RAM? What's the memory usage like when the CPU sees 80%?

Otherwise, IDK. I'm running a much older processor with 16GB of RAM. My cameras are lower resolution, but all are constantly recording all channels.
I'm running Windows 7, though.

 

[jkelley]

HWMonitor is showing a max of 39% today but I also made some changes to my configs like dropping down frame rates to 5 fps, And somehow every camera had direct to disc wrong and it was doing encoding (which was in error on my part, as I intended DTD of course).

The 39% memory usage was with my wife and daughter coming how and triggering several of the cameras at once.
Also CPU is sitting at 48% with no recording happening. HWMonitor is saying it's seen 100% but that's to be expected under any scenario I guess. I'm going to try using MSI afterburner/RivaTuner Statistics soon to chart the usage.

Also I only have 10 cams actually, 8 of the one and 2 of the other. Miscounted some that I still have in the box!

 

[mattp]

If you set all of them to DTD, and make sure you sync up the I frames and frame rates between main and sub streams (like you have), I think you'll be good.
I could see the encoding causing this type of problem if a few cameras get going, especially for an extended period of time.

 

[jkelley]

If you set all of them to DTD, and make sure you sync up the I frames and frame rates between main and sub streams (like you have), I think you'll be good.
I could see the encoding causing this type of problem if a few cameras get going, especially for an extended period of time.

I actually do not know what the I-frame is or means. I have the cameras themselves set to 20 but have no idea how or why. What do you mean syncing them up between main and sub streams?

 

[mattp]

Ha, found it. Read this:

Sub Stream Guide

.substreamGuide td { border: 1px solid #000000; } .substreamGuide a { color: #0080ff; } .substreamGuide code.inline { margin: 0; background: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid #e0e0e0; border-radius: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 1px...

ipcamtalk.com

Looks like you should maybe set the I-frame equal to the frame rate, and make sure to set both the sub and main to the same.

 

[jkelley]

Ha, found it. Read this:

Sub Stream Guide

.substreamGuide td { border: 1px solid #000000; } .substreamGuide a { color: #0080ff; } .substreamGuide code.inline { margin: 0; background: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid #e0e0e0; border-radius: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 1px...

ipcamtalk.com

Looks like you should maybe set the I-frame equal to the frame rate, and make sure to set both the sub and main to the same.

Thanks. I've read through that and will make changes to my fps and I frame interval tonight when I have more time (since I have to do those through browser one by one).
One thing I'm confused about is my Blue Iris does not have the options for Main and Sub stream configuration through blue iris video --> configure interface as shown in that howto guide. I would really like to do this - is it possible because I'm running version 4 legacy?

 

[wittaj]

The subtreams did not become available until sometime in version 5.

You could try upgrading for $30ish and see if substreams bring your system stability or spend a couple hundred for a new machine!

 

[jkelley]

The subtreams did not become available until sometime in version 5.

You could try upgrading for $30ish and see if substreams bring your system stability or spend a couple hundred for a new machine!

I'm going to give that a shot; upgrading to version 5. I trust I can export version 4 legacy setting to a .reg file and import into version 5?

 

[mattp]

Looks like there's a way to export the settings and re-import them:
But, I don't know if or how it would work going from version 4 to 5.
If you launch the version 5 setup, does it give an option to upgrade the existing installation? Either way, you should backup your settings.

 

[wittaj]

Here is the wiki on the migration

Blue Iris 4 to 5 Migration Guide

Blue Iris 5 was released on May 31, 2019. This is a guide for how to upgrade from Blue Iris 4 to Blue Iris 5. When following this procedure, your existing Blue Iris 4 license key will be upgraded to a Blue Iris 5 license and you will not receive a new Blue Iris 5 license key. Step 0) Consider...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[jkelley]

Here is the wiki on the migration

Blue Iris 4 to 5 Migration Guide

Blue Iris 5 was released on May 31, 2019. This is a guide for how to upgrade from Blue Iris 4 to Blue Iris 5. When following this procedure, your existing Blue Iris 4 license key will be upgraded to a Blue Iris 5 license and you will not receive a new Blue Iris 5 license key. Step 0) Consider...

ipcamtalk.com

Excellent, thank you I will check into that very soon.

I did reconfig each of the cams last night and let everything run overnight, and also researched a little more into my windows log error and it was possibly (but not certainly) a display driver issue, so I re-installed that and actually rolled it back a version.
This morning I think I found the "memory leak" issue (?). Nothing was frozen on the computer (yay!!) but the CPU utilization was 97-100% and only 2 of (10) the cameras had signal showing in BI. Nothing was showing recording. Memory usage was at 93% too!! Task manager showed BI the culprit of course, something like 6.4GB usage. I couldn't restart cameras (I tried restarting all, through BI), all failed no signal. CPU and RAM utilization still capped out. I tried from my phone (not BI app, just an IP cam app) and all cameras worked instantly - so cameras were working fine themselves.
I then just ended the service task from windows task manager which since it's running as a service it automatically restarted, and everything was back to being fine (around 32% memory usage and 40-44% cpu utilization, with nothing triggered or recording, just the camera main feeds showing in BI application).

Is this memory leak?

There's good news though, after reading through all these help guides and you all's helpful advice especially on the i-frame intervals and such my cameras are much more responsive when pulling up on my phone, have smoother playback, and have smoother clips when recording even though I set everything down to 10 fps!! (many were 20 fps originally but stuttery).

 

[The Automation Guy]

Do you have a dedicated hard drive for recording, or is everything thing (Windows, BI and recordings) all on that single 250gb SSD drive? I don't really think that is the cause of your issue, but you should really get a dedicated hard drive for your recordings. It shouldn't be an SSD drive either IMHO, Leave that for the OS drive.

 

[jkelley]

Do you have a dedicated hard drive for recording, or is everything thing (Windows, BI and recordings) all on that single 250gb SSD drive? I don't really think that is the cause of your issue, but you should really get a dedicated hard drive for your recordings. It shouldn't be an SSD drive either IMHO, Leave that for the OS drive.

Makes sense. I will do this, I should have room for a 3.5" HDD in the case and I have a few I can choose from not in use.

I've just installed version 5 BI and it's in eval mode of course, but I cannot upgrade for $30 unless I'm just missing the location for the link? It says I have to buy the full version on the web site for $70?

 

[The Automation Guy]

While Eval mode is nearly 100% fully featured, one of the things it IS lacking is the ability to record directly to disk. So if you are experiencing these issues only on the eval software, I think this is the root of your problem. If this is the case, switching to a fully paid/licensed version and using the "direct to disk" recording method, should make your problem go away.

 

[bp2008]

On Home - Blue Iris Software you will find:

• Extend support & maintenance ($29.95 /yr)
• Priority support & maintenance ($99.95 /yr)
• 1 yr. extension of support & maintenance ($34.95 one time)

If you buy any of these, they send you a support license key. You must add that to your existing activated Blue Iris installation, and then it will upgrade your existing Blue Iris 4 license key to version 5. This grants you a perpetual license to Blue Iris 5 and the ability to install and run any minor Blue Iris 5 update that gets released before the expiration of your support plan (which would be around Dec 30, 2023, if you activated today). If you wanted to request support from Blue Iris after that date, or install a Blue Iris 5.x patch released after that date, then you'd need to extend your support plan again at that time.

So most cost-conscious people just buy the first option for $30 and immediately cancel the recurring subscription that it sets up, that way they save $5 compared to the $35 one-time purchase but they get the same thing.

 

[bp2008]

and also researched a little more into my windows log error and it was possibly (but not certainly) a display driver issue, so I re-installed that and actually rolled it back a version.

I agree this is likely the cause. Having the computer completely freeze and not wake up when you move the mouse, that is not Blue Iris's fault. Such symptoms usually indicate a hardware problem or a bad device driver (Blue Iris does not include any device drivers).

Regardless, I recommend you upgrade to Blue Iris 5, set up sub streams by following the sub stream guide that was linked many posts above, and if problems persist, then turn off hardware accelerated video decoding in Blue Iris because that is a common cause of problems, and frankly you probably don't need it once you have the sub streams configured and working.

 

[jkelley]

While Eval mode is nearly 100% fully featured, one of the things it IS lacking is the ability to record directly to disk. So if you are experiencing these issues only on the eval software, I think this is the root of your problem. If this is the case, switching to a fully paid/licensed version and using the "direct to disk" recording method, should make your problem go away.

Ah, I'll need to check this when I'm back to my PC. Thanks for the heads up!

On Home - Blue Iris Software you will find:

• Extend support & maintenance ($29.95 /yr)
• Priority support & maintenance ($99.95 /yr)
• 1 yr. extension of support & maintenance ($34.95 one time)

If you buy any of these, they send you a support license key. You must add that to your existing activated Blue Iris installation, and then it will upgrade your existing Blue Iris 4 license key to version 5. This grants you a perpetual license to Blue Iris 5 and the ability to install and run any minor Blue Iris 5 update that gets released before the expiration of your support plan (which would be around Dec 30, 2023, if you activated today). If you wanted to request support from Blue Iris after that date, or install a Blue Iris 5.x patch released after that date, then you'd need to extend your support plan again at that time.

So most cost-conscious people just buy the first option for $30 and immediately cancel the recurring subscription that it sets up, that way they save $5 compared to the $35 one-time purchase but they get the same thing.

Excellent! Thank you I was able to do this yesterday and upgrade to BI 5. Truthfully I had some issues where it was crashing immediately but it looks like that was because I did not make the step of turning off BI as a service first, but after some successful googling and reading the readme I fixed some registry figures on HW acceleration per camera and then it worked! All settings appeared to retain, surprisingly, even after I'd uninstalled BI 4 completely first including checking the box t uninstall all of the configurations as well - so that was interesting. But I'm happy.

I agree this is likely the cause. Having the computer completely freeze and not wake up when you move the mouse, that is not Blue Iris's fault. Such symptoms usually indicate a hardware problem or a bad device driver (Blue Iris does not include any device drivers).

Regardless, I recommend you upgrade to Blue Iris 5, set up sub streams by following the sub stream guide that was linked many posts above, and if problems persist, then turn off hardware accelerated video decoding in Blue Iris because that is a common cause of problems, and frankly you probably don't need it once you have the sub streams configured and working.

Yep it's very likely. I do think I remember several months ago this happening during my troubleshooting and it happened even when BI wasn't running but I couldn't remember (my BI machine has been non-functional for 6+ months at least and finally got around to tackling it).

Looks like it's been stable for 2 nights now so I think I may be out of the woods! I'm particularly happy about all of the i-frame and others changes as well as I seem to have a significant increase in video performance, loading, clip recording quality, and best yet in my phone app the cams are significantly better responsiveness!

Thank you everyone for your help!!!!!!