Question about using Hikvision's alarm I/O vs. Blue Iris motion trigger

[Palmpilot]

Hi,

I recently got a new DS-2CD2332-I and (my bad) failed to notice, before I ordered it, that it does not have built in Alarm I/O like the rest of my Hikvision cameras (I have the 2532 and 2432s). I really like the 2332, it doesn't suffer from the IR bleeding that I constantly fight with on the 2532 (cleaning the dome from the outside every once in a while to improve night vision) and it really blends well on walls due to the small footprint and all-white body.

But the lack of alarm I/O had me fallback on Blue Iris to do the motion trigger (on my 2532 and 2432 I use alarm I/O and not Blue Iris's mechanism).

Other than the obvious CPU issue (I am running Blue Iris on a Lenovo ThinkStation D10 with a Quad Core Intel Xeon E5450 3.00Ghz), is there any other benefit to using the camera's built-in Alarm I/O over Blue Iris's motion trigger?

I am considering adding a few more 2332s to my home setup but not sure if my server (hardware) will be able to handle so many cameras without Alarm I/O.
BTW I also use this server as my Plex Media Server. It is constantly at around 75% CPU (and Blue Iris takes about 40% most of the time).

What do you think?
Am I better off getting dome/mini-domes instead of the turret so I can gain Alarm I/O (and better CPU on the server) but then deal with domes/IR issues?
Or maybe continue to get the turret (2332) but buy a better server/PC?

Thanks!

 

[fenderman]

@Palmpilot, My advice would be to stick with the turret...unless you need the other options available on the domes, like sd card or audio connections..the turrets ir is better than the dome (and much stronger than the mini domes)...
Out of curiosity have you tested the effect on cpu using BI motion over the cameras? I would be curious to know..
The only benefit of using the cameras in camera motion (aside from cpu) is that hikvision has line cross detection and intrusion detection...Ken says line cross and other filters are coming to blue iris.
Using blue iris motion detection will also allow you to set different motion settings depending on the profile you select...so you can have different levels for day/night, home/away etc..
I dont understand why hikvision does not make this camera with audio/built in mic, like the dahua 4300c, Sd card, and alarm out..it would be killer...
Are you recording direct to disk?

 

[Palmpilot]

Thank you @fenderman for all the information. Sadly I didn't do anything scientific to measure, it is based on the assumption that BI motion requires more CPU cycles to analyze compared to simply activating based on alarm i/o trigger. If my memory doesn't betray me I think I saw a very small bump (probably from 35% to 39% CPU) when I started to use BI for motion with the 2332. Maybe one day I will have more time to isolate it.
I agree with you on the turret, it is a beautiful camera and adding any combination of the features you mentioned would make it even more amazing.

I am recording direct to disk on all my 5 cameras and just today saw your recommendation on another thread to match the I-Frame to the camera's frame rate, so I set mine to 10 on both. Hopefully that will help a little bit. 4 of my cameras record in HD (two 3MP and two 1080p). I pre-trigger 100 frames on each camera.

Any other tips to lower CPU (while not sacrificing quality)?

What do you think about this older Lenovo ThinkStation D10 (Quad Core Intel Xeon E5450 3.00Ghz)? do you have recommendations for a better (but still economical) system?

Thanks!

 

[fenderman]

There are a few threads discussing good deals on systems...My recommendation is the dell outlet BUSINESS sale...you can pick up an optiplex 7020 i7 haswell for about 429...or you can get an i5 haswell for about 300...another great option is the HP elitedesk 800, i5 haswells can be had in the 300 range on ebay with next business day warranties...
One thing you can do that is not mentioned below is to limit the live preview rate - will not effect recording...so if you are recording at 10fps you can set the live rate to 5...blue iris options>cameras
From the help file

Here are some things to look at in order to attempt to minimize CPU utilization:​

• What other software is running on the same PC? Can any of that be eliminated?​
• Can you lower the capture frame rate on one or more of your cameras? For an IP camera, this also must be done from within the camera's own browser interface--ideally the framerate that the IP camera is sending should match the value you specify in Blue Iris.​
• Can you lower the resolution on one or more of your cameras?​
• Can you remove one or more video overlay graphics or text? Transparent items use the most CPU.​
• Can you switch to the BVR recording format? This is more efficient than either MP4 or WMV. ​
• If you are running multiple cameras, can one of them be eliminated?​
• Can you minimize the Blue Iris window? When it is minimized, no CPU time is used to draw to the screen.​
• If you are running as a service, do not leave the console instance running when unnecessary​
• Turn off Windows Aero (switch to Windows Vista or 7 "basic" display mode). It is pretty, but it uses more CPU cycles to draw to the screen in this mode.​
• Are you using the pre-trigger frames option on the Record tab? This will use more CPU.​
• If you switch from H.264 to XVID codec recording, this will save CPU time on slower processors. Install that from XVID.org. When installed, it will become an option on the Record/Format page in camera properties.​
• For an IP camera, you can eliminate re-encoding video altogether during recording by using the Direct-To-Disc option on the Recording format page.​

 

[Palmpilot]

Awesome. Thank you for all this great information!