Slow framerate on just one camera...

[DaveK]

I've moved my camera setup to a new server, which should have quite enough horsepower to manage the video stream. However, one camera is giving me framerates of well less than one per second. Th other cameras are right up there where I've set them, at 10 fps (both in-camera and in BI).

Are there any suggestions about how to go about finding the cause of this problem? One other symptom is that when I open this camera directly in a browser window, I get very slow response and often it will not open the live view, and I get a message that the resource is "limited".

Thanks in advance for any help with this perplexing problem.

PS: System is Windows 8.1 Pro, Core i7-4790 CPU, 8MB RAM, with no other programs running on the server (except a browser, occasionally). 5 Cameras total, all Dahua 4300S series, and all were working fine just a few days ago.

 

[fenderman]

What camera?
did you change the way it connects to your network?
try deleting the camera from BI then adding it.

 

[bp2008]

Could be a network cable problem. I'd say try a different switch port first, and then try a different cable between the camera and the switch.

Also if the network cable runs near any high voltage (100+ volts) electric wires, you should know those cause interference. I once ran a cable behind some conduit feeding a breaker box and even though there was almost nothing drawing power at the time it utterly destroyed the performance, to the point I thought I was plugged in to a brick. Of course once I repositioned the cable to avoid the electric wiring, it began working perfectly.

It isn't usually that bad. In fact that was the first and last time it had ever been a problem for me. If you can't completely avoid high voltage electric wires with the network cable, then at least try to cross them perpendicularly to minimize the amount of interference ("noise") the network cable picks up. Don't run the network cable parallel to the electric lines in particular, or if you must, try to keep at least a 1 foot gap between them.

 

[DaveK]

What camera?
did you change the way it connects to your network?
try deleting the camera from BI then adding it.

1. Camera is a Dahua 4300s Bullet Cam (3MP)

2. Nope. I simply added the new computer to the network, loaded BI, and added the 5 cameras to the new BI Installation. The BI installation on the other computer was shut down to avoid conflicts.

3. I've tried deleting and re-installing, and that doesn't change things. Still getting .5 fps at best. There's a little yellow exclamation point alert on that camera, but I don't seem to be able to find anything in particular about that alert? Am i not looking in the right place?

 

[fenderman]

How is the frame rate when you log into the web interface? you can just walk by it and see if its fluid or not..If its bad in the camera, then try it with a new cable as bp2008 suggests..

 

[DaveK]

Haven't done the walk test just yet, since I don't have a helper to do it for me right now. However, looking at the information/status link for the cameras, all 5 are reporting in with about 200 kB/sec (give or take, it varies some). This camera is the only one that shows the very low frame-rate.

 

[fenderman]

I believe you can record direct to the pc via the dahua web interface so you dont need a helper...you can also test with the dahua mobile app or ip camviewer direct from the camera.

 

[DaveK]

Update... I shut down the new server, and reconnected to the cameras with the old server... And that runs just fine... all putting out about 5fps, but a CPU resource hog until I switched it back to D2D.

Got video from the camera, and it's as "smooth" as 5fps can be. The problem seems to be with the BI installation on the new server. Very curious.

 

[fenderman]

Pretty good chance that if you install bi4 32 bit you wont have any problems...

 

[DaveK]

Thanks for the suggestion... I'll try that. However, both installations are the 64 bit, and the one on the slower machine seems to work just fine... we'll just have to see, and it's not all that much trouble to reinstall as 32bit

 

[fenderman]

Thanks for the suggestion... I'll try that. However, both installations are the 64 bit, and the one on the slower machine seems to work just fine... we'll just have to see, and it's not all that much trouble to reinstall as 32bit

I guess if the other machine is 64, then thats not the issue....setting the frame rate in blue iris and unchecking adjust automatically?

 

[Chust]

Reboot router? Change max bit-rate in camera software?

 

[bp2008]

Given that the camera's web interface is sluggish when you are running the new PC, I am not so sure it is the new PC's fault. I would look for other devices that may be trying to stream from this cam. You probably have tried this already but what if you turn off (or disconnect the network on) the old PC, just to make absolutely sure it is not talking to the camera and increasing its CPU load?

It is a long shot but also possible that the new system is pulling a stream from the trouble camera through some other software you forgot you configured?

It might be easier to just try changing the IP address of the problem cam. That should end any possible unwanted activity that is overloading it, whether you can find the source or not.

Last thought, make sure the new system is fully updated. A buggy or missing driver or outdated Visual C++ 2013 package could cause strange problems.

 

[bp2008]

Reboot router? Change max bit-rate in camera software?

I have noticed that lower resolution and bit rate does reduce Dahua CPU load, but I think all the cams are the same model here so they should behave the same with the same settings and workload.

Also true that network gear can inexplicably have trouble routing packets and a reboot often clears that up. Even happened to one of my old unmanaged switches on occasion, which led me to replace it a while ago.

 

[DaveK]

Well, many thanks to all for all the suggestions. The problem is resolved, and the framerate is behaving as it should.

As to the source of the problem, it's somewhat of a mystery. The one issue that I have now determined was coincidental with this was a nasty bit of malware/adware (Cyti Web) that somehow got attached when I loaded Firefox as a browser (yes, my fault, as I didn't double check the source of the Firefox download). I suppose it's possible that the malware hammered my network throughputs and tried to attach itself to other programs as well. I think (and hope) that I've managed to eradicate it. Now that the malware is gone and I've rebooted just about every device on my network (it gets to be lots of them these days! LOL), all seems to be well.

Again, thanks to all for your helpful suggestions. I just wish I had a definitive answer as to why only one camera was affected by all this.

 

[fenderman]

If you are going to use the machine BI I would do a clean install of windows...

 

[DaveK]

Well, it was a clean install (embarassed shuffling of feet while I think about the malware). I may have to resort to that if the problem returns, but for now the bug seems to have been banished. The problem with a "clean install" is that I'm starting from Windows 8.0 Pro. Doing all the updates and then re-upgrading to 8.1 Pro simply takes a very long time (I have a very slow DSL connection).

 

[fenderman]

I hear you...but im paranoid like that

 

[Chust]

Paranoid? LOL, Try me! None of my systems with cams are exposed to the internet.

 

[Chust]

It's bad enough that your ip address shows the general area you are from, now lets add a face to that ip. Just imagine all the crap they could do.