Stop Action Recording

[sprucecams]

I have three Hikvision cameras (DS-2CD2132-I) and two Foscam cameras (FI8904W & FI8918W) that are triggered for recording motion (all controlled by BlueIris) with masking to try avoiding false triggers. The Foscams seem to work pretty well, but the Hikvision recordings occasionally freeze. In other words, they often will initially capture and record motion but then the person moving in the frame freezes and then disappears after having walked out of view. I have the buffer set up to record the motion from the beginning, and make and break times of 0.5 and 5.0 seconds. Any thoughts or suggestions about what may be causing this would be appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[fenderman]

I have three Hikvision cameras (DS-2CD2132-I) and two Foscam cameras (FI8904W & FI8918W) that are triggered for recording motion (all controlled by BlueIris) with masking to try avoiding false triggers. The Foscams seem to work pretty well, but the Hikvision recordings occasionally freeze. In other words, they often will initially capture and record motion but then the person moving in the frame freezes and then disappears after having walked out of view. I have the buffer set up to record the motion from the beginning, and make and break times of 0.5 and 5.0 seconds. Any thoughts or suggestions about what may be causing this would be appreciated. Many thanks.

How is your cpu use? Is it near the max?

 

[sprucecams]

How is your cpu use? Is it near the max?

Good question (still a noob here ). I don't know about CPU use at the time of the recordings, but I just looked now and it is pretty constant in the 75-80% range. My CPU is an Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor and has 8GB of RAM.

 

[nayr]

that's not leaving you much overhead; if you peg system resources then frames will get dropped.. you might try recording direct to disk if your transcoding it; that will free up quite a bit of CPU.

 

[sprucecams]

Understood. The Hikvisions use direct-to-disk and the Foscams use re-encode (since they apparently cannot support d-to-d). Thanks.

 

[fenderman]

Is that 75% usage when idle or when actively recording? If you are using direct to disk, that seems high for that processor.

 

[sprucecams]

I tried disabling using the "traffic light" but it did not seem to make a difference. Does the "red light" take effect immediately? Or does it take effect only after the max record time/interval finishes. [so much to learn ]

 

[fenderman]

I dont know if a red light will stop a trigger already recording...thats easy to test though...just try it after the trigger ends and see if you can retrigger.
Make sure disable recording is checked in the options > other

 

[Nanookofthenorth]

Understood. The Hikvisions use direct-to-disk and the Foscams use re-encode (since they apparently cannot support d-to-d). Thanks.

Have you tried to update the firmware on the Foscam or try selecting a different camera in the configuration? When I updated my Foscam I could then use direct-to-disk. Sadly, the camera new out of the box needed 5 consecutive firmware updates. Mine is a different model but this might work for you to inable direct-to-disk.

 

[sprucecams]

They seem to work fine now and I've been fearful of bricking them with an update, but I will look into that. I still need to confirm CPU usage when I am sure there is no recording activity. That consistent 75%+ CPU usage does seem high for only six cameras. Thanks.

 

[sprucecams]

Tried unsuccessfully twice today to download current firmware from the Foscam website. Both times I was sent to the page to input name and email, but no return email with instructions came back. Anyboy know how to access their firmware? Many thanks.

 

[sprucecams]

Never mind. ;-) Think I found it. (I know, whatta noob! Sigh.)

 

[Nanookofthenorth]

Remember to take the oldest firmware update first, then consecutively add newer updates.

 

[sprucecams]

Thanks. I did notice that. I am one of those who actually reads the instructions. But I appreciate the reminder nonetheless. Wish me luck. I'm good at bricking things.

 

[icerabbit]

I have had a similar issues with foscam trying to download updates, kept getting shoved to the front page the other day. Noticed there was a little update. Had to sign up with email (again) in order to get the email with update urls. Already got two sales pitches since then. Every time you do something, firmware, contact support, inquire they consider it consent to get "periodic" ... "updates". If every company you deal with online, worked and acted like foscam (you contact us, you consent to spam) I'd be done with technology and just do landscaping, tree service, pond building or something.

 

[sprucecams]

Finally getting back to report. I updated the Foscam firmware and enabled direct-to-disk. No go. My mp4 files were created as if recording took place, but they would not play through WMP. Apparently Foscam still does not support it, so back to re-encoding. In any event, it did not seem to affect my high CPU usage. Still a mystery, so the search goes on for the cause.

 

[nayr]

the files recorded by these cameras cant be played back natively in external media players without appropriate codec's.. thats not a standard mp4

 

[sprucecams]

FWIW, I am revisiting my CPU usage issue (90-95% consistently), with triggered recording as discussed earlier. According to my Resource Monitor, BI usage is 55-63%, followed by LogMeIn at 12-15% (my BI PC is headless so I access it via LogMeIn) and Java Platform SE Binary at 8-12%. Are there other things I should be looking at/for? Many thanks.

 

[fenderman]

if you have the mobile app, you can check the resources there. I have seen teamviewer bump resources by 30% even though windows only reports that its using 15 or so....You can also run BI as a service or minimize the program before you exit the logmein session.

 

[sprucecams]

Wow! - still a noobe, so still excitable - I do have the Android app and it shows CPU use at 60-66%. Big difference. So, maybe I'm ok after all. Go fenderman!