Triggered recordings are only using sub stream lower quality

RifRaff13

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So I have the cams configured for main and sub streams. When i look at a cam, it switches to main, and the quality is good (3840x2160). When its triggered and i review the video, it's recording only in the sub steam quality of 856x480. What do i have configured wrong?

I though sub was for main screen viewing (all the cams in the group), but when triggered it would show and record the triggered cam using the main steam feed for best quality. Is that correct?

Thanks
Raf
 

wittaj

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Post some screenshots of your camera configuration settings that shows main and sub stream profiles, alerts tab, and recording tab, along with the camera model.
 

RifRaff13

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So nothing glaring?

I have also sent an email to BI support to see if they have any clues for me. I have played with removing the sub stream, and in that case, it does record in 4k (3840x2160). I do see a little more CPU usage but no big deal. I am running a Ryzen 9 5900x 12 core processor with 64G mem, writing to a 1T M.2 SSD.

I also played with the Streaming Quality setting on the client web page, and have it at 1080p VBR. I have also played with the cam settings to use VBR from CBR thinking BI might like that better.

Here is the cam video settings:
1660141048201.png

This spark any ideas?

Thanks
Rif
 

RifRaff13

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Thanks for the info, i reset those... doesn't change the recording issue thou, but tuning is always good! I have disabled the sub stream and it records in 4k, but also notice that the frame FPS drops to like 5 while recording. CPU is never more then 35%... Is that an issue with the ryzen vs the intel with the video sync feature i wonder.

Still waiting to hear from BI... been 2 days.
 

RifRaff13

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OK so if anyone is still interested, it appears it's the web browser playback. I discovered if I RDP into the server and watch the clips there, they are in full rez. I don't have right click properties on the image to confirm but i can see the difference.

So why would the browser be down-scaling (or selecting) the playback (via web page) to the sub stream? I know there's a setting that i record both main and sub, but why would my browser only use the sub?

Hmmmmm
 

spammenotinoz

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Hi, have you checked that BI is not configured to playback "substream when available"
ie: Play a clip, then right-click and ensure "use sub stream when available" is NOT selected. When this is selected, BI only plays back the "sub-stream"
Good news is you have both streams saved.
(sorry i just read your update)
Settings -> WebServer -> Advanced
Then click configure.
If you are recording H.264\H.264H then select 'Direct to Wire", will save a lot of resources.
For your issue you need to Increase the "Limit Bitrate" to a decent value. On my current version if I remove the "tick" then playback doesn't work..
I also prefer the "High" profile, but suggest you experiment with these settings.
 
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RifRaff13

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Thanks for the input!

The "Use sub stream if available" is only if i am viewing from the server via RDP, and it is not checked and i am seeing playback 4k. It is when i am using the web browser on another machine and viewing clips that i only get the sub stream. I have tried a couple PC's (all windows based) and both firefox and chrome (IE wouldn't play it) and they all view the webpage playback in low res.

Do you use the actual server to view all your clips etc?
 
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I am going to piggy-back on this regarding a very similar issue-- although mine is about still pics. I have jpegs taken every 10 minutes. Those jpgs are stored at full resolution, but looking at one in UI3 gives me a low-res version:

stored:
1660224985469.png

UI3:
1660225240331.png

this is for ALL cams I have checked. It is an annoyance-- as I would like to be able to get that full-res image from UI3 to copy-paste into messages or social media. Logging into the BI machine to retrieve it is several times the hassle. I have not figured out what in UI3 is causing it to resize the jpgs for viewing in that system-- ???

Perhaps there is a similar function within UI3 that is messing with both of us.
 

RifRaff13

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Looks like the same issue to me. UI3 is not playing or displaying the max resolution for snapshot or video clips. Wondering why this has not been noticed or identified before. Maybe others can confirm they are seeing, or not seeing the same issue.
 

OICU2

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Hi, have you checked that BI is not configured to playback "substream when available"
ie: Play a clip, then right-click and ensure "use sub stream when available" is NOT selected. When this is selected, BI only plays back the "sub-stream"
Good news is you have both streams saved.
(sorry i just read your update)
Settings -> WebServer -> Advanced
Then click configure.
If you are recording H.264\H.264H then select 'Direct to Wire", will save a lot of resources.
For your issue you need to Increase the "Limit Bitrate" to a decent value. On my current version if I remove the "tick" then playback doesn't work..
I also prefer the "High" profile, but suggest you experiment with these settings.
Where is this "Direct to wire" option located? I do not see it under Settings -> WebServer -> Advanced> Then click configure.

EDIT: n/m I didn't have the latest version of BI.
 
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RifRaff13

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Good ideas! You would think this is a setting in web server tab. i have toggled everything and still will not display (in UI3) the playback using main stream. I raised the quality to 100% and unchecked rate control (as i am using 1G switch/cards etc), raised bit rate to 512 (max), tried direct to wire. Tried (under config/advanced)using the Profile:high (was main) and nothing changes the view from another pc using UI3 to view clips in anything except sub stream quality (Resolution: 856x480 ).

Again to confirm, are there others that are using UI3 interface (web) from another machine, able to view jpg or clips in the 4k?
 

looney2ns

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Good ideas! You would think this is a setting in web server tab. i have toggled everything and still will not display (in UI3) the playback using main stream. I raised the quality to 100% and unchecked rate control (as i am using 1G switch/cards etc), raised bit rate to 512 (max), tried direct to wire. Tried (under config/advanced)using the Profile:high (was main) and nothing changes the view from another pc using UI3 to view clips in anything except sub stream quality (Resolution: 856x480 ).

Again to confirm, are there others that are using UI3 interface (web) from another machine, able to view jpg or clips in the 4k?
No problems here.
 

spammenotinoz

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Good ideas! You would think this is a setting in web server tab. i have toggled everything and still will not display (in UI3) the playback using main stream. I raised the quality to 100% and unchecked rate control (as i am using 1G switch/cards etc), raised bit rate to 512 (max), tried direct to wire. Tried (under config/advanced)using the Profile:high (was main) and nothing changes the view from another pc using UI3 to view clips in anything except sub stream quality (Resolution: 856x480 ).

Again to confirm, are there others that are using UI3 interface (web) from another machine, able to view jpg or clips in the 4k?
Yes, confirming under LiveView, did you select the '4k 2160p VBR' streaming profile? It also impacts playback.
SideNote: I personally use stream 3 not 2 for my sub-streams, as generally it supports 1080p. Better quality for alerts, without wasting resources like 4k would.
 

fenderman

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Thanks for the info, i reset those... doesn't change the recording issue thou, but tuning is always good! I have disabled the sub stream and it records in 4k, but also notice that the frame FPS drops to like 5 while recording. CPU is never more then 35%... Is that an issue with the ryzen vs the intel with the video sync feature i wonder.

Still waiting to hear from BI... been 2 days.
Is the 5 fps occurring only during playback or anytime? BI defaults to 5fps (unless you change it) when using RDP.
I would delete the cam from BI and add it back.
 

RifRaff13

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Is the 5 fps occurring only during playback or anytime? BI defaults to 5fps (unless you change it) when using RDP.
I would delete the cam from BI and add it back.
It appears to be the UI3 only. All the recordings are normal looking (from the RDP session) and yes i changed RDP to full speed. I have also changed the stream quality to 2160VBR on the UI3 screen so we will see. With RDP running and BI up as well, as well as the UI3 im at less the 20% cpu and generally (on the UI3 session) now bouncing from 10-20. Yes i have my cams set to 20FPS, as thats the default for them. I know everyone says 15 is fine, but playback (in BI) seems smooth for the most part.

Follow up on streaming quality in UI3. I thought i found it in the streaming profiles, but no. I am still only able to see low res in playing clips in UI3.
 

bp2008

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Hi @RifRaff13. UI3 developer here. Blue Iris support informed me of this problem on July 31st (at least in the context of "Snapshot" clips, like @sdkid was showing for his "Front Garage" snapshot). Can you right click any of the affected clips in UI3 and click "Properties" and see what resolution is listed? I'm assuming you will see your sub stream's resolution (856x480 or similar) there. That will confirm if this is the same issue.

Assuming it is indeed showing your sub stream's resolution, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is, that means UI3 is operating as designed, and it is Blue Iris's bug to fix. You should contact Blue Iris support to let them know you're having this issue with your clips having the sub stream's resolution listed in their metadata. The good news is, I think you may be able to work around the problem in the meantime by using UI3-196 which has older video scaling code which does not treat the reported resolution as a hard limit (that change only became necessary to support Timeline playback in UI3-197 and newer). So if you download UI3-196 and install it in a subdirectory of Blue Iris's web server, e.g. C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5\www\ui3-196, then you can access it by inserting that folder name into your address bar, e.g. http://127.0.0.1:81/ui3-196/ui3.htm.

Running UI3-196 you are likely to encounter other bugs like having the wrong camera open when you click on it in the group view due to changes in how all that stuff works. But it should be able to play your clips at higher resolution at least.

I raised the quality to 100% and unchecked rate control (as i am using 1G switch/cards etc), raised bit rate to 512 (max), tried direct to wire
Quality 100% is a bad idea, especially if you uncheck rate control, because it will produce highly inflated bit rates that the video decoder might not even be able to handle, that is assuming your network is strong enough to get the video stream through in realtime. The bit rate input's max value is 8192, not 512.

Direct-to-wire streaming currently only affects live streaming of single cameras, so it doesn't affect recording at all. It is also something I do not recommend in general because you won't get any of Blue Iris's overlays that way and UI3 will be unable to control resolution or bandwidth usage.
 
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Hi @RifRaff13. UI3 developer here. Blue Iris support informed me of this problem on July 31st (at least in the context of "Snapshot" clips, like @sdkid was showing for his "Front Garage" snapshot). Can you right click any of the affected clips in UI3 and click "Properties" and see what resolution is listed? I'm assuming you will see your sub stream's resolution (856x480 or similar) there. That will confirm if this is the same issue.

Assuming it is indeed showing your sub stream's resolution, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is, that means UI3 is operating as designed, and it is Blue Iris's bug to fix. You should contact Blue Iris support to let them know you're having this issue with your clips having the sub stream's resolution listed in their metadata. The good news is, I think you may be able to work around the problem in the meantime by using UI3-196 which has older video scaling code which does not treat the reported resolution as a hard limit (that change only became necessary to support Timeline playback in UI3-197 and newer). So if you download UI3-196 and install it in a subdirectory of Blue Iris's web server, e.g. C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5\www\ui3-196, then you can access it by inserting that folder name into your address bar, e.g. http://127.0.0.1:81/ui3-196/ui3.htm.

Running UI3-196 you are likely to encounter other bugs like having the wrong camera open when you click on it in the group view due to changes in how all that stuff works. But it should be able to play your clips at higher resolution at least.



Quality 100% is a bad idea, especially if you uncheck rate control, because it will produce highly inflated bit rates that the video decoder might not even be able to handle, that is assuming your network is strong enough to get the video stream through in realtime. The bit rate input's max value is 8192, not 512.

Direct-to-wire streaming currently only affects live streaming of single cameras, so it doesn't affect recording at all. It is also something I do not recommend in general because you won't get any of Blue Iris's overlays that way and UI3 will be unable to control resolution or bandwidth usage.
Yes-- if you look at the screen shot I posted, it shows the resolution at 848x480.
When I went into the folder of that image, it was full resolution 2688 by 1520....

I thought that was really odd-- is BI saving 2 different jpgs?
If it is--- where is the low-res version stored?
If not, is UI3 auto-generating it from the full res jpg?

1660317153393.png
 
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