Blue Iris UI3

[eangulus]

Beta b26 is available in the first post:
* Fixed a bug where some users experienced their streaming quality preference being changed to "Jpeg Best Quality" after a browser crash.
* Fixed a bug where new preset thumbnails could not appear in tooltips until the next page load.

Did you update recently? I only did 25 only an hour or so ago. Will update now.

 

[bp2008]

Yes, just a moment ago, although it is unrelated to your error. I'm completely at a loss trying to figure out how you got the error you did.

 

[eangulus]

Yes, just a moment ago, although it is unrelated to your error. I'm completely at a loss trying to figure out how you got the error you did.

Not sure if you saw my update. This was while on 25 still:

Went to try the right-click option, and it wasn't working. (no right click BI menu, even thou was working prior to 25). I changed the option for Context Menu from Enabled to Disabled. Then tried the Preset press and hold again and this time it worked.

 

[bp2008]

Aha! You had enabled context menu compatibility mode (it was only meant for extremely rare systems that can't open context menus any other way). That was the missing piece of this puzzle. It seems the long-press event script has a bug I need to fix. Thanks for the report.

Also on another issue, I see that the camera is running at 1024x720 for Stream Resolution but Native is 1920x1080. Can the stream resolution be changed and if so where can I find it?

That is an issue with Blue Iris that I reported to the developer months ago. Blue Iris has a setting (in Blue Iris Options > Web server > Advanced > Encoder profiles > Configure) for resizing the output frame, but it does not work, so we typically get 720p and have no way to change it.

 

[bp2008]

Beta b27 is available in the first post. It fixes the bug @eangulus discovered with context menu compatibility mode.

* Changed the jquery.longpress custom event to treat the "this" object like other click events do. This fixes a bug causing some menu items to fail when Context Menu Compatibility Mode was enabled.
* Added a note to the Context Menu Compatibility Mode toast message indicating which action is enabled to open context menus.

 

[eangulus]

Aha! You had enabled context menu compatibility mode (it was only meant for extremely rare systems that can't open context menus any other way). That was the missing piece of this puzzle. It seems the long-press event script has a bug I need to fix. Thanks for the report.



That is an issue with Blue Iris that I reported to the developer months ago. Blue Iris has a setting (in Blue Iris Options > Web server > Advanced > Encoder profiles > Configure) for resizing the output frame, but it does not work, so we typically get 720p and have no way to change it.

Soon to be setting up some 4K cameras, is this problem affecting that too? Kinda sucky to only get a 720 stream for a 4K camera.

 

[awsum140]

I love UI3 and keep it open on my craptop all the time. One of the interesting "features" is seeing the movement of the sun when the screen saver is deactivated after an hour or so! I'm using it with Pale Moon which doesn't support H264. I also have Edge on the craptop but don't use it even though it does support H264. There's a problem with the digital zoom functon. If I zoom in using the mouse wheel it goes to full zoom, X50, rather than stepping as it does in Pale Moon. I'm not sure if it's a quirk with my craptop or something else.

Edge versions -
Microsoft Edge 41.16299.15.0
Microsoft EdgeHTML 16.16299

 

[bp2008]

Soon to be setting up some 4K cameras, is this problem affecting that too? Kinda sucky to only get a 720 stream for a 4K camera.

Yeah, it affects 4K cameras too...

Unfortunately, even when this issue gets resolved, UI3 can't handle 4K streaming in any H.264 mode. UI3's video decoder is the best I could find for JavaScript, but it is still JavaScript which means it runs slower than other compiled code, it is single-threaded, and doesn't have access to hardware acceleration. I tried a 3840x2160 group stream (you can set the resolution for group streams) but the video decoder just crashes instantly with an error about memory allocation. 3840x1800 also fails. I am able to stream 3840x1600, which is about 3/4 of a 4K stream, at ~18 FPS, and this is nearly the limit of an i7-7700K client. There really isn't a faster CPU out there for this purpose.

In fact this attempt showed me that Google Chrome appears to have a memory leak causing the browser tab to crash after a while. Apparently it crashes sooner if the video stream is bigger, because it only takes about a minute at 3840x1600@18 FPS. This probably explains the crashes experienced by @bonsey and @Philip Gonzales and others on their Android Chrome. For what its worth, MS Edge is still handling this stream perfectly.

I also have Edge on the craptop but don't use it even though it does support H264. There's a problem with the digital zoom functon. If I zoom in using the mouse wheel it goes to full zoom, X50, rather than stepping as it does in Pale Moon. I'm not sure if it's a quirk with my craptop or something else.

Probably a mouse driver quirk. Do you have some special mouse software on there?

 

[awsum140]

Yeah, It think that's it, BP. I was thinking the same thing. I installed a replacement wheel mouse about a month ago, LogtTech, and installed the drivers for it at the same time. I've had a wheel mouse on this craptop for years but never used the LogiTech drivers for it. I don't remember having that problem prior to then with Edge, but my memory is crap anyway. What was I saying? Oh yeah, what's funny is that the scroll/zoom works in IE, FireFox and Pale Moon but is crapolla in Edge. Chalk up another one to MicroSoft. The keyboard zoom works fine though, so maybe I'll switch back to Edge.

 

[VRC]

Just trying this out, totally awesome! One question that I'm sure has been asked but couldn't find through the search;
Can you still just record/download (for example) a 10 second clip out of an hour long file like you could with ActiveX? It only downloads .bvr file, unless I'm missing something.
Thanks

 

[eangulus]

Another feature request, not sure if possible but can layout be changed?

Like I know that the order of cameras is dependant on order in BI, but what about having the option of 1 bigger view with smaller views of other cameras around the bottom and side and things like that?

 

[eangulus]

Yeah, it affects 4K cameras too...

Unfortunately, even when this issue gets resolved, UI3 can't handle 4K streaming in any H.264 mode. UI3's video decoder is the best I could find for JavaScript, but it is still JavaScript which means it runs slower than other compiled code, it is single-threaded, and doesn't have access to hardware acceleration. I tried a 3840x2160 group stream (you can set the resolution for group streams) but the video decoder just crashes instantly with an error about memory allocation. 3840x1800 also fails. I am able to stream 3840x1600, which is about 3/4 of a 4K stream, at ~18 FPS, and this is nearly the limit of an i7-7700K client. There really isn't a faster CPU out there for this purpose.

In fact this attempt showed me that Google Chrome appears to have a memory leak causing the browser tab to crash after a while. Apparently it crashes sooner if the video stream is bigger, because it only takes about a minute at 3840x1600@18 FPS. This probably explains the crashes experienced by @bonsey and @Philip Gonzales and others on their Android Chrome. For what its worth, MS Edge is still handling this stream perfectly.



Probably a mouse driver quirk. Do you have some special mouse software on there?

Is it possible to do the 4K streams using Edge then? Wouldn't be such a bad thing if a user wanted a 4K stream but had to use Edge to get it. Why not use whatever Youtube is using for video? 4K youtube handles fine on my PC. I don't expect the feature in this release, but considering the cost of 4K cameras have drastically reduced, there are going to be more and more users wanting 4K.

 

[bp2008]

Can you still just record/download (for example) a 10 second clip out of an hour long file like you could with ActiveX?

No, UI3 can't do this.

what about having the option of 1 bigger view with smaller views of other cameras around the bottom and side and things like that?

That is not currently possible since UI3 (and other client apps) have no control over the group layout. Maybe some day, if enough people ask the Blue Iris developer for it, he will add something like that.

Is it possible to do the 4K streams using Edge then?

Nope, Edge's performance is basically the same as Chrome's (minus one memory leak which affects long-term stability).

Why not use whatever Youtube is using for video? 4K youtube handles fine on my PC.

UI3 can do that too, more or less. Right click on any live stream and choose "Open HLS Stream". This uses the browser's built-in audio and video codecs, which typically are very well optimized and/or hardware-accelerated. Unfortunately, the web standards were designed for playing pre-recorded video files, and they do a terrible job of live streaming. To use this for live streaming, you have to buffer a lot of video ahead of time so it can be encoded into a series of short video clips that are fed into the browser in sequence. This creates a lot of video delay, which you will notice if you try UI3's HLS streaming ability.

 

[rkn]

Unfortunately, even when this issue gets resolved, UI3 can't handle 4K streaming in any H.264 mode. UI3's video decoder is the best I could find for JavaScript, but it is still JavaScript which means it runs slower than other compiled code, it is single-threaded, and doesn't have access to hardware acceleration. I tried a 3840x2160 group stream (you can set the resolution for group streams) but the video decoder just crashes instantly with an error about memory allocation. 3840x1800 also fails. I am able to stream 3840x1600, which is about 3/4 of a 4K stream, at ~18 FPS, and this is nearly the limit of an i7-7700K client.

Does the JavaScript decoder work well enough for something in between 1280x720 and 4K, .e.g. 1920x1080 or 2560x1440?

My group view is set to 1440x900 and that seems fine on all my devices and I see the stats popup shows the stream resolution is not reduced for that view unlike the individual camera streams (where the web server resize output frame setting is ignored as you mentioned).

This makes me think there's scope for more resolution using H.264 streaming even if not the 4K discussed above, assuming Ken can get around to fixing the BI bug.

 

[bp2008]

The resolutions and frame rates which UI3's decoder can handle are CPU dependent, right up until it crashes because the resolution is too high. 2560x1440 should work fine on a fast enough CPU given that 3840x1600 works for me.

 

[eangulus]

Im kinda lost on where I can test better resolutions.

I am currently getting under Stats for Nerds a 720 stream for the group and 720 for each 1080 camera. I have tried the settings in the Web Server side on BI and there is no res setting for the h264 stream on each camera. You mention I can change the group stream too. Where are these settings/options?

 

[piconut]

You mention I can change the group stream too. Where are these settings/options?

I think bp2008 is referring to the group resolution settings in blue iris...see post #73

 

[eangulus]

I think bp2008 is referring to the group resolution settings in blue iris...see post #73

Never noticed that setting before. Learning something new all the time.

Now is there a similar setting for each camera instead of a group?

 

[rkn]

Now is there a similar setting for each camera instead of a group?

Not per camera, but globally however it doesn't work at the moment as bp2008 mentioned earlier in the thread. The setting is:

Options -> Web Server -> Advanced -> Encoder profiles…..Configure -> “Resize output frame width x height”

bp2008 mentioned he reported this a while back, I did the same recently (no reply as of yet) and hopefully the more people that report the better the chance of getting it fixed.

 

[philipzeo]

Hi bp2008,

Just a heads up to a weird problem using ui3.
I believe it is chrome related and not BI or ui3.

If I am viewing ui3 and click on a different chrome browser window (like gmail) I get a memory leak condition.
The memory for the ui3 instance of chrome continues to increase until it fails the streams (runs out of memory on computer)





Once memory begins leaking it continues until the memory is depleted and the streams fail.
The following recovers the memory:
Reload the page
Play a clip and come back to live view
Change the streaming quality
Clicking on a single camera to maximize and again to go back to main page also seems to sometimes reset the memory (every other time??)
(All things that reset the streams)

To complicate matters, I noticed it only after recently upgrading BI and ui3.
I am running:
ui3 = beta27
BI = 4.6.9.2
Chrome = Version 64.0.3282.167 (Official Build) (32-bit)

I tried downgrading back to ui3 beta24 and BI to 4.6.5.2
This combination was working flawlessly for weeks - but this combination still has the memory leak today.

It also appears to be in the h.264 connection - jpeg streaming doesn't exhibit the problem.
This condition doesn't happen on home machine (windows 10) Chrome Version 63.0.3239.132 (Official Build) (64-bit)
I tried upgrading chrome at home to the same version at work (only 64bit) Version 64.0.3282.167 (Official Build) (64-bit) and still no memory leaks there.

I have no control over chrome upgrades (work machine) so I think something broken in either win7 or chrome (32 bit).

Until I can figure a work around (or Chrome is fixed), I have to go back to ie and activex at work


Phil