Severe video blocking and artifacting with Dahua and new i7 Blue Iris server

silencery

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Hi ipcam community,

I'm tearing my hair out over this issue and hoping someone can help! I feel like I've gone through the entire checklist already, but no matter what, several wired cams are showing really bad artifacting on capturing motion (cars passing by or even people walking).

The camera which shows this issue most frequently is one of the HFW5431E-ZE units, but really this problem comes up on all 5 of my wired dahuas. It's notable that this does not show up either of the two wireless cameras. Sample video below:

View attachment frontcam1.mp4



















Cams: HFW5431E-ZE x 2, HDW5231R-ZE x 3, 2 x Hikvision wifi doorbells
Cam configuration: Bitrates set to 4096 or 6144, smart codec off
Server specs: Intel i7-10700K, 32GB, recording to SSD
Avg performance: 5% avg CPU load, 40% memory, 8% GPU load
Server Configuration: Intel 630 driver 26.20.100.7323, using substreams
Network specs: Wired gigabit ethernet over CAT6. Cams separated to their own VLAN
  • Verified virus scanning off for recording drive
  • Tried keyframe values of .25, .50, 1.0 (no noticeable difference)
  • Tried H264, H264+, H265 encoding on cams (no difference, but H265 caused exports to fail)
  • Used VBR and CBR (changing to CBR helped a little bit)
  • Tested FPS ranges from 15-30
  • Tested HA modes: Off, Intel, Intel +VPP, Intel Beta (Off had the best results, but still artifacts)
Have I missed anything?
Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!!
 

Flintstone61

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My memory is getting bad,,,,I had this problem too when i was a new new newbie.....I forget which setting(s) you need to change. I'm thinking it was maybe the shutter speed had to go up,,,,,but it comes at a cost in low light conditions requiring more available light. Somebody with hard knowledge will chime in a few minutes I bet....
 

silencery

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Thanks for the reply. You reminded me I forgot to include a few more details:

  • Problem happens during day and night, even when lighting is good. Definitely more noticeable at night though.
  • The recordings are always great for the first few frames. Pixellation only occurs after a few frames have processed (seems to vary between 500-1500ms); almost as if some sort of buffer bottleneck is getting hit.
 

Flintstone61

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Thanks for the reply. You reminded me I forgot to include a few more details:

  • Problem happens during day and night, even when lighting is good. Definitely more noticeable at night though.
  • The recordings are always great for the first few frames. Pixellation only occurs after a few frames have processed (seems to vary between 500-1500ms); almost as if some sort of buffer bottleneck is getting hit.
I have a Jidetech 2 Megapixel PTZ That does this by default....I had to manually set the shutter to about 1/160 or higher If I remember right. There was a slider to adjust it from 1/2 to like 1/2000. 1/2000 was fine during bright outdoor daylight, but nothing was visible in the dark except the headlights...
 

SouthernYankee

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silencery

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Thanks @fenderman and @SouthernYankee. Sorry for the terse reply earlier. Was on mobile. I already have an HDMI dummy plug installed. Had that experience from my previous machine. Problem still persists :(
 

silencery

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Ah, I (hopefully!) think I found the culprit. As @SouthernYankee mentioned, I didn't have Power Display screen: never configured.

@chaosengine yes, it's quite strange. Can't figure out what it could be. At least 1 of the HFW5431E and 2 of the HDW5231R are showing this problem. They are all run through the same switch. The firmware is also all the same, latest from Andy.
 

Flintstone61

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Makes me wonder if I should drive the hell over to work and fiddle with that G$#&(*! D|!%$$$ Jidetech in the dark....I just bought a BF special from Andy....I think i'm gonna shitcan the Jidetech from that location....put it outback to watch Geese eat my lawn....
 

Flintstone61

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Makes me wonder if I should drive the hell over to work and fiddle with that G$#&(*! D|!%$$$ Jidetech in the dark....I just bought a BF special from Andy....I think i'm gonna shitcan the Jidetech from that location....put it outback to watch Geese eat my lawn....
that particular Camera has no I-frame settings to adjust. they simply do not exist in any menu or submenu of the Camera’s browser page. frustrating to use it in that location.
 

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silencery

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Happy post-Thanksgiving everyone.
I wanted to let it run for a few days before reporting back, but here's a quick update.
  • Changed windows settings to Power Display screen: never. Turned out it didn't make a difference.
  • Increased Receive buffer in BI from 6MB to 20MB. Improved a little, but artifacting still happens.
  • In cameras: Configured ROI to just focus on the lower 2/3rds of the video. Also improved things a little
  • Updated to BI v. 5.3.5.1(today's release)
  • Finally, I found the only thing that GUARANTEES there won't be artifacting is to turn off substreams. Obviously I prefer not to do that, but looks like I may not have any other choice.
 
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spammenotinoz

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Cams: HFW5431E-ZE x 2, HDW5231R-ZE x 3, 2 x Hikvision wifi doorbells
Cam configuration: Bitrates set to 4096 or 6144, smart codec off
Server specs: Intel i7-10700K, 32GB, recording to SSD
Avg performance: 5% avg CPU load, 40% memory, 8% GPU load
Server Configuration: Intel 630 driver 26.20.100.7323, using substreams
Network specs: Wired gigabit ethernet over CAT6. Cams separated to their own VLAN
  • Verified virus scanning off for recording drive
  • Tried keyframe values of .25, .50, 1.0 (no noticeable difference)
  • Tried H264, H264+, H265 encoding on cams (no difference, but H265 caused exports to fail)
  • Used VBR and CBR (changing to CBR helped a little bit)
  • Tested FPS ranges from 15-30
  • Tested HA modes: Off, Intel, Intel +VPP, Intel Beta (Off had the best results, but still artifacts)
Have I missed anything?
Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!!
I have encountered the exact issue on more than one system and the cause was different on both. I think your testing is spot on, however I recommend the following (sorry if you tested and I missed this);
  • Put an SD Card in the CAM and then download\playback the SD File so you know if it is the camera or network BI related.
  • Testing use H.264 with CBR, and no hardware decode with just a single active cam, and then ramp-up adjust your settings.

As to the fix;
- System A: I was writing to an SD, but moved to an old 7200rpm laptop drive and that fixed the problem. Some SSD's even so-called high-performance ones may not be designed for sustained sequential write operations.
ie: SSD's are really designed to help with random reads and writes, which is why they speed up your PC performance.

If you don't have an old-school hard-drive you can test with a RAM disk. I use "IMDisk" for a Ramdisk to hold temp areas for non-critical areas like Plex Transcoding, I would not recommend using this for BI but can assist testing.
I was just testing on pretty much one of the latest Intel NUC's, so was really surprised, wasn't a Skull.
Wireless cams generally have much lower bandwidth rates, so your SSD could actually be the issue here if the issue is impacting Hard-Wired, otherwise a cabling \ switch issue.

- System B: The Fix was a little more complicated and although fixed I never identified the root cause and you tried everything I did;
From memory, I did a complete factory reset of the CAM's and setup again. On that system many Dahua cameras were impacted, so I was frustrated I never found the cause.
  • Ensure the Frame Rates are aligned between Main and the Sub-Stream, only have 1 substream enabled not both. I am using sub-stream 2, but have tired both. This causes playback\detection issues but won't be your cause.
  • As you said CBR helps a little, especially with H.265 but wasn't the cause.
  • Upped the receive buffer to 10mb (I see you already went to 20)
  • Ensure the Cameras were set to Intel Beta (per camera, not at the BI system level)
  • Updated all camera firmware from the ones Andy Provided
  • Went through the camera and disabled any unwanted services (I do this anyway for security reasons)
  • Swapped out the POE switch
  • Re-configured Windows Network Adapters, making sure everything was negotiating the correct speed
  • Changed Network Driver to and old one "From an old quicksync forum here, has stayed working so still using the old one Intel HD Graphics 26.20.100.8142" Will try update if I refresh. My PC is old so doubt this will be your issue.
  • Set iframe to double key frame (I know this help, which was strange my older cams worked best when set 1:1
  • Replaced common cabling and performed file transfer tests on each leg to try and identity network issues (yes old school)
  • Added BlueIris.exe to the Windows Defender Exclusions List
  • Moved to .BVR format (direct to disk ofcourse was using MPEG previously)
  • Un-selected record "dual streams if available" within BI
From an outsider, I would guess the issue either relates to the SSD or you have a Network issue. If you google your network card details, OS and slow network, see what it comes back with.

  • System C :Sorry forgot a third instance where artifacting was occurring just like you have shown.
  • I have also experienced this issue on another machine and it turned out to be a playback issue only.
When I exported the clip to an MPEG and played on another device it was fine.
When viewed via IOS app I did not have the issue.
In this instance it was very occasional, and sometimes if I watched the clip 10 times, it would artifact 10 times, but then if I played backwards (no artifacting) then went forward (no artifacting)
Unselecting "Also BVR" in the Video tab seemed to fix it, but it happed so occasional and was only on playback I left also BVR selected.

Please let me know how you get on.
PS: Most of my Dahua's are now back on H.265 with VBR and working fine. Yes CBR is still possibly clearer, but I can no longer personally tell the difference since updating firmware.
 
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silencery

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Wow, what a great post. Thanks for the tips! Been crazy busy lately, but I'll be sure to try out some of these ideas.

The part about moving off SSD makes a lot of sense in an unintuitive, roundabout way.

Appreciate the info!
 
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