Blue Iris Hardware Recommendations

dbmet · Jan 11, 2017

Thanks

fenderman said:
Easily

code2 · Apr 26, 2017

@fenderman ok you and cb seem to be the main ones to go to on BI and hardware so not that times have change what hardware would you recommend I only ask cause I have a hook up with a company that refurbishes Dells and pretty much can get it for nothing. Here is a link I was looking at the last one but I have the ability to get pretty much anything not listed on the page just have to ask when I since I see them everyday

I guess the BI fab has rub off on me watching this thread

Thanks

With Intel Core i Series

fenderman · Apr 26, 2017

code2 said:
@fenderman ok you and cb seem to be the main ones to go to on BI and hardware so not that times have change what hardware would you recommend I only ask cause I have a hook up with a company that refurbishes Dells and pretty much can get it for nothing. Here is a link I was looking at the last one but I have the ability to get pretty much anything not listed on the page just have to ask when I since I see them everyday

I guess the BI fab has rub off on me watching this thread

Thanks

With Intel Core i Series

Those are older systems but some are suitable so it depends on how many cams, resolution and frame rates..
I would spend a bit more and look at much newer skylake/kaby lake systems...

code2 · Apr 26, 2017

fenderman said:
Those are older systems but some are suitable so it depends on how many cams, resolution and frame rates..
I would spend a bit more and look at much newer skylake/kaby lake systems...

10-4 is ram important I should I stick with 8 going to be running 8 cameras all 4 mp 24x7 with exception to on which can be on motion.

fenderman · Apr 26, 2017

code2 said:
10-4 is ram important I should I stick with 8 going to be running 8 cameras all 4 mp 24x7 with exception to on which can be on motion.

You will want a modern i7 skylake (also not that skylake allows h.265 hardware acceleration eventually when BI adds it, HA is limited to h.264 now)...ram is important. Blue iris and CPU consumption as it relates to memory usage

cstout · Apr 27, 2017

@fenderman I'm a long time user of SecuritySpy on macOS and I love it but not all of my clients have a Mac they want to dedicate to surveillance. With that setup route CPU is the primary focus as the GPU is only used if you are viewing any cameras locally within the app. Is that the same with BI? I've been meaning to test a setup with BI for several years now and I think it's time to get some experience with it under my belt.

fenderman · Apr 27, 2017

cstout said:
@fenderman I'm a long time user of SecuritySpy on macOS and I love it but not all of my clients have a Mac they want to dedicate to surveillance. With that setup route CPU is the primary focus as the GPU is only used if you are viewing any cameras locally within the app. Is that the same with BI? I've been meaning to test a setup with BI for several years now and I think it's time to get some experience with it under my belt.

No. blue iris uses intel hd hardware acceleration (must support quicksync)

cstout · Apr 27, 2017

fenderman said:
No. blue iris uses intel hd hardware acceleration (must support quicksync)

Quick Sync is a feature of the CPU though, so wouldn't that be in agreement with what I asked?

fenderman · Apr 27, 2017

cstout said:
Quick Sync is a feature of the CPU though, so wouldn't that be in agreement with what I asked?

no its a feature of the onboard HD acceleration...

cstout · Apr 27, 2017

fenderman said:
no its a feature of the onboard HD acceleration...

Which is a dedicated core on the CPU. Sorry, I'm not trying to argue details...just trying to get clarity on BI using CPU as the primary (I count CPU with HD accelerated integrated graphics processing as "CPU") resource. Coming from another direction, I suppose I should have asked more about the importance/necessity of a higher end GPU. If Quick Sync the only acceleration option that BI uses, then I would say that a higher end GPU would not be of benefit. Am I correct in this? Thank you!

fenderman · Apr 27, 2017

cstout said:
Which is a dedicated core on the CPU. Sorry, I'm not trying to argue details...just trying to get clarity on BI using CPU as the primary (I count CPU with HD accelerated integrated graphics processing as "CPU") resource. Coming from another direction, I suppose I should have asked more about the importance/necessity of a higher end GPU. If Quick Sync the only acceleration option that BI uses, then I would say that a higher end GPU would not be of benefit. Am I correct in this? Thank you!

No it is separate and distinct from the cpu and does not use cpu cylces.....A discreet card will reduce performance...Use Intel hd with quick sync .. There are many threads discussing this...

cstout · Apr 27, 2017

I appreciate your feedback even though we're misunderstanding each other. I will continue researching BI and what it does and doesn't benefit from hardware-wise. For clarification, I'm talking about the CPU as a chip, the piece of hardware on the motherboard. Quick Sync is on that chip, the CPU. It's not using cycles, but it's on the physical CPU. What I'm gathering is that BI uses hardware acceleration only via this hardware and an added GPU (nvidia/ati) would not be beneficial. Thank you again, I really do appreciate your responses and I look forward to learning more about BI through testing.

wcrowder · Apr 29, 2017

cstout said:
I appreciate your feedback even though we're misunderstanding each other. I will continue researching BI and what it does and doesn't benefit from hardware-wise. For clarification, I'm talking about the CPU as a chip, the piece of hardware on the motherboard. Quick Sync is on that chip, the CPU. It's not using cycles, but it's on the physical CPU. What I'm gathering is that BI uses hardware acceleration only via this hardware and an added GPU (nvidia/ati) would not be beneficial. Thank you again, I really do appreciate your responses and I look forward to learning more about BI through testing.

It's pretty simple. Blue Iris supports "Quick Sync", look at Intel's website. It was a good decision on the authors part. Less power. No adding a GPU will not help. Before you get all, "2000 Cuda Cores" on us, it's simple, you don't need those for H264. It's a dedicated NVR, not a game machine.

Tygunn · May 3, 2017

I'm running 10 cameras (8 Dahua starlight turrets, 1 dahua starlight dome, and an old Hik) and I've got an idle PC with an Intel i5-4690k processor (3.5Ghz, 4 cores/4 threads, 4th gen devils canyon architecture); it supports QuickSync. 16 GB ram, SSD startup disk, WD spinny drive.
I'm seeing lots of variation in what people think is required -- does this seem like a reasonable machine to run for my camera count?
I presume BI has a demo I can install to evaluate?

My Dahua NVR is almost completely useless as it reboots > 20 times per day, so I'm hoping something like BI would actually be a good option. I've sunk over $1400 in cameras, and unless the NVR side of things works that's pretty much money down the toilet.

fenderman · May 3, 2017

Tygunn said:
I'm running 10 cameras (8 Dahua starlight turrets, 1 dahua starlight dome, and an old Hik) and I've got an idle PC with an Intel i5-4690k processor (3.5Ghz, 4 cores/4 threads, 4th gen devils canyon architecture); it supports QuickSync. 16 GB ram, SSD startup disk, WD spinny drive.
I'm seeing lots of variation in what people think is required -- does this seem like a reasonable machine to run for my camera count?
I presume BI has a demo I can install to evaluate?

My Dahua NVR is almost completely useless as it reboots > 20 times per day, so I'm hoping something like BI would actually be a good option. I've sunk over $1400 in cameras, and unless the NVR side of things works that's pretty much money down the toilet.

That processor can easily run your load...the demo is on the website..just install the full install file and you get 15 days..note that direct to disk does not work on the demo so you will see high cpu usage..

Tygunn · May 3, 2017

fenderman said:
That processor can easily run your load...the demo is on the website..just install the full install file and you get 15 days..note that direct to disk does not work on the demo so you will see high cpu usage..

Excellent, thanks for the response. I'll give it a try tonight!

HMS · May 4, 2017

Welp, after getting ready to join the Lets get a rebooting NVR ive decided to go to plan B like @Tygunn and get a BI set up running as well. done enough reading to skip all the amd leet grafix card arguments and skipped to ALMOST the end.

Local microcenter has

Dell OptiPlex 9010 Desktop Computer Off Lease Refurbished; Intel Core i7-2600 Processor 3.40GHz; Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit; 8GB DDR3 RAM; 500GB Hard Drive
for $360
or
Dell OptiPlex 7010 Desktop Computer Off Lease Refurbished; Intel Core i7-3770 Processor 3.4GHz; Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit; 8GB RAM; 500GB Hard Drive
for $380

or dell online

Optiplex 7040 Intel Core 6th Generation i7-6700T Processor (Quad Core, up to 3.60 GHz, 8M Cache, 35W) Windows 10 Pro 8GB (2x4GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Non ECC Memory 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 7040 micro tower
for $520

Plan is to run a mix of dahua starlight in the 2mp variety in a mix of turrets, domes n bullets and a cpl PTZ totaling 16 -24 cameras

So, wil any of these 3 setups do what i want and at what quality? dont want to buy something thats gona crawl or frustrate me right out of the gate (think the NVR will do that enough) but so far this is what i have found.

Thanks for the info and sorry for the formatting, copy paste poisoned it beyond fixing it.

DarrenD · Jul 28, 2017

Q™ said:
When you enable Direct-to-disk you loose Blue Iris' ability to time and date stamp your video. To regain this functionality, log into each camera and enable...

Advanced Config > Image > OSD Settings (Tab)

...and the result will be that each camera will time/datestamp the videp it produces...however...you then run into the problem of synchronizing the time on each of your cameras. Here's a nifty clue to solve that issue...

This is great information!

bubbajoe2112 · Nov 15, 2017

Just upgraded to an 8th generation I7 8700 with 16GB of DDR4 3200 memory. Running 11 cams as of now: Two 4MP, one 3MP, seven 2MP and one 1MP. The 3MP, the two 4MP and six of the 2MP cams are running at full resolution and 30FPS. One 2MP and the one 1MP are running VGA at 15 FPS. CPU load from Blue Iris (service) runs 35%-40%. Hardware acceleration and direct to disk are enabled.

CPU: $360
Mobo: $115 (ASRock Z370M Pro4), after MIR
Memory: $165

I had the rest.

fenderman · Nov 15, 2017

bubbajoe2112 said:
Just upgraded to an 8th generation I7 8700 with 16GB of DDR4 3200 memory. Running 11 cams as of now: Two 4MP, one 3MP, seven 2MP and one 1MP. The 3MP, the two 4MP and six of the 2MP cams are running at full resolution and 30FPS. One 2MP and the one 1MP are running VGA at 15 FPS. CPU load from Blue Iris (service) runs 35%-40%. Hardware acceleration and direct to disk are enabled.

CPU: $360
Mobo: $115 (ASRock Z370M Pro4), after MIR
Memory: $165

I had the rest.

Seems very high for the cpu and the load....are you logging in remotely? are you certain you enabled d2d and HA for every camera?

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Blue Iris Hardware Recommendations

dbmet

n3wb

code2

Getting the hang of it

fenderman

code2

Getting the hang of it

fenderman

cstout

n3wb

fenderman

cstout

n3wb

fenderman

cstout

n3wb

fenderman

cstout

n3wb

wcrowder

Getting the hang of it

Tygunn

Getting comfortable

fenderman

Tygunn

Getting comfortable

HMS

Young grasshopper

DarrenD

n3wb

bubbajoe2112

n3wb

fenderman