HELP! Blue Iris has stopped working

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From a post I saw on this site recommending to "Read the Wiki..." I followed the instructions for "Optimizing Blue Iris CPU usage". Big mistake, rec'd the error message "Blue Iris has stopped working..." after changing the "Hardware accelerated decoding" setting to "Intel®+VideoPostProc". When I tried to relaunch it, same message. Restarted the computer, same result. I can't undo the change because I can't launch Blue Iris.
 

bp2008

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It is fairly simple to change Blue Iris settings in the registry if you can find them. Fortunately this one is easy. Create an empty text file, paste into it this content:

Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris\Options]
"hwaccel"=dword:00000000
And rename the file to fix.reg. The important part is the file extension .reg so that when you double click the file, Windows will ask if you want to merge it into your registry. Click "Yes".
 
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Thanks for your replies. I decided to uninstall / reinstall Blue iris from my original download. Happily the uninstall preserved my camera settings, recordings, .reg settings, etc.

The only mistake I made was to apply the latest update to my version 5 install. Since I had let support lapse, I had the "evaluation version" banner on all my video. So I caved and bought a support subscription.

Now I am afraid to go back to the Wiki for any further optimization.
 

TonyR

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Now I am afraid to go back to the Wiki for any further optimization.
if you set a restore point in Windows then if you have such an issue after performing any optimizations you can just restore it to that point to UNDO those. You can even name that restore point "Before Optimization 091221" if you like. Implementing those optimizations (except for the one that hosed your operation) are important to BI's performance. Or as @bp2008 suggested in another thread recently, at least use the substreams.
 

wittaj

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Hardware Acceleration has been the only problematic issue some have had with recent BI updates.

There is a fix if this happens to you that is easier than uninstalling and reinstalling.

I vote for you continue with the optimizations. Outside of Direct to Disk, substream option and HA, most of the rest are within the camera GUI itself like FPS, iframe rates, bitrate, etc.
 
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I appreciate the encouragement! I bought Blue Iris based on the fact that this message board seemed to be strongly in support of it.

It has been a rough road. From the start it seemed intimidating. Most of what I have learned over the past 18 months has been trial and error. The frustration arises from not knowing what to blame when something goes wrong, the cameras, the computer, the network, the software. I am going through the Wiki to eliminate computer performance issues from the mix.

The biggest problem I have had is with motion detection. I find recordings where someone is halfway up my driveway before magically appearing. I live in an urban neighborhood. Cars can appear and disappear in from of my house with no clue how they got there or who drove thim away. It is still a mystery what part of the system to blame.

I am not convinced that Amcrest is the best product line for me. Everyone has a different opinion. For someone who does not spend 8 hour per day in the video security industry it can be daunting.

Windows 10 Pro, I5-3470, 8 GB Ram
2 TB HD, 1 TB allocated to recordings
(2) Amcrest IP8M-T2499E (one recently failed)
(1) Amcrest IP8M-2493E
(1) Amcrest IP4M-1026EB (to replace failed IP8M-T2499E)
 
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I find recordings where someone is halfway up my driveway before magically appearing. I live in an urban neighborhood. Cars can appear and disappear in from of my house with no clue how they got there or who drove thim away. It is still a mystery what part of the system to blame.
If you are recording only on motion, that will always be an issue. See my post below:


and this one shows why continuous recording can be very helpful:
 

SouthernYankee

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the I5-3470 is a 9 year old CPU that is a power pig.
The quick sync on that process is very limited.
It is recommend that you use 16GB memory for any windows 10 PRO software.

Did you do a clean windows 10 install using MS Media Creation tool ?
Also trying to process 4K 8MP cameras with that CPU will be difficult, you will need to use substreams.
 
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I have been spoiled by having owned Logitech Alert 750 cameras before my foray into IP cameras. Logitech used a "store and forward" scheme where motion detection, recording, and temporary storage takes place entirely inside the camera. When activity is low the temporary storage is forwarded to a computer system on the network. Each camera's built-in functionality does not need to contend with interference from network traffic, disk activity, CPU ussage, etc. It worked like a charm. But they had hardware reliability problems and chose to abandon the line rather than imporve upon it. Too bad.

Local storage on IP cameras is a joke. I am not able to access the SD card that I installed in each of my three initial Amcrest cameras. When I replaced a failed one. I did not bother with an SD card.

I am not a person of unlimited means. I did not anticipate the need to try out numeraous brands of camera to find one that functions as expected. Many posts on this board talk about how Blue Iris functions great on inexpensive used computer systems. But my experience and the post from SouthernYankee seem to indicate otherwise.
 

wittaj

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But what SouthernYankee said at the end is substreams are a must for older systems.

Many here including myself run an older system fine.

Did you dial in the amcrest to your field of view and not run on auto/default settings? Does your iframes and FPS match? If not then that is how motion can be missed.

Posts screenshot of your BI camera status page that shows on one screen the names, IP, bitrate, FPS, KEY, etc and let's see if we can get you going.
 
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the I5-3470 is a 9 year old CPU that is a power pig.
The quick sync on that process is very limited.
It is recommend that you use 16GB memory for any windows 10 PRO software.
Many posts on this board talk about how Blue Iris functions great on inexpensive used computer systems. But my experience and the post from SouthernYankee seem to indicate otherwise.
Yes, BI can function just fine on " inexpensive used computer systems". But those systems, as have been pointed out in tens of threads are generally 6th gen or newer Intel systems, not 3rd gen systems. You can get used 6th-8th gen systems for $300 or so. That is what folks are talking about.
 

SouthernYankee

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I use a 4th gen pc with 16 GB memory to support 18 cameras. But the cameras are 2 and 4MP cameras. I have the cameras set between 8 and 15 fps. for a total of 700 MP/s. I have motion detection set on only 5 cameras. All motion cameras have sub stream enabled. I record continuous direct to disk on all cameras. All cameras use ethernet cables no WIFI. I have a internal dedicated WD Purple 4 TB hard drive set with a cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte). There is a 120GB SSD for the C drive.

My i7-4790 has a cpu bench mark of 7215
the I5-3470 has a cpu bench mark of 4639.


The first step is to install a clean windows 10 with the using MS Media Creation tool.
 
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TVille

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Yes, BI can function just fine on " inexpensive used computer systems". But those systems, as have been pointed out in tens of threads are generally 6th gen or newer Intel systems, not 3rd gen systems. You can get used 6th-8th gen systems for $300 or so. That is what folks are talking about.
I had BI running on an i7-3770 with a dozen cameras running around 30% CPU. Worked fine until something in it decided to just randomly shut down. Now I have a i7-6700 running ar 10%, if I discount DS and APLR.

But, the old system was running ALL of the optimizations recommended in the wiki. Well, all it could - I didn't have a GPU setup.

And always do a clean Windows install with the MS Media Creation tool!! When I got my "new" system from eBay, it came with Win10 Pro, I downloaded the Media Creation tool, and did a completely clean install.
 

wittaj

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^+1 - the iframe and FPS need to match. That is part of the reason why your motion is missing. With a key of 0.5, if an object can move 2 seconds and be in and out of your motion detection zone, it will be missed.
 
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