Blue Iris + Plex: Bad Idea?

[CAL7]

Hi. New Blue Iris user here. In setting up BI on a dedicated I5-6500 (w/ quicksync), and 16GB, I saw "The Hook Up's" video and he mentions that he also runs Plex Media Server on the same Windows computer. Is this advisable?

The system runs only BI, AItool, Deepstack-for-Windows plus the various obligatory background Windows processes. For now, it runs at about 8-12% CPU with two 4K cameras. I record SD streams continuously and 4K when triggered by Deepstack. I expect to max out at 8 cameras.

It would seem I have plenty of headroom to add PMS, but my priority is to keep the current and future cameras running smoothly. I'd appreciate any advice as to the wisdom of adding Plex. Thanks!

 

[silencery]

It will ultimately depend on a laundry list of of factors including off the top of my head:

• How frequently your deepstack is being triggered and if you have a GPU for deepstack (deepstack for windows is a resource hog)
• How much motion activity your BI needs to process
• If you can use substreams in BI
• Bitrate of your remaining cameras
• How much/what type of transcoding you expect your plex instance to handle.

You can definitely do BI and plex just fine, but deepstack may put it over the top during processing since it can really burst pretty high. If you wanted, you could consider dockerizing deepstack to limit CPU, but I'm not sure if windows version of docker supports that

 

[CAL7]

Thank you @silencery

How frequently your deepstack is being triggered and if you have a GPU for deepstack (deepstack for windows is a resource hog)

My only GPU is the Intel Quicksync. Does that count, or do you mean a separate unit?

If you can use substreams in BI

I really admit that I'm confused by substreams - not the concept but how to properly use them in BI. Each of my physical cameras are configured as two logical cameras, with one using the SD stream as it's mainstream and that is what I use for motion detection and the second with both a 4K mainstream and an SD substream. The 4K stream is what is triggered by Deepstack for short recordings. This is working pretty much as I want with low CPU use.

How much/what type of transcoding you expect your plex instance to handle.

Not much. Now, I use Plex on an under-powered Synology NAS and it rarely, if ever, transcodes. Part of my rationale for using the BI system for Plex is to utilize transcoding, but probably nothing over one stream of 1080p.

you could consider dockerizing deepstack to limit CPU, but I'm not sure if windows version of docker supports that

I will probably get to using Docker for Deepstack. But that's a little ways down the road unless it is an imperative (e.g. if the developers actually did cease development of the Windows version).

 

[silencery]

Yeah, that's the paradox. BI is optmized for Quicksync while Deepstack plays nicer with nvidia. You can still go all software for deepstack though, so no worries.

Substreams will automatically lower your CPU usage as long as you have them setup in BI. It used to be BI used the full frame high bitrate stream to do all processing which meant there was a ton more data to process. Now with substreams, BI will automatically use more efficient resources to do the motion processing as long as you have them configured on your cameras (and assuming your cams support substreams - most do).

It sounds like your usage will still give you plenty of headroom, especially if you're not sharing your plex with lots of friends/family or doing 4K (don't bother, it doesn't transcode properly). 6500 should be good.