Blue Iris resolution is worse than view cam directly in web browser

[subterminal]

Hello all,

I just got my first PoE cam (Amcrest 4k turret) and got everything setup. I have Blue Iris running in a Windows VM, which is on a dedicated VLAN I setup for the cameras. However, when I got Blue Iris running, I noticed that the resolution is slightly worse than viewing the camera directly through a web browser. I'm completely new to this all this, so any input is greatly appreciated!



As for settings... I enabled the 'direct to disk' record option. I have the camera set to 4k resolution with 15fps, and enforce the 15fps max in BI. I have 6th gen Intel CPU and no dedicated GPU.



Thanks!

 

[pozzello]

maybe try adding the cam again as an ONVIF cam ? (let BI's find/inspect do it's thing)
could be the canned Amcrest URL's are not the best available streams
(ie, perhaps Bi is pulling a 2MP substream instead of the 8mp main?)

for reference, here's one of my (5mp) Amcrest cams in BI and in the chrome UI:

 

[bp2008]

His last screenshot confirms BI is getting full native resolution, so it isn't a sub stream. It is exactly the same stream in both cases. The difference is in how Blue Iris decodes and renders the video versus how the camera's web interface does it.

Obviously the video in Blue Iris has reduced contrast down from where it should be -- probably an unneeded RGB Full to RGB Limited conversion happening. Blue Iris doesn't have any options for this. It might be in your Intel graphics control center. hard to say. Doesn't happen on my system.

There's also the scaling algorithm at play here, downscaling the 4K video to fit in a much smaller window. This can be configured in Blue Iris Settings > Other tab. See the "Scaling" dropdown box in the lower right. Do note that choosing any option other than "Fast" will greatly increase Blue Iris's CPU usage especially as you add more cameras, but to some people the other options look better.

 

[pozzello]

missed that,

 

[subterminal]

Obviously the video in Blue Iris has reduced contrast down from where it should be -- probably an unneeded RGB Full to RGB Limited conversion happening. Blue Iris doesn't have any options for this. It might be in your Intel graphics control center. hard to say. Doesn't happen on my system.

This conversion is only occurring for the live view and not what is actually recorded to disk, correct? Like, if I used VLC player to play back footage straight from the HDD it would look as good as viewing it directly from the cam via a web browser?

 

[bp2008]

Yes, with direct to disc, each frame is exactly as the camera encoded it, so you aren't losing any quality.