Blue Iris - 'Slow motion' playback and cameras going offline

[mrgeeza]

I've got a problem, not just my personality this time ether.

I'm a newbie when it comes to IP CCTV, I've tried Shinobi, Zoneminder but settled on Blue Iris for its stability, feature set and relative ease of use.

Setup:
I have 4 x 5MP IP cameras that are cabled directly via CAT6 to a managed POE switch. That switch then trunked to a none POE managed switch where I have a further trunk group going to my Dual Socket Unraid Server.

I'm then running Blue Iris in a VM pushing 4 cores and 8Gb of RAM nothing extreme but what I thought would handle it. The cameras direct-to-disk record continuously and then I'm using a post I found on here by Gentle Pumpkin to analyse the footage to determine weather not not I should get a notification.

Symptoms:

• Some, not all cameras going offline, they have all gone offline at one point or another and there is no pattern
• Live playback is glitchy and almost slow motion
• Recorded playback is glitchy and almost slow motion
• Exported media seems unaffected

If you need logs or further details, which I'm sure you will, let me know but any help would be greatly appreciated. I have checked my network infrastructure and I'm not seeing any bottle necks outside of the Server but if anyone knows what I might be missing I'm happy to double check.

Thank you all in advanced!

Stay safe!

MrGeeza

 

[sebastiantombs]

Camera makes, models, frame rate, iframe rates, bit rates, hardware acceleration (should be off unless your VM will support the pass through).

 

[mrgeeza]

Camera makes, models, frame rate, iframe rates, bit rates, hardware acceleration (should be off unless your VM will support the pass through).

Thanks, I'll get all this, this evening when I'm home from work.

 

[fenderman]

disable any smart or + codecs. If you are logging in via windows RDP you need to set blue iris to unrestricted - the default is a video refresh every 5 seconds.

 

[mrgeeza]

Hello! I bring the further details that were requested. Apologies for the delay... Life.

Setup is as follows...

Cameras:

• 2 x ZIP IP 5MP 2.8-12MM EYEBALL Cameras (IP 5MP 2.8-12MM EYEBALL BLK in Cameras)
• 1 x ZIP IP 5MP 3.6MM EYEBALL Camera (IP 5MP 3.6MM EYEBALL BLK in Cameras)

Configuration (All Cameras the Same)

• Resolution: 2592 x 1944
• FPS: 15
• Video Codec Type: H.265
• Video Codec Level: Main Profile (Not entirely sure what this means but its the only option)
• Bitrate Control: VBR > best
• Bitrate Mode: Predefined
• Bitrate: 4096
• I Frame Interval: 2

With regards to hardware accelaration I can confirm it was switched on, or it was at least set to default whatever default is, I have now set this on all camera to NO.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Change the codec to H254. Match the iframe rate to the frame rate, IE 15/15.

 

[mrgeeza]

Change the codec to H254. Match the iframe rate to the frame rate, IE 15/15.

Well... By Jove I think they've got it. Fantastic! Adjusting these settings and also turning off hardware acceleration my CPU usage that was up at 60%+ has dropped to a mere 15% the cameras have completely stopped dropping out and video frame rates have been restored. I can't thank you enough.

Now, unfortunately for you, I'm not one to just accept, 'because it does' as an answer Can I ask, why these settings were having such an adverse effect on my setup? I thought I read that H.265 was supposed to be the new standard for better file sizes and such.

Stay safe!

MrGeeza

 

[sebastiantombs]

Just a guess. Based on the camera brand I suspected that the video stream was not "standards" compliant in a few areas, like consistent frame and iframe rates. That confuses the heck out of processing, probably causing loops, which would explain dropouts, tears, high CPU utilization and so on.