Blue Iris Update Helper (BiUpdateHelper)

bp2008

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Anyone who was running BiUpdateHelper version 1.5.1 with the "Help Blue Iris close itself as necessary" feature enabled (it is enabled by default) should update to 1.5.2, as I've fixed the bug that caused updates to sometimes fail because Blue Iris got forcefully closed too early. The bug had been introduced in version 1.5.1, so anyone with an older version would be unaffected.
 

PatPend

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Anyone who was running BiUpdateHelper version 1.5.1 with the "Help Blue Iris close itself as necessary" feature enabled (it is enabled by default) should update to 1.5.2, as I've fixed the bug that caused updates to sometimes fail because Blue Iris got forcefully closed too early. The bug had been introduced in version 1.5.1, so anyone with an older version would be unaffected.
There's no install zipfile for 1.5.2 on the Releases page, only source. For a new install is 1.5.0.1 recommended?
 

bp2008

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My apologies. The 1.5.2 zip is properly uploaded now!!

I don't recommend 1.5.0.1 if you have "Help Blue Iris close itself as necessary" enabled. To be fair, most people don't need that option and could turn it off without issue.
 

PatPend

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My apologies. The 1.5.2 zip is properly uploaded now!!

I don't recommend 1.5.0.1 if you have "Help Blue Iris close itself as necessary" enabled. To be fair, most people don't need that option and could turn it off without issue.
Thank you sir.
 

bp2008

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Hey, everyone. Last weekend I got started building a system to collect Blue Iris performance data in an automated manner. It is my goal that people will be able to use this data to back-up their claims of "this system will/won't run those cameras". I decided to make it a part of Blue Iris Update Helper because that is already a little background service that works with Blue Iris registry data and CPU usage. So, starting with version 1.6, BiUpdateHelper will collect anonymous usage data once per week and upload it to this website where it is freely viewable by everyone.

If you have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know!

The latest version is available on github.
 
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bp2008

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Another idea I had is that BiUpdateHelper could have a button to scan your configuration and make suggestions on how to improve performance. It could notice things like Direct-to-disc or hardware acceleration being turned off, frame rates above 15 FPS, live preview frame rate uncapped, etc. It could also check basic things like "is webcasting enabled for the All cameras group?"

I'm just not sure that is worth implementing because the people who would need it most wouldn't be running 3rd-party tools like this in the first place.
 

looney2ns

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Hey, everyone. Last weekend I got started building a system to collect Blue Iris performance data in an automated manner. It is my goal that people will be able to use this data to back-up their claims of "this system will/won't run those cameras". I decided to make it a part of Blue Iris Update Helper because that is already a little background service that works with Blue Iris registry data and CPU usage. So, starting with version 1.6, BiUpdateHelper will collect anonymous usage data once per week and upload it to this website where it is freely viewable by everyone.

If you have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know!

The latest version is available on github.
@bp2008
Hey Brian, the link to github is wrong. Missing parts. ;)

Thanks for this! Awesome stuff!
 
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mycoma

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Would it be useful to collect and display the version of BI that people are using or did I miss it some where ??
 

Tinbum

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For the last few BI updates I've been having update problems. The updates are being downloaded and then run but when BI starts up again it still says there is an update and the file number has not gone up. A few days ago I turned of BI update helper and today the update went ok. Has anyone else had a problem and are you able to help and are there any log files that would help. I'm running the latest versions.
 

bp2008

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In the BiUpdateHelper options turn off the one where it helps Blue Iris close itself. There were recent BI changes that are supposed to have made that unnecessary and it is possible that it is interfering now with normal updates.
 

Tinbum

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Thanks, will try that and wait for the next BI update to see. (or I could roll back and try).
 

bp2008

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I suppose I should build an update that removes that feature then. Too bad there is no automatic update or notification system in place, because nobody is going to know about this.
 

Jaceon

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I was using the helper tool to compare my system as I'm looking to upgrade, and it took me a second to figure out the MP/s goes off the "max frame rate" setting. For awhile I thought maybe my system went crazy since cameras were showing as high as 39fps when only set to 8fps lol not sure how BI can be so far off?... Anyways.. I guess that makes the MP/s kind of deceiving to compare on the Blue iris update helper performance sheet, since my MP/s was showing about double of what it actually was. I went and readjusted my max frame rates via BI4 anyways but I don't think it actually matters...
 

awsum140

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The only way to actually adjust frame rate is in the camera web interface, GUI. BI just accepts what is sent from the camera so changing it there doesn't really do anything.
 

bp2008

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I was using the helper tool to compare my system as I'm looking to upgrade, and it took me a second to figure out the MP/s goes off the "max frame rate" setting. For awhile I thought maybe my system went crazy since cameras were showing as high as 39fps when only set to 8fps lol not sure how BI can be so far off?... Anyways.. I guess that makes the MP/s kind of deceiving to compare on the Blue iris update helper performance sheet, since my MP/s was showing about double of what it actually was. I went and readjusted my max frame rates via BI4 anyways but I don't think it actually matters...
It can be. It does try to load "actual" frame rates via a request to BI's web server, but there are several conditions under which this may fail and the fallback is to read the max frame rate setting out of the registry.

The only way to actually adjust frame rate is in the camera web interface, GUI. BI just accepts what is sent from the camera so changing it there doesn't really do anything.
It does affect memory usage pretty substantially. It used to also affect bit rate calculations when BI encoded H.264 streams for UI3 or mobile apps, but Ken fixed that several months ago.
 
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