Blue Iris Updates (64 bit)

Blue Iris Updates - Official Thread 5.8.8.12

nbstl68

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Hi. How often does BI now require paying for the incremental minor version updates?
When I had V4 for several years, all the 4.xxx updates were free. Then ver 5 came out which required a new purchase which made sense. I bought it but now it will not allow updates to 5.xxx minor version updates without paying more again.
 

fenderman

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Hi. How often does BI now require paying for the incremental minor version updates?
When I had V4 for several years, all the 4.xxx updates were free. Then ver 5 came out which required a new purchase which made sense. I bought it but now it will not allow updates to 5.xxx minor version updates without paying more again.
This has been discussed in many threads. Even in BI4 there was a requirement to purchase updates after 1 year. It was simply not enforced.
Would it make you happier if the developer changed the name to BI 6 when he added features like substreams etc? How long to you think you should be entitled to free updates on a 60 dollar piece of software? Perhaps he should charge 120 for it and then give you "free" updates for 3 years? Blue iris is all about options, if you dont want to pay 30 bux for a year of updates AND SUPPORT then simply keep using it as is. The developer is not required to provide you with ANY new updates or features, he could have simply left BI as is. Someone needs to pay for the work. There are 100 other VMS options out there. Try DWIPVMS free updates AND upgrades for life - oh and 70 bux PER camera.
What other software package that you use provides free FREATURE upgrades every two weeks for free?

Here is a list of BI5 updates.




U P DAT E N OT E S
As major changes are made to version 5, they will be documented in this section.
5.3.6 - December 2, 2020
The JSON alertlist command with optional parameter v=2 now reads only the index.dat file
which greatly improves the performance for pulling the alerts list from the client phone apps
when there are hundreds or thousands of alerts. Individual alert item detail is now
appended to the /alerts/ image request with optional parameter v=2.
On the Settings window, Check for Updates is now Check for News and Updates. Notices posted
here ultimately will replace Mailchimp email blasts which are now used to advertise our
Friday Quick-start Webinar series. When there is news, a clickable blue circle icon will
appear in the Blue Iris status bar.
5.3.5 - November 27, 2020
The ONVIF device inspection now pulls all available video profiles as well as profile details
necessary to distinguish multiple cameras on the same device.
The network camera configuration page has been revised to allow the selection of an ONVIF
profile for each of the main and sub streams. Also, the “params” box was removed. If you
had previously specified anything here, it will be added automatically to the end of the video
path.
The ONVIF GetEvents function has been revised to select only events relevant to the
camera’s selected video source configuration (important for devices with multiple cameras).
5.3.4 - November 22, 2020
A new “clipboard” database view is used to manage arbitrary video selections and associated
exports from BVR file content. Use the snapshot icon or the new “crop” icon at the top of
viewer window to create a clipboard item. The viewer will immediately open the clipboard
item “zoomed in” on just the selected segment. Unless and until the segment is exported, it
references the source BVR file and does not have its own file. If the BVR file is deleted, the
associated clipboard items (and alerts) are deleted, unless one of these is protected, which
then prevents the BVR from being deleted. The UI3 browser convert/export function will
now create items which live on the clipboard view rather than solely on the “export queue”
view.
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You’ll find a link to the new clipboard view via the “folder” icon at the top of the clips list.
In addition, many new views have been added for motion zones and trigger sources.
When opening a clip from an Alerts list image, the “crop” start/stop icons are atomically
adjusted to the beginning and ending of the alert. This allows you to “see” the alert’s
position in the clip as well as to conveniently export just the alert segment of the clip.
Support for new Doorbird models doorbell and motion sensor.
The MQTT “publish” function was moved into the MQTT thread to maintain UI
responsiveness when the MQTT server is offline or misconfigured.
A new option on the Settings/Users pages “camera admin” allows a user to administer
specific cameras without having full system administrator privileges. For proper remote UI,
this does require an update to the phone app as well.
Motion rectangles are now added to main stream JPEG captures as configured.
5.3.3 - October 1, 2020
When using dual-streaming, JPEG images will be created from the main-stream instead of
the sub-stream where possible. Rather than fully spooling up main-stream decoding, the
software uses the direct-to-disc pre-trigger frames buffer to synthesize these images. This
means you should specify at least enough pre-trigger time on the Record tab to span the
key-frame interval for your main-stream.
An optional parameter &jpeg=path has been added to both the &trigger and &flagalert web
server admin requests. This allows you to replace the alert image with one potentially
“marked up” by external analysis.
An optional parameter &decode=x has been add to the /image/camx server request. Use x=0
for automatic sub/main stream selection based on resolution; the sub stream will also be
upsampled until the main stream is available. Use x=1 to wait for the main stream or x=0
to always select the sub-stream.
The RTSP server was updated to accommodate requirements of the Monocle portal for
viewing cameras on Echo Show.
5.3.2 - August 24, 2020
Changes and preparations are underway for the new major iOS app release.
PAG E 12
Status/Storage has been revised to more closely align with what you will see in UI3 and in
the new client phone apps.
A QR code has been added to the final page of the Remote Access Wizard which may be
read by the client phone apps to quickly enter all server details.
More efficient database rebuild/repair for larger databases.
With a new option on the Record tab in camera settings, you may now choose to re-size
JPEGs captured on the clips list or as hi-res alert images.
5.3.1 - July 16, 2020
Your Blue Iris web server now is also an RTSP server. This opens up even more
interconnectivity options between Blue Iris and other systems (home automation, video
players, etc.) Use the URI /{cam-short-name} or /{group-name}. Authentication is completed
via Digest encryption only. As with /image and other web service calls, you may add stream,
quality, and image size parameters.
5.3.0 - July 9, 2020
When recording direct-to-disc with a dual-streaming camera, now BOTH streams are saved
to the BVR file. Files created in this way will no longer be playable on older releases of this
software.
The sub stream will be used automatically for timeline playback as well as low-resolution
web requests.
A new right-click menu option has been added to the viewer window to select the sub
stream for single-camera playback. You will also find this option on the Convert/Export
window.
An action set may be run periodically based on the active schedule; configured on the
Schedule page in settings. This may be useful as a “keep alive” or a “health” function when
interfacing with other systems.
5.2.9 - May 26, 2020
Support for IPv6 addresses in a “dual stack” mode. If your router provides an LAN IPv6
address for your PC, you will now see this on the LAN IP list on Settings/Web server. If
your router and ISP support IPv6, you may now connect to your Blue Iris service this way
PAG E 13
remotely as well. Unless you select to bind to a single address, the software will accept
connections from both IP4 and IPv6 addresses.
IPv6 may also be used for camera addresses on your LAN or elsewhere.
5.2.8 - May 20, 2020
Direct-to-disc BVR recording will now include metadata for video overlays (bitmaps and
text), motion detection rectangles, as well as camera state flags (such as DIO input bits,
motion sensing and triggered state).
When a BVR file containing these new metadata is opened in the viewer, you may right-click
and select from menu options to toggle their display.
5.2.7 - May 1, 2020
You may now specify a second “sub” stream for an RTSP camera. The software will pull
video from both streams, using the main stream only for audio and direct-to-disc recording
(and playback) and the sub-stream for everything else. This really has become a necessity
with the popularity of 4K (8MP) cameras (and beyond).
5.2.6 - April 22, 2020
This version introduces a split in the automatic update function. You may now choose to
continue with (sometimes daily) updates encompassing both major changes and/or minor
fixes. Or, you may elect the new option, which will skip updates until changes have been
validated as stable by those on the more-frequent update track. In addition, previous stable
updates may be made available through this same mechanism, and options exist to backup
the main exe and update packages.
5.2.5 - April 9, 2020
Many users take advantage of the camera “clone” functionality in order to record video and
images in various ways. You may now select to include all cloned camera clips with the
master’s clips when the clips list is filtered by camera—there’s a new checkbox on the
camera settings General page.
This version removes the dependency on the second executable BlueIrisService.exe—now
there are fewer moving parts for more stability. This should help with recent security
software issues encountered with Sophos and Bit Defender which did not allow the service
PAG E 14
to launch a second process (BlueIris.exe). You must remove and then re-add the service
from the Settings/Startup page before this will take effect. When enabling the service, the
software will now also prompt for logon information, check the password, and provide the
account with the necessary privileges.
If the service were to ever crash, the console window now more reliably reconnects to the
service to prevent interruption in the display.
5.2.4 - March 31, 2020
PTZ preset images may now be viewed on the PTZ/presets page in camera settings. These
images are now also manageable via remote management. The images now may also be
used for motion zone editor “backgrounds” which may be useful if you are editing at night
or when the camera is otherwise offline.
Hardware decoding has been advanced further and the DirectX and D3D11 decoding
options are now fully operational on systems which support this. This provides a way for
those with AMD and those who may have otherwise been unable to use the existing Intel
and Nvidia options to now take advantage of hardware decoding acceleration. You may
select this as a default on settings/cameras, and/or individually on camera settings Video
tabs. Use task manager to monitor GPU utilization alongside CPU and check status/log for
any initialization issues.
Hardware encoding is out of beta and has been fine-tuned for Intel chipsets. Hardware
encoding may be selected on any encoder configuration page throughout the software, as
from camera settings/record/format.
You may select to “retain” messages sent to your MQTT broker if you are using these for
camera alerts.
5.2.3 - March 26, 2020
The email alert MP4 as well as the push alert GIF will now begin with 5 seconds of “pre-
trigger” time, making them immensely more useful. Previously, these began recording only
at the time of trigger. The requirement for this feature is that your camera is set to record in
“direct to disc” mode. Please also check your key frame rate to insure that it’s at least 0.50;
1.00 is recommended—this is displayed on the Status/Cameras page alongside the FPS.
Also, the video encoding parameters for the email alert MP4 must not specify to resize the
video (re-encoding will be required). The email alert MP4 will also be created “direct to
disc” which will ease use of the CPU, however it may result in a larger file, as this is now
PAG E 15
the camera’s full resolution. Your system must also be able to open and play MP4 files in
Blue Iris—you can get the K-Lite codec pack for this if not already installed: https://
codecguide.com/download_kl.htm.
5.2.2 - March 20, 2020
Video components were updated and the Intel hardware decoding interface was redesigned
and recoded in an attempt to bring some missing features online such as H.265 decoding
and H.264 encoding. The 64-bit version is required for all hardware acceleration, and you
may need to now update your Nvidia drivers if you were using this. New hardware
decoding options include DXVA2 and D3D11VA, but these may still be in “beta.”
The BlueIrisService.exe was compiled for 64-bit and now uses updated methods to stop the
running BlueIris.exe without resorting to a force-close.
5.2.1 - March 11, 2020
For each action in an action set, you may now assign trigger sources and zones. In addition
to the profile, these conditions must be satisfied in order for the action to be executed.
For the action set test function, you may select a profile, a trigger source and zones to be
“emulated” during the test.
The “wait” action has been expanded to offer actual synchronization with previous actions
or with camera re-triggers. Options are also now provided to cancel previously queued and
subsequent actions when the wait is over based on camera state.
The “live pause” icon at the top/right of the cameras window now also pauses camera auto-
cycle as well as live video. Also the “live pause” command is available now to add as a
keyboard shortcut.
5.2.0 - March 4, 2020
Although largely “under the hood,”significant changes made for this release justify a bump
in the minor version number.
Camera streaming code has been revised for performance and efficiency. By moving one
step “closer to the metal,” the goal here was to better support multiple high-bandwidth
cameras and to prepare for IPV6 connections. With a larger system, you should see modest
reductions in CPU demand as well. It’s still possible for the network receive buffer to
PAG E 16
become overwhelmed if the CPU/GPU cannot keep up with decoding all frames in real-time
(when not using the limit decoding feature)—to better handle this we will be adding
support for dual-streaming main and sub-streams.
Web server code has been revised for performance and efficiency. By removing layers of
abstraction, the web server should be faster and more reliable overall.
The software will prompt for a user login when the “require admin run-as administrator”
has been unchecked on the Settings/Startup page, now even when BlueIris.exe is run with
Windows administrator rights.
Updates for Sentry Smart Alerts API 2 preparing for facial recognition
5.1.0 - February 16, 2020
A clip “export” command has been added to the JSON web services. This allows the UI3 to
offer a more powerful experience managing video exports and downloads.
Once the evaluation period is over, the software will continue to run as a “viewer only.”
This allows BVR files to be opened and exported without a software license.
Copy and Paste buttons have been added to the motion detector mask editing window.
Masks may only be pasted when the target image size matches the copied image size.
Using the Shield icon or camera “pause” commands you may now cancel a camera alert in-
progress.
5.0.9 - January 31, 2020
Video encoder options now include an audio bitrate selection. This and the audio codec
setting are now honored for convert/export.
The /admin?sendkeys interface may now be used to emulate keyboard input. This addition
supports integration with HA software requirements.
The Plate Recognizer option from the camera AI settings page now has a minimum
confidence setting before a plate number is written to the database.
When using HTTPS for both WAN and LAN, the secure flag is added to the HTTP Set-Cookie
response header. This is required for PCI compliance in some organizations.
PAG E 17
When using the option to log all web server connections, failed authentication attempts also
now are logged.
5.0.8 - January 10, 2020
The auto-cycle option to Only cycle when at least one camera is triggered will now display all
triggered cameras together at once
It is now possible to change the selected camera group during timeline playback. This
makes is easier to follow motion events without having to exit playback.
The camera settings window now loads tabs as they are visited, allowing this window to
open and close more quickly.
Many updates to make Remote Management more reliable when live updates are made to
camera and other configuration
UTC timestamps for Alert images now reflect any pre-trigger time that’s recorded;
previously this was the video frame at the time of trigger. This change helps with alert-to-
alert navigation in the timeline view.
The Sound alert may be specified to continue through the duration of a camera trigger.
The daily automatic database compact & repair may be ran on specific days of the week.
The camera red border when recording is now optional.
5.0.7 - December 15, 2019
The web server will now send an “image not found” JPEG in reply to an /alerts/ request for
a non-existent database record. Previously there was either no response or a file not found
error returned and these both confused the iOS app.
The use of HTTP keep-alive semantics is now optional on the Advanced page from Settings/
Web server.
The Plate Recognizer AI integration now pulls a status on the Trigger/AI page. This serves
to both validate the token entry as well as to provide usage statistics for the current period.
Camera source triggers (via ONVIF) were previously handled as “external” triggers but are
now labeled more appropriately as ONVIF triggers. A new check box on the Alerts tab in
camera settings determines whether alerts will fire for ONVIF triggers. The trigger state in
PAG E 18
Blue Iris now is also maintained until a trigger reset event is received from the camera
(previously this was ignored and the trigger ended after the break time only).
One headache from the use of Intel hardware decoding has been the ambiguity between
1088 and 1080 line resolution. The Intel decoder will take a 1080 line source and force an
output of 1088 lines. This is because 1080 is not a multiple of 16, yet 1088 is, and that’s
required by the decoder. This has caused confusion as a new resolution forces a new zone
map in the motion detector. Beginning with this version, the output size is cropped at 1080
lines. This will eliminate “garbage” lines from appearing at the bottom of the decoded
frames. However, this may result in the need to redesign your zone maps, sorry for that
inconvenience.
5.0.6 - November 11, 2019
Camera frame windows now operate more independently. Each frame window now may
have its own settings for Temporary full screen (double click), Auto-cycle, Show camera
names, and Solo selected camera. This provides much more flexibility for systems with
multiple monitors.
Improved audio/video synchronization from timed sources (RTSP, HLS, analog devices)—
timing information will be stored to the BVR file and although efforts have been made to
improve live and BVR playback synchronization, this timing information is most valuable
when exporting to MP4 format.
Improved responsiveness to motion with managed decoding (limit decoding unless required
on camera settings Video tab).
5.0.5 - October 23, 2019
You may now select to use the Time-Lapse feature during automatic export configured on
the Settings/Clips page or for bulk/background export configured by right-clicking clips.
Previously this was only available when exporting from the clip viewer window.
The web server now makes more extensive use of the HTTP connection “keep alive” header
to reduce the number of connections to the server. This will help with overall efficiency, but
especially when using NGROK and some AT&T routers which have recently introduced a
“TCP flooding” prevention mechanism, potentially breaking web services.
The code-signing certificate used to verify secure binary deliverables has been renewed for
another three years and all executables have been re-signed.
PAG E 19
The architecture used to create group images for streaming has been redesigned and coded
to allow for higher frame rate throughput. While it’s now possible to get 30 fps from a
group stream, this may still not be practical for most users with dozens of cameras due to
the CPU resources required. Flickering of borders and timecode under high system demand
should be mitigated as well.
Inter-process communication between service and console has been revised to allow the
service to better control the console when required.
The email alert configuration now isolates the “alert image” from the other image types
which may be attached.
The full log may now be downloaded from the Status/Log page during remote
administration.
The push notification “rich push” and GIF options have been moved from the Settings/Web
server/Advanced page to the push notification alert configuration page. And for even more
flexibility you may now choose to use the camera’s current image instead of the alert image.
5.0.4 - September 16, 2019
A new “folder” icon at the top of the Clips window allows you to select special database
views. Notably, Sentry Smart Alert views may be found here, for either confirmed or
cancelled alerts. Only newly added alerts will appear in these views unless you repair the
database.
A new option on the AI page from Trigger in camera settings allows you to automatically
“flag” confirmed Sentry alerts. Until dedicated views can be added to the client phone apps,
this may be useful.
5.0.3 - September 15, 2019
With a continued focus on AI for version 5, it was time to upgrade one of the most critical of
algorithms in the software—the motion detector. You will find a third choice has been
added to the algorithm selection box found on the Motion configuration page from the
Trigger tab in camera settings—Edge vector. This will eventually replace simple as the default.
The algorithm discerns between leading edge and trailing edge motion and uses this
information to compute a motion vector (magnitude and angle). The goal for this new
algorithm is to reduce false positives (a consistent vector is required over the make time in
PAG E 2 0
order to trigger) and to feed more advanced AI with more relevant frames. Please provide
feedback on effectiveness (in the form of BVR video clips for analysis).
5.0.2 - August 12, 2019
Blue Iris now honors the Windows preference to move the cursor to the default button
(usually OK) on pop-up message dialogs.
The code to create and alert images has been moved to its own thread—this makes the video
capture thread more efficient and allows for alert image post-processing. Also, the trigger/
alerts thread has been re-written to work most effectively with Sentry Smart Alerts.
Sentry Smart Alert configuration has been moved to a new page “Artificial Intelligence” from
the Trigger tab in camera settings. ALPR support using Plate Recognizer has been added to
this page as well. Sentry works to filter false-alarms via person-detection. ALPR works by
analyzing the alert image—if a license tag is found, the number is added to the database and
visible on the alerts list.
5.0.1 - August 1, 2019
After a couple of months spent focusing solely on bug fixes and minor usability
enhancements, we have reached a point of stability that now allows us to continue with
more significant development.
The console now recognizes when the service has crashed and has been restarted. An
automatic reconnection is attempted for seamless use of the console window.
The latest version of the Intel MFX library (2019R1) is now being used. This update was
made in an attempt to bring stability to systems experiencing memory leaks with some
versions of the Intel drivers, and to possibly offer H.265 decoding and (eventually) hardware
encoding using Intel QuickSync.
 

looney2ns

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Hi. How often does BI now require paying for the incremental minor version updates?
When I had V4 for several years, all the 4.xxx updates were free. Then ver 5 came out which required a new purchase which made sense. I bought it but now it will not allow updates to 5.xxx minor version updates without paying more again.
Once per year, a measly $30. Or stay on the version you have and pay nothing. The developer deservers every bit of it.
 

Ssayer

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5.3.7.10 - This one had a little funny restart (all fine now). When it restarted, there were no cams showing, though all the clips were showing. From the pulldown menu, I deselected "Hide disabled cameras" and they all showed up. I then reselected it and they stayed. Maybe it was just here, who knows, except that it's never happened before.
 
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