Blue iris video lag on uNraid Windows 10 Pro virtual machine

Mark DC

Mark DC

n3wb
Jan 24, 2017
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Setup: I currently run Blue Iris on a dedicated Dell Optiplex 7890 (Win10 Pro, Core i5, 8gb ram) with 7 Amcrest POE and 3 Amcrest wifi cameras. The video lag when I access the server from my phone or PC/Mac is minimal and unnoticeable (a small fraction of a second). When I export the same blue iris setting and run it on an uNraid windows virtual machine (same version of windows, same number of cores and same amount of ram assigned), I am having around 3-4 second delay in video feed. (I also tried running just one POE camera on the VM and 3-4 sec video lag is still there.) Network connection speeds are identical for both the Optiplex and the virtual machine. Both Optiplex and VM run on SSD with similar read/write speed. No other softwares are installed on both windows machines except the blue iris.

Question: Any ideas/thoughts on what might have been causing the video lag on the virtual machine.
 
Most VM do not support hardware acceleration.
 
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Have you checked CPU and memory usage of BlueIris.exe on the VM? With 8 GB assigned I imagine memory isn't the problem but if the CPU is weak that could be it. What CPU specifically is being used for unraid?
 
For the current dedicated server running only BI with 10 cameras (Optiplex, i5-2400, 4C/8T, 3.1GHz) total cpu usage is around 40%. I have not checked the cpu usage on the VM but I assigned to it 4 cores (8 threads) from a dual Xeon E2620 (2.2GHz) server. When I tried just one camera running on the BI, the 3-4 second lag is still there. I would assume that the 8 threads assigned to the VM would be sufficient for the one camera BI setup.
 
I'm not sure how well BI can multithread the decoding of a single camera. If these are particularly high resolution or high frame rate (or both) and being decoded on a single thread then that Xeon CPU might not be able to keep up. Likewise with the encoding when viewing remotely.

i5-2400 does not have hyper-threading so it would be only 4C/4T.
 
Yes, I missed that, the i5-2400 doesn't have hyper threading. Thanks. My cameras are set to record direct to disk 1080p @10fps. Remote viewing on the iPhone app I believe is set at vga resolution. I will probe more into this, particularly the items that you folks brought up in this thread. Sharing of other possible solutions or similar experiences will be appreciated.
 
1080p@10fps with direct to disk should be easily manageable by the VM, especially if it is H.264 which is cheaper to decode than H.265.

Have you tried viewing the same camera through VLC media player or the camera's web interface, from the VM?
 
It seems that the Xeon 2620 is better in performance, except for the frequency, than the i5-2400. See comparison below:

Intel® Product Specification Comparison

The big difference is that the 15-2400 has a built-in graphics, intel HD 2000, and that the Xeon 2620 does not. How does BI utilize built-in graphics of the processor?
 
If you have selected "Intel" in the Hardware accelerated decode option in Blue Iris Options > Cameras tab, then BI uses Intel Quick Sync for hardware acceleration. On your 2nd-generation i5-2400 CPU it can handle resolutions up to 1920x1080 (3rd-gen and newer CPUs can do 4K cameras just fine). This effectively reduces CPU usage of Blue Iris, and when you also use hardware acceleration for bvr clip playback, it can enable faster playback rates like 8x, 16x, etc to work more smoothly. The latter effect is mostly noticed with 4K video.
 
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Updates: I upgraded my unRaid server's processor to 2x Xeon 2680 (2.7 Ghz). I created new windows 10 virtual machine and reinstalled Blue Iris. I added one of the POE cameras and tried to view. And boom, the 3 seg lag isn't there. CPU was at 5% usage. The video feed was almost instantaneous. I was happy. I thought of changing the recording to direct-to-disk. I did click the direct-to-disk and as soon as the camera restarted, the ~3 sec lag came back. Identical to before. I tried unchecking the direct-to-disk and went back to the prior setting but the lag did not disappear. I have been trying for a couple of hours now but I cannot seem to reproduce those many minutes of lag free video feed. I will keep trying. If any of you might have some recommendations, I surely will appreciate it. Thanks.
 
markdc said:
Updates: I upgraded my unRaid server's processor to 2x Xeon 2680 (2.7 Ghz). I created new windows 10 virtual machine and reinstalled Blue Iris. I added one of the POE cameras and tried to view. And boom, the 3 seg lag isn't there. CPU was at 5% usage. The video feed was almost instantaneous. I was happy. I thought of changing the recording to direct-to-disk. I did click the direct-to-disk and as soon as the camera restarted, the ~3 sec lag came back. Identical to before. I tried unchecking the direct-to-disk and went back to the prior setting but the lag did not disappear. I have been trying for a couple of hours now but I cannot seem to reproduce those many minutes of lag free video feed. I will keep trying. If any of you might have some recommendations, I surely will appreciate it. Thanks.
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Hello markdc, did you find out what was causing the delays\lag on your blue iris vm? I think I may be facing similar issue on mine.
 
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