Choppy video being recorded

[veetek22]

Hi,

I'm having problems recording videos that are not laggy/choppy - it looks like it's skipping/delaying frames (see below for sample videos)

As far as the hardware goes:

I run it on Intel(R) Xeon(R) E-2224G CPU @ 3.50GHz which used to have no problems handling 6 cameras with quicksync on on a passed thru iGPU on win10 under ESXI, at one point I have decided to build an unraid box based on the 11th gen cpu and throw blue iris on the windows 10 VM with no hardware acceleration thats when the problems started. After a while of troubleshooting - decreasing bitrate/framerate playing with other options I just gave up and decided to go back to the dedicated xeon- however to my surprise problem with choppy videos was still there.

I removed all the cameras (even disconnected them physically except for 1 of them to test maybe one of the cams was faulty. Still the same issue.

On the unraid VM cpu usage hovered around 10-20 percent with just the main stream enabled and simple motion detection (tried deepstack AI etc - same result in choppy video)

On the xeon box it hovers at about 40-60%.

Anyways tried pretty much everything and ran out of ideas. Started with the default install of BI and added just one camera same result -

Stream via VLC and onvif manager yields nice clean results without lagging and skipping frames. Please help - dont know what else to do. Below are few videos and screenshots of conf for blue iris and the camera.


Thank you for your help !


View attachment Clipboard_DrivewayLeft.20211108_080851-080909.3.mp4
View attachment Clipboard_DrivewayLeft.20211108_080959-081009.2.mp4

 

[wittaj]

I would suggest following every optimization in the wiki. Substreams make a big improvement overall.

Keep in mind that these type of cameras, although are spec'd and capable of these various parameters, real world testing by many of us shows if you try to run these units at higher FPS and higher bitrates than needed that you will max out the CPU in the unit and then it bugs out just long enough that you miss something or video is choppy. My car is rated for 6,000RPM redline, but I am not gonna run it in 3rd gear on the highway at 6,000RPM...same with these types of units - gotta keep them under rated capacity. Some may do better than others, but trying to use the rated "spec" of every option available is usually not going to work well, either with a car or a camera or NVR.

Look at all the threads where people came here with a jitter in the video or IVS missing motion or the SD card doesn't overwrite and they were running 30FPS and when people tell them to drop the FPS and they dropped the FPS to 15FPS the camera became stable and they could actual freeze frame the image to get a clean capture. The goal of these cameras are to capture a perp, not capture smooth motion. When we see the news, are they showing the video or a freeze frame screen shot? Nobody cares if it isn't butter smooth...getting the features to make an ID is the important factor. As always, YMMV...

Further, these types of cameras are not GoPro or Hollywood type cameras that offer slow-mo capabilities and other features. They "offer" 30FPS and 60FPS to appease the general public that thinks that is what they need, but you will not find many of us here running more than 15 FPS; and movies are shot at 24 FPS, so anything above that is a waste of storage space for what these cameras are used for. If 24 FPS works for the big screen, I think 15 FPS is more than enough for phones and tablets and most monitors LOL. Many of my cameras are running at 12FPS.

In fact, many times if a CPU is maxing out, it will adhere to the 30FPS but then slow the shutter down to try to not max the CPU, which then produces a smooth blurry image..that is the video my neighbor gets who insists on running 60FPS. He gets smooth walking people but you can't freeze frame it cause every frame is a blur, meanwhile my 12FPS gets the clean freeze frame. Shutter speed is more important the FPS as well. We both run the same shutter speed by the way, but his camera CPU is maxing out and something gotta give when you push it that hard.

Try CBR instead of VBR

Increase the Receive Buffer to 30.

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[TonyR]

+1^^^.

• Emphasis on using substreams in BI
• Emphasis on setting in the cams a max of 15 FPS with matching frame interval

 

[Flintstone61]

@wittaj
What is this Receive buffer you speak of, and where shalt one find ths magical setting?

 

[wittaj]

Its in the camera configuration tab where you type in the IP address and the substreams, then under Advanced, up it from the default of 6MB to higher. With 4MP or higher, should try to run it higher.

 

[veetek22]

I would suggest following every optimization in the wiki. Substreams make a big improvement overall.

Keep in mind that these type of cameras, although are spec'd and capable of these various parameters, real world testing by many of us shows if you try to run these units at higher FPS and higher bitrates than needed that you will max out the CPU in the unit and then it bugs out just long enough that you miss something or video is choppy. My car is rated for 6,000RPM redline, but I am not gonna run it in 3rd gear on the highway at 6,000RPM...same with these types of units - gotta keep them under rated capacity. Some may do better than others, but trying to use the rated "spec" of every option available is usually not going to work well, either with a car or a camera or NVR.

Look at all the threads where people came here with a jitter in the video or IVS missing motion or the SD card doesn't overwrite and they were running 30FPS and when people tell them to drop the FPS and they dropped the FPS to 15FPS the camera became stable and they could actual freeze frame the image to get a clean capture. The goal of these cameras are to capture a perp, not capture smooth motion. When we see the news, are they showing the video or a freeze frame screen shot? Nobody cares if it isn't butter smooth...getting the features to make an ID is the important factor. As always, YMMV...

Further, these types of cameras are not GoPro or Hollywood type cameras that offer slow-mo capabilities and other features. They "offer" 30FPS and 60FPS to appease the general public that thinks that is what they need, but you will not find many of us here running more than 15 FPS; and movies are shot at 24 FPS, so anything above that is a waste of storage space for what these cameras are used for. If 24 FPS works for the big screen, I think 15 FPS is more than enough for phones and tablets and most monitors LOL. Many of my cameras are running at 12FPS.

In fact, many times if a CPU is maxing out, it will adhere to the 30FPS but then slow the shutter down to try to not max the CPU, which then produces a smooth blurry image..that is the video my neighbor gets who insists on running 60FPS. He gets smooth walking people but you can't freeze frame it cause every frame is a blur, meanwhile my 12FPS gets the clean freeze frame. Shutter speed is more important the FPS as well. We both run the same shutter speed by the way, but his camera CPU is maxing out and something gotta give when you push it that hard.

Try CBR instead of VBR

Increase the Receive Buffer to 30.

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

Thank you for your help ,

Brought the FPS down to 20fps , change do CBR and increased the buffer to 30mb, issue still persists.

Will try to lower it down to 15 tonight and run it for 24hrs.

Thank you,

 

[veetek22]

+1^^^.

• Emphasis on using substreams in BI
• Emphasis on setting in the cams a max of 15 FPS with matching frame interval

tried substreams +mainstream , no change mainstream is recording choppy vid.

I'm beginning to think it might be a cable issue - highly unlikely but I'll take the camera down and hookit up on a different cable to see if that changes anything.

 

[wittaj]

Is the camera video passing through the router?

 

[veetek22]

Is the camera video passing through the router?

It is connected to a small Ubiquiti POE switch which is uplinked to a 24 port UBNT switch. BI server is on the 24 port switch. no VLANS or anything.

 

[SouthernYankee]

You will almost always have problems with BI and a VM. BI is more or less a realtime program that is running 100% of the time, so when it need resources it need them now.

Provide a screen shot of the Blue Iris Status camera tab, full info.

 

[veetek22]

You will almost always have problems with BI and a VM. BI is more or less a realtime program that is running 100% of the time, so when it need resources it need them now.

Provide a screen shot of the Blue Iris Status camera tab, full info.

I'll get that screenshot tonight , I havn't had any problems for a year or two running under ESXI , with UHD630 passedthru.

Anyway , as I stated in the original post - ran on baremetal too under win10 with same issues.
Thank you for you input.

 

[toastie]

My Hikision 4MB camera overlooks fast passing traffic and I've been working on this similar issue. BI on sub-stream displays OK, it's with mainstream that show this issue. I'm greedy, Main is on 25fps, 2560x1440, CBR, Max Bit rate 8192, H264. i-frame rate I see happens to be 15. Generally it's recommended that fps and i-frame rate should be the same, I've just realized that after messing with my settings a couple of weeks ago that I had left i-frame rate on 15.

My current BI and camera settings are close to being acceptable. I'll check out all the advice you receive from the experts here on IPCT.

I'll add my own comment on the receive buffer in BI, I found altering it didn't help. After some time adjusting the setting I'm back on 5MB.

My parallel system, a Hikision NVR with local host enabled, viewed under Ubuntu VLC via my LAN can display all cameras with smooth video whatever I set on the individual camera's settings. So there are no camera or cable hardware issues here.
It's a BI configuration issue that need to be matched to your cameras' settings, 2 variables.

 

[Flintstone61]

any chance a hard drive is flaking out?

 

[veetek22]

My Hikision 4MB camera overlooks fast passing traffic and I've been working on this similar issue. BI on sub-stream displays OK, it's with mainstream that show this issue. I'm greedy, Main is on 25fps, 2560x1440, CBR, Max Bit rate 8192, H264. i-frame rate I see happens to be 15. Generally it's recommended that fps and i-frame rate should be the same, I've just realized that after messing with my settings a couple of weeks ago that I had left i-frame rate on 15.

My current BI and camera settings are close to being acceptable. I'll check out all the advice you receive from the experts here on IPCT.

I'll add my own comment on the receive buffer in BI, I found altering it didn't help. After some time adjusting the setting I'm back on 5MB.

My parallel system, a Hikision NVR with local host enabled, viewed under Ubuntu VLC via my LAN can display all cameras with smooth video whatever I set on the individual camera's settings. So there are no camera or cable hardware issues here.
It's a BI configuration issue that need to be matched to your cameras' settings, 2 variables.

Hi so my experience is very similar , VLC and ONVIF MNGR stream is as fluent as it can get at 30fps.


HDD i checked under KVM with directly passthru NVME same issue , baremetal win10 with standard sata drive same issue , ssd same issue , nvme same issue.

Something happened after one of the BI updates.... I've got to look into going back few versions if possible to test.

 

[veetek22]

any chance a hard drive is flaking out?

Tried few different drives already , SSD , NVME, SATA etc, under ESXI, KVM, and baremetal same issue.

 

[Flintstone61]

I'm kinda stumped

 

[Flintstone61]

did BI change Versions in an auto update?

 

[veetek22]

did BI change Versions in an auto update?

That I dont know how it works, however I just realized that you can select any version from 2021 and downgrade. Ill give it a shot.

 

[veetek22]

You will almost always have problems with BI and a VM. BI is more or less a realtime program that is running 100% of the time, so when it need resources it need them now.

Provide a screen shot of the Blue Iris Status camera tab, full info.

Screenshot below , moved back to KVM host reduced fps to 15 on all cams, no HW acceleration enabled. I'll run it for a day and see what it looks like. cpu utilization hovers at around 15% spikes up to 20 when theres a trigger on 1 or 2 cams

In a meanwhile I'm prepping dedicated 11th gen i7 box for this to see if it alleviates the issue.

 

[looney2ns]

All of you having this issue, you should email support, if you havn't. Be sure to email like is outlined in the BI help file, or he'll never see it.
Send all screen shots relating to cameras settings.