Choppy video blur

[Meno]

Hi, I needed to setup some cameras urgently but as funds didn't allow it at this time I purchased a cheap IP camera as a start. Obviously it's not brilliant bit what annoys me is how choppy the stream is, passing traffic just jerk past no matter what settings I use, low fps or high, low bitrate or high. This is in blue iris and in the browser player.

I complained to the supplier and they sent me another one, still the same so they sent me another which was also the same so yet again they sent another. I've now got 4 of them.

Watching the stream the image blurs slightly every second, increasing the I frame above the fps increases the gap between it happening.

They are connected via a Poe switch although I've tried with adaptor and it makes no difference.

Is this normal behaviour?

Many thanks for any help

 

[mat200]

Hi, I needed to setup some cameras urgently but as funds didn't allow it at this time I purchased a cheap IP camera as a start. Obviously it's not brilliant bit what annoys me is how choppy the stream is, passing traffic just jerk past no matter what settings I use, low fps or high, low bitrate or high. This is in blue iris and in the browser player.

I complained to the supplier and they sent me another one, still the same so they sent me another which was also the same so yet again they sent another. I've now got 4 of them.

Watching the stream the image blurs slightly every second, increasing the I frame above the fps increases the gap between it happening.

They are connected via a Poe switch although I've tried with adaptor and it makes no difference.

Is this normal behaviour?

Many thanks for any help

Welcome Meno,

You want to see if you can reduce the exposure time / increase the shutter speed, on some cameras you can do this.

It's easy to get swamped with information here, so I wanted to share some notes with you

Please check out @giomania 's notes:
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

I have also made notes which are a summary of a lot of the reading I've been doing here,:
Looking for some advice and direction!

Have fun joining us here.

 

[Meno]

Thank you, I don't see anything in the GUI for these settings, would I need to use a different tool?
The seller tells me it should be smooth at over 15fps bit even at 1fps it jerks like occasionally there is an extra frame so traffic moves like

-   -   -   - -   -    -   - -   -   -

I must be missing something?

Thanks again

 

[mat200]

Thank you, I don't see anything in the GUI for these settings, would I need to use a different tool?
The seller tells me it should be smooth at over 15fps bit even at 1fps it jerks like occasionally there is an extra frame so traffic moves like

-   -   -   - -   -    -   - -   -   -

I must be missing something?

Thanks again

HI Meno,

I do not know your camera, so you will have to try to determine how you can fix this.

 

[Meno]

It's x3 SV3C 1080p POE Bullet and x1 Dome

They still say they should be smooth but I just can't get them smooth not even in lowest settings on sub stream.

Thanks

 

[alastairstevenson]

Are you recording the video in BI direct to disc?
What's the BI CPU utilisation looking like?
Maybe upload a video file sample so we can check it out.

I've now got 4 of them.

Wow! Amazing service.

 

[bp2008]

When you view the video in the Blue Iris console with Options > Cameras > Limit live preview rate disabled, it should be the best quality and smoothness possible (or when you view a recording that was saved with Direct to disk enabled). Viewing through Blue Iris's web interface introduces an additional layer of compression and can mess up both the frame rate and the image quality somewhat.

A common problem is for iframes to be encoded at too low of quality compared to all the other frames, so that each iframe causes an instantaneous loss of quality. When this happens, the quality tends to smoothly improve for several frames afterward, and eventually the next iframe knocks quality back down again. This is a sign of a poorly-tuned encoder and there isn't much you can do about it because you simply don't have that level of control over the encoder. Increasing the iframe interval makes it happen less often (but makes direct to disk recording less precise about its start time). Increasing bit rate and/or reducing frame rate often helps but is not a perfect solution.

 

[Meno]

When you view the video in the Blue Iris console with Options > Cameras > Limit live preview rate disabled, it should be the best quality and smoothness possible (or when you view a recording that was saved with Direct to disk enabled). Viewing through Blue Iris's web interface introduces an additional layer of compression and can mess up both the frame rate and the image quality somewhat.

A common problem is for iframes to be encoded at too low of quality compared to all the other frames, so that each iframe causes an instantaneous loss of quality. When this happens, the quality tends to smoothly improve for several frames afterward, and eventually the next iframe knocks quality back down again. This is a sign of a poorly-tuned encoder and there isn't much you can do about it because you simply don't have that level of control over the encoder. Increasing the iframe interval makes it happen less often (but makes direct to disk recording less precise about its start time). Increasing bit rate and/or reducing frame rate often helps but is not a perfect solution.

Thanks, I have limit preview disabled and direct to disk enabled. No combination of bitrate and FPS make any difference.

Just poor quality cameras I suppose.

I ideally need at least one that is smooth so any recommendations for the lowest cost camera that is smooth, thank you.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Maybe upload a video file sample so we can check it out.

Do you have a short sample to share?
Have you tried copying a file to another PC and viewing it?
Presumably the PC is a common factor.

 

[Meno]

 

[mat200]

Are you attempting to capture movement on the street? Or just by the parked car?

 

[Meno]

It won't actually be positioned here, this was just testing. It will be capturing vehicles driving along a private road. Even people walking past is choppy.

 

[mat200]

It won't actually be positioned here, this was just testing. It will be capturing vehicles driving along a private road. Even people walking past is choppy.

What model do you have?
What is the frame rate set to?

 

[Meno]

What model do you have?
What is the frame rate set to?

1080p Poe Bullet

I've tried from 5fps to 25fps, makes no difference.
If I try 1fps I get 1 frame then a second later I get 2 quick frames then a second later one frame, even 1 FPS is inconsistent.

 

[mat200]

1080p Poe Bullet

I've tried from 5fps to 25fps, makes no difference.
If I try 1fps I get 1 frame then a second later I get 2 quick frames then a second later one frame, even 1 FPS is inconsistent.

Hi Meno,

Perhaps time to get one better camera then.

 

[Meno]

Hi Meno,

Perhaps time to get one better camera then.

Yes that's right, I take it it's trial an error as these aren't ment to be choppy according to the manufacturer.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I've tried from 5fps to 25fps, makes no difference.
If I try 1fps I get 1 frame then a second later I get 2 quick frames then a second later one frame, even 1 FPS is inconsistent.

I downloaded your sample to watch locally.
I'd say that for a 15fps frame rate that looks pretty reasonable for an IP surveillance camera. I would not have called it choppy, it's what you'd expect at 15fps.
You can't expect broadcast quality with these high-compression codecs.

What have you compared it with in order to feel it's sub-par?

 

[Meno]

I understand you don't get broadcast quality but when someone walks past or a car drives past I expect it not to look like they keep stopping and then skip forward. I assume the manufacturer doesn't expect it as they keep sending me more.

Thanks for your help, I'll try another one.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I expect it not to look like they keep stopping and then skip forward. I assume the manufacturer doesn't expect it as they keep sending me more.

When I viewed the video I didn't see it keep stopping, I did not see it skipping.
Have you tried it on a different PC?

Stopping by how long approximately?
When I checked frame-by-frame it looked normal enough for a 15fps video file.

 

[mat200]

Check your PC performance, ram usage, disk usage

Try using VLC to play the video