fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,892
- 21,408
Choppy video with the IE active X
- Thread starter t_andersen
- Start date
@mcx - was that video in WMP downloaded to the machine before being played? I assume so since I don't know of a way to stream to WMP. If it was in fact downloaded prior to being played that may be why it is smooth. No buffering.
What about the other two, are they both being played from a stream? Sounds like you are playing the file from a remote BI server?
Any anti-virus on the test machine? I ask because my remote test machine doesn't have any installed, but the local machine does.
What about the other two, are they both being played from a stream? Sounds like you are playing the file from a remote BI server?
Any anti-virus on the test machine? I ask because my remote test machine doesn't have any installed, but the local machine does.
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Top left is streamed from remote BI server. Right and WMP are same BVR as streamed but downloaded and played on local machine. Win Defender is running on remote machine and MSE is running on local machine.
I don't understand why the video is little choppy when playing locally on BI viewer but not when played on WMP. Also i took a Teamviewer session to remote machine and same results - BI viewer was choppy but WMP wasn't.
I have made some experiments on the server side, for instance changing the frame rate of the recording and I did not see any effect on the result. I have also checked whether other programs on the BI computer eat up bandwidth and that is not the case.
I can instead view clips "remotely" using the BI android app. When I do that over the local LAN, they are smooth. When viewed on the remote PC they are chopped. Can I then conclude that the BI server is ok and that the problem is on the active x/remote PC side?
I know that I fumble around a bit but I guess that is the nature of troubleshooting
I can instead view clips "remotely" using the BI android app. When I do that over the local LAN, they are smooth. When viewed on the remote PC they are chopped. Can I then conclude that the BI server is ok and that the problem is on the active x/remote PC side?
I know that I fumble around a bit but I guess that is the nature of troubleshooting
nayr
IPCT Contributor
yes everything is pointing at your client pc and/or activeX, there is plenty of evidence so far that this has nothing to do with your BI server or the network...
@ruppmeister was able to confirm its local to machine level, one host has the problem, the other does not.. BI remained unchanged and the working host was on a weaker network, so the culprit must be something on the local host's environment.
start killing everything on your client, all background proccesses, antivirus, everything not required to use IE.
@ruppmeister was able to confirm its local to machine level, one host has the problem, the other does not.. BI remained unchanged and the working host was on a weaker network, so the culprit must be something on the local host's environment.
start killing everything on your client, all background proccesses, antivirus, everything not required to use IE.
Here is a quick update in case anybody comes up with a solution. I am still working on the problem. Fenderman kindly hooked up one of his remote active x computers (that works fine on his systems) to my web server and the videos were choppy. I therefore now believe that the problem is on the BI computer and server. I then wondered whether my router at the BI site was too old and I bought a new one. Regretfully, it did not help. I have then again been playing with settings in BI to test their influence on the choppy server but did not see any effect. The BI computer is hardly running any other programs, so I can't see how other software could lead to a choppy web server. Still very interested in ideas for tests to pin down the problem.
nayr
IPCT Contributor
Wait, so you view Fendermans server that everyone knows is fine and you still had a problem? Its not your networks... sigh. you came to the exact opposite conclusion you should have.
Its your computer.. not the server nor the network
Its your computer.. not the server nor the network
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,892
- 21,408
To clarify, I viewed his server remotely and see the jitter...he did not view mine.
I dont see that jitter on any of my servers.
nayr
IPCT Contributor
oh i understand, sorry.. gotcha, yeah this seems server related then.
Driver updates? I find its best to go straight to intel and get an installer from them instead of relying on windows or your manufacturer.. I would start off with your chipset drivers, then video and network.. make sure they are all the best you can find.
Driver updates? I find its best to go straight to intel and get an installer from them instead of relying on windows or your manufacturer.. I would start off with your chipset drivers, then video and network.. make sure they are all the best you can find.
nayr, can you think of any other tests that could give a hint? For instance, if I could set up a third-party web server and see whether that one works? Or do some other streaming tests? Or is it possible to run the BI web server without BI?
Hi folks, sorry for being back again so soon. I haven't solved the problem but I have made some tests and I am very interested in getting comments from the gurus here.
I installed the Chromecast extension on the BI computer and tried to stream the mp4 clips recorded by BI to my TV using the Chrome extension. I know that streaming with BI and Chromecast is not the same but I assume that the CPU load and the network load should be about the same. With BI running at the same time on the computer, the videos clips on the TV were smooth. Hence I assume that the network is ok for the traffic and the BI computer can handle the network traffic.
I then hooked up a display & keyboard to the BI computer (which is normally all alone under a staircase) and looked at the video clips displayed by the BI program itself and they were smooth.
Finally, I started Internet Explorer on the BI computer and installed the active x for "remote" viewing. I looked at the stream from the web server by logging into localhost (127.0.0.1) and the video clips were choppy! If it were not for you clever guys, I would have sworn that there is a bug in the web server....
Any comments more than welcome!
PS: I have checked that the most important drivers are up to date.
I installed the Chromecast extension on the BI computer and tried to stream the mp4 clips recorded by BI to my TV using the Chrome extension. I know that streaming with BI and Chromecast is not the same but I assume that the CPU load and the network load should be about the same. With BI running at the same time on the computer, the videos clips on the TV were smooth. Hence I assume that the network is ok for the traffic and the BI computer can handle the network traffic.
I then hooked up a display & keyboard to the BI computer (which is normally all alone under a staircase) and looked at the video clips displayed by the BI program itself and they were smooth.
Finally, I started Internet Explorer on the BI computer and installed the active x for "remote" viewing. I looked at the stream from the web server by logging into localhost (127.0.0.1) and the video clips were choppy! If it were not for you clever guys, I would have sworn that there is a bug in the web server....
Any comments more than welcome!
PS: I have checked that the most important drivers are up to date.
Hi again,
here is yet another update, maybe the last because the remote videos are now reasonably smooth.
After having noted that I got choppy videos when running a "remote" IE with active x on the very same computer as the BI computer, I figured that there were essentially two possible error sources: BI and codecs. I then updated the K-lite codecs on the BI computer and it actually improved the video quality, when streaming to a remote computer. It was not as choppy. However, it was still not super, so I tried to change the frame rate of the four ip cams (szsinocam and amovision) from 30 to 15 fps, and did the same thing in BI. That actually helped a lot. It's not nearly as smooth as when watching a movie over Chromecast or Netflix, but it's not painfully choppy. My CPU load dropped to some 10-15%. I am not using direct-to-disc and I save files in mp4 format. I tried to experiment with direct-to-disk and bvr but did not see any real improvement.
What I conclude is that although the CPU load is only 20-30%, somehow a bottleneck turns up when BI has to start recording following an alert. That bottleneck becomes an issue at 30 fps but not at 15 fps. Maybe it reaches 100% for a short while and does not have the capability to handle it using buffers? It's a little sad considering that the average CPU load is so low. However, we should remember that BI is still a very good program at a very reasonable price.
When experimenting with different fps's etc I did see the same occasional "freezing" that was described in another recent thread. But when running at 15 fps I do not see it. I also saw a strange behavior of the motion detector (detecting motion in one direction but not the opposite) but it works fine now. I run an i7-4790s processor with 8GB ram.
As a little goody to keep up the spirit I show three stills from the same cam as in the beginning of the thread. The first one shows a deer at our house, the second a young moose and the third the neighbor's cows that vandalized our garden one night!
here is yet another update, maybe the last because the remote videos are now reasonably smooth.
After having noted that I got choppy videos when running a "remote" IE with active x on the very same computer as the BI computer, I figured that there were essentially two possible error sources: BI and codecs. I then updated the K-lite codecs on the BI computer and it actually improved the video quality, when streaming to a remote computer. It was not as choppy. However, it was still not super, so I tried to change the frame rate of the four ip cams (szsinocam and amovision) from 30 to 15 fps, and did the same thing in BI. That actually helped a lot. It's not nearly as smooth as when watching a movie over Chromecast or Netflix, but it's not painfully choppy. My CPU load dropped to some 10-15%. I am not using direct-to-disc and I save files in mp4 format. I tried to experiment with direct-to-disk and bvr but did not see any real improvement.
What I conclude is that although the CPU load is only 20-30%, somehow a bottleneck turns up when BI has to start recording following an alert. That bottleneck becomes an issue at 30 fps but not at 15 fps. Maybe it reaches 100% for a short while and does not have the capability to handle it using buffers? It's a little sad considering that the average CPU load is so low. However, we should remember that BI is still a very good program at a very reasonable price.
When experimenting with different fps's etc I did see the same occasional "freezing" that was described in another recent thread. But when running at 15 fps I do not see it. I also saw a strange behavior of the motion detector (detecting motion in one direction but not the opposite) but it works fine now. I run an i7-4790s processor with 8GB ram.
As a little goody to keep up the spirit I show three stills from the same cam as in the beginning of the thread. The first one shows a deer at our house, the second a young moose and the third the neighbor's cows that vandalized our garden one night!
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