CPU from 67% to 82%+ After Update to 5.3.7.11 (same was true after update to 5.3.7.5)

Update: Problem was solved until I upgraded to 5.3.7.13 and 5.3.8.3. After those upgrades my CPU spiked to 100% without any other changes. The spiking seemed to occur when connecting using a web client. When I didn't use the web client, the CPU came down to around 80%. No matter what changes I made to the web server, the camera settings, the Blue Iris settings, using all the guidance on reducing CPU utilization, nothing was effective reducing CPU useage at 100%. when using a web client, and when not it would remain around 80%.

This never happened prior to upgrading to versions 5.3.7.13 and 5.3.8.3. Downgrading back to 5.3.6.7 didn't change this behavior, which was odd (I assume the changes made in upgrades beyond 5.3.7.12 changed some bits permanently that weren't reversed to a previous state prior to the upgrade to those versions). This is so frustrating and causes my love/hate relationship with Blue Iris!

So I after hours and hours of checking and changing settings to try to get the CPU back to the 67% range when using a web client, I gave up because nothing worked. With no other options left, I decided to follow sebastiantombs suggestion of configuring and using sub-streams in Blue Iris. After doing so with my same Blue Iris configuration (see the first post in this stream that provides the details of my configuration), with version 5.3.8.3, my CPU utilization is down to 16% on average even with a Remote Desktop Session using the thhick Blue Iris client within the Remote Desktop Session, let alone connecting to the Blue Iris server using several web clients and the IOS client.

My own self-assessment is that I didn't listen initially to sebastiantombs because I've become so weary of Blue Iris and making any changes to it because they always impact CPU utilization negatively or screw things up. I had gotten my Blue Iris system finally operating at 67% through updates including 5.3.7.12. So I was hesitant to make the changes that sebastiantombs was suggesting in fear of screwing everything up even worse than 100% CPU utilization. Plus I'm not sure I realized how sub-streams would work. After doing my homework on sub-streams, because I was forced to consider it after everything else failed to get the CPU utilization back to the nominal range after upgrades to v 5.3.7.13 and above, I implemented sub-streams in Blue Iris and immediately my CPU utilization dropped from 100% to now between 16% to 20%, with no other changes.

I love the developers of Blue Iris because Blue Iris is truly great and very enabling software, with lots of functionality and is sold at a very reasonable price. I would gladly pay $100 more a year if the SDLC process had better quality control to produce more stable released to production software, to reduce the requirement for daily updates at the x.x.x.x level to solve bugs introduced in each successive version update that is being implemented to solve a previous bug that was introduced in the pervious version. Not saying that bugs can be totally eliminated given the infinite and exponential variables across OS updates, camera firmware, processors, GPU, etc. or that bugs shouldn't be addressed and resolved timely. Rather I'm suggesting that that better quality control (read testing) would reduce the amount of bugs introduced in each successive version. If I had to include the cost of my time dealing with Blue Iris issues including lots of web searches, reading and configuration changes across almost 30 cameras to solve issues, the actual cost of Blue Iris is excessive. Developers of Blue Iris - please take this as constructive criticism from a user who wants Blue Iris to be the best IP Camera monitoring software. Why not include an assessment utility that would assess a Blue Iris configuration and provide the configuration changes to solve the issue.

I hope this post will helps others who are suffering with CPU spiking after upgrades to versions 5.3.7.13 and above.
 
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Mike, so far as I know, product development comprises one man. I’m sure that a great many users prefer him to keep on releasing new features following limited testing and then fixing the bugs that arise using feedback from those users who are willing to trial the updates. Given the huge variety in systems using Blue Iris, this approach works well, facilitating rapid progress at low cost.

The majority of end user problems are actually down to configuration errors or a lack of understanding and not software bugs. Fortunately, this forum is visited by experienced individuals who not only give the developer (and his limited support team) the feedback needed but who are also willing to support users with very basic knowledge like me.

For those who either have no time to spare or have no interest in updated features, a stable version is available.
 
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Dave, fair comments, thanks for you viewpoint. Know that I work at Amazon Web Services and totally understand Agile software development via microservices and CI/CD pipelines. I guess than for user errors, the configurator analysis utility would be a good one to be released. That type of utility could scan the settings and provide recommended configuration changes to address user issues and common errors. But the fact that so many people run into the same issues, even someone with my extensive tech background and knowledge of Networking, Web Services/Servers, POE, and IP Camera operations, suggests that something isn't completely right. But no worries, I'm a fan of Blue Iris as I mentioned and this forum. I'm also open to constructive critique and other feedback and viewpoints! :-)! Thanks to everyone that supports this forum!
 
I too was able to get my cpu from 100% down to about 25% using the sub-stream feature that I did not know about. I too was in a set and forget setup once I got the configuration that worked well. This new feature will make it possible to upgrade cameras to 4K without me upgrading my pc again.
 
Mike Newman said:
Prior to update versions 5.3.7.5 and 5.3.7.11,the web UI was indicating around 67%. After these two updates it now fluctuates between a minimum of 82% to 100%. I have made no other changes to anything other than install the updates.

My current environment is:

BlueIris 5 (now at v5.3.7.11) running on a Dell OptiPlex i9-9900 @ 3.10GHz with 32GB RAM running Windows 10 x64 OS that is fully current with updates and Kaspersky AV (Kaspersky AV set to exclude scanning the BlueIris Directories)
  • 28 IP Cameras (see breakdown below with FPS, Resolution and HW acceleration details for each):
    • 22 Hikvision DS-2CD2385FWD-I IP Camera set at 1920x1080 @ Max (frame) rate at 15fps both on BlueIris and on Camera config, using Intel HW Acceleration
    • 2x Jidetecch - P2-20X-5MPF PTZ IPCameras set at 1920x1080 @ Max (frame) rate at 15fps both BlueIris and on Camera config, using Intel HW Acceleration
    • 1x Montavue (OEM is Dahua) MTT5102-AIAD IP Camera set at 1920x1080 @ Max (frame) rate at 15fps both BlueIris and on Camera config, using Intel HW Acceleration
    • 2x Doorbird D2101KV-4A Entry Systems (ONVIF compatible) set at 720p @ Max (frame) rate at 10fps both BlueIris and on Camera config, no HW Acceleration
    • 1x Doorbird D2101V Entry Systems (ONVIF compatible) set at 720p @ Max (frame) rate at 10fps both BlueIris and on Camera config, no HW Acceleration
  • Only recording on motion
  • Default HW Acceleration set to Intel

  1. Is anyone else having this issue?
  2. If yes, what did you do to solve the issue to get performance back to where it was prior to these updates?
Need your help. Thanks!

Mike
Click to expand...

I had similar CPU increase(basically running @ 90-100pct, only app running on the machine) after installing current update release. Went back to release 5.3.6.7, CPU went back to 60-70pct range
 
Same thing happened to me. I never got an explanation of why this happened, so I can only speculate. I was given a fix though that for me actually resulted in halving my original cpu usage. There is something called sub-streams now in BlueIris that seems to require less bandwidth and cpu. I had to configure a second stream on all my cameras that was a little less resolution (about 1.2MB for me) and then set up a second stream in blue iris under the video settings. It uses the lower resolution stream in group views and motion detection, but switches to the larger stream for recording and single camera viewing. Seems to work well. I takes a little work to do though. It works great for my on two installations.

My guess is that he traded off some performance of one stream setups for improved 2 stream performance.
 
The bandwidth on ethernet increases. As there is more data on the two streams. The performance increase (lower CPU) is that the sub frame has less data to process and convert. There is also less pixels to compare for motion detection. Less processed data less CPU.

The primary frame is used for display on full screen. The sub frame is used for display when multiple cameras are on one screen.
 
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