Diagnosing poor fps

[Krotiz]

Hi

I've read a lot of posts on here about fps and troubleshooting issues that can be related to fps.

I recently bought a new server for BI, its a dual socket (2cpus x 12cores = 24 logical cores) x5650 2.67Ghz with 40G of ram.

I have 11 cams;
1 foscam <unknown model>
9 hikvision ds 2cd2342wd-i
1 hikvision DS-2CD2135F-IS

If I run them all at once I get varied FPS from 4 to 15~(most are between 4~10fps)

I just disabled all but one of the hik's and I get 20 FPS (4.1MP) 134~kB/s

I have direct to disk enabled for them all - I did have this disabled before and when I turned this on - I noticed a decrease in CPU usage (from 80% to 65~%).

The interface is very laggy to use and takes 10+ seconds to open the properties - attached are the settings - each cam has the same settings (I THINK!)

Sometimes the cams suddenly have higher FPS and some drop to 4~.. but it kinda jumps around so sometimes one with have 15..next minute it'll have 4... but the top cam(PTZ Black) will mostly always have 25FPS solidly.

Each cam is connected to the same POE Gig switch which the server is also connected to, all the cams and the server have <1~1ms pings to each other (tested with ping for life).

I'm at a loss here - a lot of the times BI will show most of the cams with a yellow icon indicating low fps.

How can I begin diagnosing this problem or am I fucked/need a better server? right now the server is at around 50~60% cpu and most of the cameras are showing the yellow icon... it makes the recordings awful and also viewing the playback is terrible.

I've tried watching it over RDP and with the local console - both seem to have the same results, as well as running in service mode (which I generally do).

Can anyone help me out with this?

Edit- I would love to record 24/7 and have motion detection but it seems to be totally unusable with that on

 

[Krotiz]

I tried editing the post but I had an error saying it was spam-like.

Just to add I'm using windows server 2012 r2

edit - I just turned on continuous recording and to be honest didnt notice much change.

The cams are still laggy and recording/playback is basically useless

I just walked around my house and got back to my system, and could see myself slowing lag around, I tried watching the playback and I was just a blur moving around. Really don't know what to do other than buy another system and split up the cameras?

But Ive seen others with similar camera amounts/more on even worse systems than mine and they operate without issues... not sure whats going on with mine?

 

[Frank Ecker]

There is something wrong that needs to be fixed. I am running a four core i5 750 and 8 gb of ram from almost a decade ago and run six cameras without trouble. I know I am not giving you a solution here but encouragement that your HW is not underpowered.

 

[bp2008]

I'm surprised it is that bad. The cores are individually weak but you have 12 of them plus hyper-threading and that should be able to handle those cameras, I would think.

Is any part of your network path using wifi? Like ... is the Blue Iris server connected by Wifi?

Probably the best thing you can do is cut back all the frame rates to no more than 15 FPS in the camera web interfaces and about 17 FPS in Blue Iris (the reasoning is that Blue Iris will drop frames if the camera temporarily exceeds the frame rate that Blue Iris expects). Beyond about 15 FPS you don't gain a lot of smoothness but each frame still costs just as much for the computer to process.

 

[fenderman]

I have seen this time an time again with folks trying to use these old servers for BI.....someone ripped you off on that server...its a powerhog and should be in the garbage....a modern system that supports intel hd with quicksync (intel i second generation or newer) would pay for itself...
Are you running in demo mode?

 

[cainrand]

You bought a new for you but used server or a new never used server?
What does the resource monitor show you for your servers performance?

 

[fenderman]

You bought a new for you but used server or a new never used server?
What does the resource monitor show you for your servers performance?

That server is from 2010..

 

[cainrand]

That server is from 2010..

ah, because of the X5650 I presume.

 

[fenderman]

ah, because of the X5650 I presume.

yes

 

[Frank Ecker]

That server is from 2010..

Ooh, I just assumed it was a modern CPU based on the OP posting. Yes, now that I google the CPU I see it was from 2010.

 

[Krotiz]

Its an anciant server I got pretty cheap. I know its a powerhog but I dont really care about power to be honest.
(new server for me but used/old server in reality - an old hp gen7)
I've dropped down the frames that the cam generates on the actual cam interface and that has helped a bit.
I'm licensed as well - sorry should've mentioned.
Probably worth scrapping my config and starting again? I forgot to mention but when I originally set this up it wasn't nearly this bad - it was at least usable.
Resource monitor shows that its not maxing the drives out or network/ram/etc... and no - nothing is wifi - its all on a gig switch*EDIT thats a lie the foscam running at 25fps is on wifi

appriacte the replys guys thanks

>would changing the hw decoding option in Cam properties > Video help in my scenario?
>would adding a graphics card help ? I have a pci riser ribbon I could connect a card with (would require taking it out my rack so quite the effort if theres no gain)?

I don't think I got ripped off though, even if I don't use this box for BI - I have other things I could use it for, but the whole thing was 250GBP
if this box is totally unfixable - I'd be completely willing to buy another server - some that I've been seeing for a decent price;
would a single socket e3 1220, 12G ram be enough for this amount of cams (9 are 4.1mp, 1 is 3.1mp, 1 is 0.9mp)

Looking at pass mark it seems like this single cpu is about as good as just one of the ones im using so given I have two in my system theres probably no point going for this...

 

[bp2008]

Hardware decoding requires Intel Quick Sync Video support. Your Xeons do not have it -- some of the modern e3 Xeons do, though, and most desktop core i3, i5, and i7 chips do. Don't buy a PC for Blue Iris that does not have Quick Sync.

Adding a graphics card would not help.

Passmark benchmarks unfortunately can't tell the whole story. I can't say why it isn't quite performing as expected, but I agree the benchmarks make it look like it should perform better than that. Are you by chance using H.265 encoding for any cameras? That is much less efficient to decode.

I suggest searching ebay for "i7-6700", "i5-6600", "i5-6500", and "i5-6400". Used/refurbished PCs can usually be had for a substantial discount over buying new. The i7 obviously would be better if you want to run higher frame rates, but any of those i5 chips should do better than your current old server. There really is no compelling reason to use a Xeon or ECC memory for Blue Iris.

 

[Krotiz]

The reason I went for a server type setup was to put in my rack pretty much, I am planning to replace my desktop (i7 920) but that seems to have trouble running all the cams (at least it did on an old install of win7 - not tried on a fresh install of win10, thats something I'm going to do tomorrow probably).

But this desktop won't fit right in the rack.

Is that the setting in cam prop> record > video format? If so I'm using direct to disk here.

Looking at ebay - yes these are a decent price, I'll try looking for something that's rackable, or maybe something I can put together in a server'ish case and rack it.

 

[Krotiz]

I think I've found the problem here, I just set my server to run in static (high?)performance mode in the bios, and now the CPU is running around 20-30% and all cams are at 15FPS...feel a bit stupid making a massive post about this.

I've even set it to record constantly and that seems to be fine as well!!

Lesson learned - thought I'd checked this setting when I first got the server but I guess not (it was previously on balanced)

I even put the fps to 20 and it seems to work fine with this as well... the interface is responsive and theres no lag with playback

Is the low(er?) kB/s a problem here - if you look at the screenshot some are showing sub 50kB/s even with 20fps

Sorry guys

 

[fenderman]

250GBP? wow you got royally hosed...why dont you care about power? who pays your bill?
HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz 4GB 80GB Win 7 Pro 1 Yr Wty | eBay

 

[cainrand]

But this desktop won't fit right in the rack.

I've converted towers to rack cases, it really is easy and sounds like you would be quite capable. Lot of case choices out there, I used a 4U rosewill for my freenas server, really a large case but 5 120mm fans doing a push and a couple 80mm fans doing a pull over the hard drives, the board is kept quite cool as well.
Super quiet - not like the jet engine blade server fans.

 

[bp2008]

I think I've found the problem here, I just set my server to run in static (high?)performance mode in the bios, and now the CPU is running around 20-30% and all cams are at 15FPS...feel a bit stupid making a massive post about this.

I've even set it to record constantly and that seems to be fine as well!!

Lesson learned - thought I'd checked this setting when I first got the server but I guess not (it was previously on balanced)

I even put the fps to 20 and it seems to work fine with this as well... the interface is responsive and theres no lag with playback

Good find. I never would have guessed a simple bios setting would make such a difference.

Is the low(er?) kB/s a problem here - if you look at the screenshot some are showing sub 50kB/s even with 20fps

Sorry guys

If you have those cameras set to encode variable bit rate (VBR), then low bit rates like that are certainly possible. I suggest if you use VBR then you should also make sure the cameras are all set to highest quality. VBR is mostly useful if you are 24/7 recording as it can decrease your storage costs. For most motion-triggered setups, you can get away with constant bit rate (CBR) and max bit rate.

 

[cainrand]

...feel a bit stupid making a massive post about this.

I think that's the idea of the forum...shared information, shared knowledge, learning.

 

[Krotiz]

Thanks I just changed the quality in the cameras and noticed the bitrate change instantly - the fps is staying at 20 and cpu usage is now around 45%

I pay my power bill but im not really bothered about the increase. Sure theres better desktop systems out there but I wanted ilo + a quick and easy solution without having to put parts together like im doing with my pc - since ive been putting this set up off for a while, if I was going to build it myself I'd probably put of off for longer. although I probably will put my old i7 in some kind of server case in the future.

Theres other settings like h264+/iframe interval/svc/smoothing which ive not touched - should these be considered at all?

EDIT - maybe not staying at 20 fps, just went from showing 850+MP/s in the status window to 400~MP/s and now everything is below 10fps. I'll have to revert the change I made to max bitrate - odd how it seemed to work for a bit though..

 

[bp2008]

850+ MP/s is a lot My system doesn't run that much and I use hardware acceleration.

I think h264+ has problems with Blue Iris. Maybe? I don't have any cameras with that.

The iframe interval sometimes has an effect on stream stability (make the iframe interval match the FPS for best stability with unstable cameras). It also determines the precision with which a direct to disk recording can start, as a direct to disk recording can only start on an iframe. I run most of my cameras with iframe interval = double the frame rate. So frame rate 15, iframe 30. More iframes makes the compression less efficient you see, so more is not always better.

SVC or scalable video coding is not compatible with Blue Iris. I believe that is a method where they try to encode a sub stream into the main stream or some such nonsense.

"Smoothing" I have no idea.