FPS issues on 4k camera, laggy/dropped frames.

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kevinmike55

n3wb
Apr 18, 2018
16
2
Hey Folks,

Really thankful for these forums, I've learned a lot by lurking but I have a problem I cant seem to crack.
Problem looks like this:
  • set up 4k camera, its getting around 13fps
  • after a minute or so, it drops to around 4 FPS and starts to lag/jump (bursts of dropped frames)
  • eventually the camera is lagging as much as a few min behind real time (you can see discrepancy in the BI time and embedded camera time).
  • I can see this happening both in live view and recorded footage on BI.

I've read about every forum I could find on this topic, but the issues still persists.
here is what I'm running:
  • Camera
    • Amcrest 4K (IP8M-2496EB) over POE in gig switch
    • 3 x 1080p cameras recording over rstp feed from an old NVR (these all work fine)
  • Computer
    • i7 4770k, CPU load is around 25%, none of the threads exceed that. Network load is around 2-5%, HDD load is fine too. HW h264 is on.
    • 16 gigs of ram,
    • 2 SSD drives (one boot and 1 scratch for new files),
    • 3TB WD surveillance drive,
    • old gpu and a few other HDD's I left in the computer from when it was a video editing PC.
  • router - Netgreat R6700 nighthawk
  • Switch - netgear 5port gigabit switch (gs305p)
  • Internet - 300mbps down, 50mbps up (tested at 250 down, 50up)
What I've tried:
  • Set iframe to match FPS (15)
  • direct to drive recording
  • ensure BI FPS is set 1 level higher in camera settings (20fps)
  • lower bitrate
  • verified HW encoding
  • H264h encoding
  • increased buffer (10,20, 30MB)
  • all test done on local network
Other tests
I'm able to use amcres's software to see the camera, no issues at all. Image is crisp and smooth with stable 15fps. Given this, I believe this to be a settings issue in BI. I verified the camera's compatibility with BI before purchase, the camera works perfectly through amrest's program, and I believe my desktop's specs are more than enough. Ive uploaded my settings for good measure. Any ideas?
 

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Don't use the VPP option. That is not very useful in the first place and is extremely limited in how much it can process.
 
bp2008 said:
Don't use the VPP option. That is not very useful in the first place and is extremely limited in how much it can process.
Click to expand...

Thanks bp2008. Good call, I was just messing around and forgot I left that on. I set it back to default yesterday and still have the issue :( any other ideas?
 
Nope. You could probably cut the frame rate to 10 FPS on 4K cameras to improve things but I don't think that should be strictly necessary...
 
kevinmike55 said:
Thanks bp2008. Good call, I was just messing around and forgot I left that on. I set it back to default yesterday and still have the issue :( any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Is the camera and pc connected to the same switch or is one of them connected to the router?
also, try using dahua rtsp or one of the amcrest options from the drop down.
 
fenderman said:
Is the camera and pc connected to the same switch or is one of them connected to the router?
also, try using dahua rtsp or one of the amcrest options from the drop down.
Click to expand...
They are separate, I will try connecting the PC to the same switch as the cameras when I get home and report back, thanks!

I messed around with the different RTSP options last night as well, currently using this one. It did improve it slightly (it took longer to drop in FPS). I think whats happening is the buffer fills up and then it jumps forward suddenly.

right now it looks like this
 

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kevinmike55 said:
They are separate, I will try connecting the PC to the same switch as the cameras when I get home and report back, thanks!

I messed around with the different RTSP options last night as well, currently using this one. It did improve it slightly (it took longer to drop in FPS). I think whats happening is the buffer fills up and then it jumps forward suddenly.

right now it looks like this
Click to expand...
Ok, that is a common issue with routers causing issues. By plugging it into the same switch, you bypass the router.
 
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fenderman said:
Ok, that is a common issue with routers causing issues. By plugging it into the same switch, you bypass the router.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the help but that did not work :( i think it might be a little better but still get low FPS (drops to 5 or 6) while amcrests viewer is still steady at 15. any other ideas?
 
kevinmike55 said:
Thanks for the help but that did not work :( i think it might be a little better but still get low FPS (drops to 5 or 6) while amcrests viewer is still steady at 15. any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Have you excluded bi from antivirus? Amcrest software is using a different protocol so it's not a proper comparison... try steaming to vlc... also try removing your old video card.. also run a continuous ping on the camera and see if there is packet loss.
 
fenderman said:
Have you excluded bi from antivirus? Amcrest software is using a different protocol so it's not a proper comparison... try steaming to vlc... also try removing your old video card.. also run a continuous ping on the camera and see if there is packet loss.
Click to expand...
Hi Fenderman,

I removed old GPU, ran via VLC, and did a ping of the camera. 0% packet loss, works great on VLC, but still the same issue on BI.
I am fairly new to BI, so there is a good chance there is something basic I could be missing. But I'm pulling my hair out trying to get this camera is a main camera that should be my first alert if something is happening...
 
kevinmike55 said:
Hi Fenderman,

I removed old GPU, ran via VLC, and did a ping of the camera. 0% packet loss, works great on VLC, but still the same issue on BI.
I am fairly new to BI, so there is a good chance there is something basic I could be missing. But I'm pulling my hair out trying to get this camera is a main camera that should be my first alert if something is happening...
Click to expand...
delete the camera in blue iris and add it back fresh.
 
update on some trouble shooting. I turned off recording in BI to see if it was a HDD write issue. still have low FPS. I then turned down the resolution to 1080P and turned recording back on, and that "fixed" the issue. Steady FPS between 14.5 and 15 for an hour now. This tells me BI is having problems streaming/decoding the 4k streams. CPU usage is only at 30% and other programs can stream just fine, so I looked to see if BI was being limited in some way but couldn't find anything to suggest that (task manager shows BI has access to all cores). Not sure if that information helps or not but it at least narrows it down to some setting in BI or perhaps a bug?
 
kevinmike55 said:
update on some trouble shooting. I turned off recording in BI to see if it was a HDD write issue. still have low FPS. I then turned down the resolution to 1080P and turned recording back on, and that "fixed" the issue. Steady FPS between 14.5 and 15 for an hour now. This tells me BI is having problems streaming/decoding the 4k streams. CPU usage is only at 30% and other programs can stream just fine, so I looked to see if BI was being limited in some way but couldn't find anything to suggest that (task manager shows BI has access to all cores). Not sure if that information helps or not but it at least narrows it down to some setting in BI or perhaps a bug?
Click to expand...
try disabling hardware acceleration completely and see if there is any change.
 
fenderman said:
try disabling hardware acceleration completely and see if there is any change.
Click to expand...
plummets to 2-3 FPS. I changed the target frame rate on camera to 10FPS at 4K and it has held steady for the past 2 hours(awesome!). Its a good temporary solution but id really like to understand why it struggles with 15fps when nothing is visibly taxed. I may try to mess with iframe when I get home. If my thinking is correct, decreasing iframes causes more unique frames to be captured which demands less of a CPU as it is extrapolating fewer frames on its own. Is my thinking correct?
 
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kevinmike55 said:
plummets to 2-3 FPS. I changed the target frame rate on camera to 10FPS at 4K and it has held steady for the past 2 hours(awesome!). Its a good temporary solution but id really like to understand why it struggles with 15fps when nothing is visibly taxed. I may try to mess with iframe when I get home. If my thinking is correct, decreasing iframes causes more unique frames to be captured which demands less of a CPU as it is extrapolating fewer frames on its own. Is my thinking correct?
Click to expand...
Decreasing the iframe interval wont have any impact on the pc cpu, but would likely increase the bitrate. It is strange, I only have one 4k camera, a dahua, which is no issue maintaining 15fps in blue iris (this is even without HA as the cpu is a second gen i5 which only supports HA for 1080p)
 
fenderman said:
Decreasing the iframe interval wont have any impact on the pc cpu, but would likely increase the bitrate. It is strange, I only have one 4k camera, a dahua, which is no issue maintaining 15fps in blue iris (this is even without HA as the cpu is a second gen i5 which only supports HA for 1080p)
Click to expand...
Im scratching my head too, I wonder if my PC is somehow limiting Bi for some reason.
 
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