Hardware Decoding Issues

[Q™]

Please help me understand how Hardware Decoding works in BI 4.3.8.0 x64. As I understand it, the prerequisite is that the system on which one runs Blue Iris must have Intel HD Graphics 530 onboard. In addition, as I understand it, there are two (2) methods to enable BI hardware acceleration, which Blue Iris calls "Hardware Decoding"...

1) Method #1 is on an individual camera-by-camera basis by navigating to...

Camera Properties > Video > Image Format > Hardware Decoding: Default | Yes (no VPP) | No | Yes+VPP
(Setting this switch to either "Yes (no VPP)" or "Yes+VPP" will enable BY hardware acceleration​

2) Alternatively, Method #2 allows BI hardware acceleration to be enabled on a system wide basis (all cameras) by navigating to...

Options > Cameras > Intel HD hardware acceleration (restart): No | Yes(H.264) | Yes+VideoPostProc​

Is this correct?

 

[Q™]

*BUMP* Is anyone able to answer my question, please?

 

[bp2008]

Correct, except for the part about HD Graphics 530. You need Quick Sync Video support on the CPU, not a specific model number.

The Intel graphics need to be enabled for Quick Sync to be available, which is not always the case if you have an addon graphics card in the system.

 

[Q™]

Thanks Brian. An FYI for anyone else who may be having problems with Blue Iris Hardware Decoding: I'm running an i7-6700 processor with a virgin Win10 Pro install. Here's the deal: for the better part of a day, when I enabled BI Hardware decoding, all of my cameras would display "No Signal" (as if I had specified an incorrect camera IP address. Turning off BI Hardware Decoding resulted in the cameras displaying OK again. Turn Hardware Decoding on and "no signal" again. I didn't take notes -- and Q's powers of observation not exactly Sherlockian -- but the issue may have abated after I downloaded and installed the latest Dell 7040 Intel video driver. My issue was much as described in the following topic (although my system ran a fresh Win10 install on a new SSD)...

https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/11075-BlueIris-Intel-Hardware-Acceleration-wont-run-as-service-now

FWIW.

 

[CMG]

@Q2U This thread and your update saved me serious headache, thank you. I just received my OptiPlex 7040 i7-6700 after reading a lot of threads about how/where/what to pay as a dedicated BI machine. I get it configured and had the exact same issue you did. Took me an hour plus to narrow it down to the fact that if H.264 was enabled the cameras would show "cannot connect/no signal". Searched these forums and after a few minutes found your "FWIW" post.

For additional info for anyone else, my OptiPlex came with Intel HD Graphics 530 driver 10.18.15.4279 which was from June-ish of 2015. Simply going under Device Manager > Display Adapters > (right click) Intel HD Graphics 530 > Properties > Driver > Update Driver pulled down the latest version from June 13,2016 (20.19.15.4474). Boom, all cams connecting fine with H.264 hardware acceleration enabled.

Thanks, @Q2U. It was worth quite a bit to me. I have no idea how I would have figured that one out on my own.

 

[CMG]

Update: My Windows 10 did an overnight auto-update and all cameras were showing "Cannot Connect" again. Disabling Hardware Acceleration in BlueIris "fixed" the problem, so I went back to Device Manager and did Update Driver again. It appears it pulled down the exact same driver version as before, so I guess the Win10 update reverted a lot of things back to their original form and caused this issue again.

 

[Scarrz]

Trying to understand which one of these I should select? Yes(H.264) or Yes+VideoPostProc ? BTW your tip on d/L the newest intel HD DRIVERS saved me from the no signal error. Thanks again!

 

[Q™]

Trying to understand which one of these I should select? Yes(H.264) or Yes+VideoPostProc ? BTW your tip on d/L the newest intel HD DRIVERS saved me from the no signal error. Thanks again!

I run "Yes+VideoPostProc" successfully.

 

[bp2008]

If you have a lot of cameras, VideoPostProc can actually make performance worse. It may be best to test with it on and with it off to see which is best for CPU usage. I run a heavy load on my system and turning on VideoPostProc is very bad for performance for me.

 

[PSPCommOp]

I have an i5 4690, I selected Yes but no VPP. If i change it should I notice a difference? Never quite understood what those settings were for.