Override 'adjust automatically' frame rate

[greenrose]

Hello all,

I'm helping a friend in setting up a surveillance system and for regulatory purposes, he is required to make continuous recordings with a minimum frame rate (only 10 fps, so I wouldn't expect it to be an issue). I have configured all of the cameras directly for the minimum frame rate required, and attempted to set each camera setting in Blue Iris to match that minimum. Unfortunately, there is a grayed 'adjust automatically' box which is checked and I can not change. I've found that the frame rate gets dropped for cameras after running fine for several hours, and I want to stop that from happening. Does anyone have any experience with forcing a specific frame rate and getting rid of that automatic adjustment?

FYI, the system is designed to handle the full 50 cameras, with only 14 on-board right now(I will be adding another 11 cameras planned over the next two weeks). He is using a variety of indoor and outdoor Foscams, some wired and some wireless. The cameras have been set to lower 640x480 resolution and are spread out among three dedicated gigabit ethernet networks (all separate networks, routers, and ethernet cards and will be a total of 4 networks when it is complete), so there is not a bandwidth problem. The CPU is an 8 core 4 ghz chip with 16 gb of ram; so not a problem there either. Initially, I stress tested the system; and was able to get 780p/higher @ 30fps at 95% on the CPU, the lower resolution and frame rate are coming in at only 19%.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[fenderman]

@greenrose Frame rates need to be set in the camera.. It won't help to set it higher in blue iris... If it's not delivering the fps blue iris can't force it... blue iris is simply adjusting to the frame rates its receiving. Foscams are notorious for producing low fps.. Your problem is junk foscams...stay away from them in the future. Also Intel is the preferred processor for 24/7 NVR's and you can buy intel i7 haswell systems for 500. They are more efficient and blue iris hardware acceleration coming at the end of the month, is likely to be catered to intel HD.
Also, if you are running the demo of blue iris you will see reduced frame rates. Install the license key.

 

[greenrose]

Thank you for the quick response. I have a couple of follow up questions:

1) If I raise the frame rate being sent by the camera (I know I can increase it dramatically), is there a way to cap the frame rate that Blue Iris stores?

2) If for some reason a camera isn't sending a full 10 fps, is there a way to require Blue Iris to save 10 fps anyway (potentially saving duplicate copies of the same frame)?

Yes, it is a licensed copy. I knew early on that Blue Iris was leaps and bounds above anything else in his price range. The system is running an AMD processor, but the processor I chose for him had beat the I7 processors on the market when I originally chose it (over 2 years ago actually, this has been a long running project).

 

[fenderman]

1 Yes but it's cpu intensive... Frame rates do not affect storage..
2. No, that would be silly.. And likely not sufficient for your regulations..

 

[greenrose]

1 Yes but it's cpu intensive... Frame rates do not affect storage..
2. No, that would be silly.. And likely not sufficient for your regulations..

Well, I think that will work. I know the cameras can reliably send me 30fps, but that would be too much. How can I cap the frame rate at say 10 fps in Blue Iris?

 

[fenderman]

Well, I think that will work. I know the cameras can reliably send me 30fps, but that would be too much. How can I cap the frame rate at say 10 fps in Blue Iris?

Again, you are wasting resources. Why would you limit the fps in blue iris wasting cpu cycles? Limit it in the camera...also understand the FPS in it of itself has no impact on storage space, its all about bitrate...not sure what happens when blue iris tosses frames but likely the file size will be the same. IF you insist on doing this select alt/timelapse frame rate in the record tab..i would highly suggest that you dont.