Typical CPU usage

[Rickoo]

I have four cameras. Three Dahua 5442s and a Hikvision PTZ. All 4mp. (resolution for all cameras are set at 1920 x 1080 in the Browser interface, I have the cameras all set at 20fps in both frame rate and iframe interval. Bit rates are all set at 6144. In BI, Direct to Disk is enabled for all 4 cameras as well as subtreams. Hardware acceleration is set to "Intel"

My pc is an HP Elitedesk 800 G4 i5-8500. 16gb Ram.

With the gui open, steady state CPU usage is typically over 50% (50-60).

This seams pretty high to me. Am I missing something?

 

[wittaj]

Yes you are missing something!

Do EVERY optimization in the wiki. Substreams and direct to disc is a must. Let's make sure it is actually working. Post a screenshot of your BI camera status page that shows bitrate/key, etc.

A member here runs 50 cameras on a 4th gen at 30%.

You should be sub 5%.

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Rickoo]

That's what's puzzling me. I've done all that and cpu is still around 50%

 

[wittaj]

Post the screenshot of the BI camera status page so we can see what is going on.

 

[Rickoo]

Will do when I get back to the pc. Thanks.

 

[iwanttosee]

That's what's puzzling me. I've done all that and cpu is still around 50%

I have the cameras all set at 20fps in both frame rate and iframe interval.

No you haven't "done all that". Go back to and see what you missed.

Camera frame rates - 15 FPS






Most cameras have a default frame rate around 25 or 30 FPS. In most situations, this is a lot more than you need. Each frame requires CPU time to process, so the lower the frame rates, the better.

This setting is configured individually for each camera in the camera's web interface. For best efficiency, it is recommended to use frame rates of 15 FPS or lower, as beyond about 15 FPS there is little meaningful improvement in video smoothness compared to the additional processing costs.

Also set Blue Iris's "Max. rate" option in camera properties on the Video tab to your camera's actual streaming frame rate, or just barely above. This max rate setting is supposed to auto-adjust itself upward as necessary, but higher values of this setting directly impact your server's memory usage in a huge way, so don't let it be much higher than the camera's true frame rate.

Note: If you use sub streams, your CPU usage will likely be low enough that you can ignore this section and run whatever frame rates you want.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

...
With the gui open, steady state CPU usage is typically over 50% (50-60).
...

Are you referring to the BI GUI typically used while logged in at the BI server? Or the UI3 GUI accessed via a remote machine's web browser?

 

[Rickoo]

Are you referring to the BI GUI typically used while logged in at the BI server? Or the UI3 GUI accessed via a remote machine's web browser?

The main GUI at the pc BI is running on.

 

[wittaj]

It still wouldn't be that high.

You have done something you think would lower CPU but it is doing the opposite.

Screenshots of settings will help. Another look-see of the optimization will probably help too.

I suspect you are running too high of substreams or changed something in webcasting that is spiking it.

 

[Rickoo]

No you haven't "done all that". Go back to and see what you missed.

Yes, I have done all that. Did you read the quote at the bottom?

Note: If you use sub streams, your CPU usage will likely be low enough that you can ignore this section and run whatever frame rates you want.

Regardless, 15 fps vs. 20 fps makes no difference on the cpu.

 

[Rickoo]

It still wouldn't be that high.

You have done something you think would lower CPU but it is doing the opposite.

Screenshots of settings will help. Another look-see of the optimization will probably help too.

I suspect you are running too high of substreams or changed something in webcasting that is spiking it.

Thanks. Here are a few settings screen shots. For camera specific shots, all cameras are set up the same.

 

[Rob2020]

For reference, 4 Dahua recording 24/7, mix of 2 and 4MP, 15-20 FPS, Ryzen 2700 and 16 GB RAM, CPU usage runs around 10%

Yes you are missing something.

I did not see anything obvious from your screenshots but I am far from an expert, I just followed the guide here when I set my system up.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Screen shots of the settings in each camera GUI for video would help a lot. A screen capture from the BI console status page showing the cameras, resolution, frame rate, key frame rate, and bit rates. Make it big enough to catch the totals on the lower left corner. No need to redact IPs there, we all use the same ones and they are not accessible without the WAN IP of your BI machine.

For reference, 21 cameras, mix of 2 and 4MP, on an i7-6700K shows CPU utilization of <20% most of the time and dropping to <15% at night with no motion.

 

[Parley]

Just for reference, I am running 20 cameras and my CPU rate is averaging 12%. It jumps around between 9 and 15 percent.

 

[TVille]

Another reference point. 14 cameras, running 12-15 fps, DeepStack, ALPR, i7-6700, 16 GB, seeing about 20% CPU.

As others have said, screen shots of the BI Satus page for cameras will show a lot.

 

[Rickoo]

Screen shots of the settings in each camera GUI for video would help a lot. A screen capture from the BI console status page showing the cameras, resolution, frame rate, key frame rate, and bit rates. Make it big enough to catch the totals on the lower left corner. No need to redact IPs there, we all use the same ones and they are not accessible without the WAN IP of your BI machine.

For reference, 21 cameras, mix of 2 and 4MP, on an i7-6700K shows CPU utilization of <20% most of the time and dropping to <15% at night with no motion.

Thanks for the help. All cams are exactly the same in the video tab. I just posted one.



One thing I noticed, not sure if it's related. In the clips tab at the left, I see clips with zeros seconds and often with no data. Sometimes a small amount. They occur at the top of the hour. Say, 1:59:59 or 2:00 pm exactly. Is this typical?

 

[sebastiantombs]

No, clips like that are not typical. Again, redacting your local IP addresses is meaningless and not necessary. The IP addresses used are public domain addresses used by everyone that has a local network, LAN.

I'm looking for the vide configuration from the camera's themselves, not what BI shows. BI only receives data from the cameras and has no control of those settings. Specifically wondering about what encoding you're using.

 

[Rickoo]

I get the IP thing. It's just simple to do and makes me feel better. lol

All cams are on H.264, two of the 5442's are set to Encoding Strategy "general". (the third is an older firmware) and is set to Smart Codec "off". The fourth The Hikvision doesn't have a codec option other than H.264

 

[Rickoo]

So, the cams switched to night mode and cpu usage dropped to around 20. Drops to below 10 when I minimize BI. Does that tell us anything?

 

[sebastiantombs]

I know we're not fine tuning cameras, but maybe up the bit rate on the 5442s to 8192 on the main stream and 1024 on the sub stream.

CPU utilization normally will drop when things go into B&W, less data to process. Are you running BI as a service?

Still looking for the actions in the alerts tab.

Personally, I don't send clips with MMS or SMS. I just send the capture and a leading edge capture, so two jpg's with each message. Clips can get large and messy in terms of mail transmission and playing them back. I found it just s fast to use the BI app or UI3 to view the actual motion clip. I'm normally running OpenVPN when I'm out and about so it's very fast. In fact I haven't sent a clip with an alert in so long I can't remember when I did last.