Updating to BI 5.0

[Lockwood]

Hey Guys,

Been quite a while since I've been active on the boards. I used to be very active on the original Blue Iris board a while back. Went by the name cgcmgr then. Well, I have had my setup running perfectly for years now and I've always been afraid to update from 3.0 (which I'm on now) to 4.0 and now 5.0. It took me so much time and forums posts to finally get everything stable. I have not had a crash in years As a matter of fact, the last time I posted in this forum was in May of 2014.

My setup is located at my upstate NY house (4 hours from my home) and all I really need from my cameras there are the basics. I need to be able to use the Android App to see my cameras and motion clips and to access the BI server remotely to do the same. Since I haven't had any issues, I never upgraded to Windows 10, still running Windows 8.1 there with Blue Iris 3.0. I do perform Windows updates every time I visit the house and perform a full backup.

I'm contemplating updating to Windows 10 and Blue Iris 5, so that I can utilize the H265 compression (can't do that in 3.0). This will help me a lot as the only internet we have there is DSL and the upload speed it horrible. The problem is I don't have the time to dedicate working out all the kinks again if any arise, especially since I'm not at that house too often.

So my question is - How stable is 5.0? If I upgrade, will my camera settings still stick? I know in the past, I used to be able to export my camera and Blue Iris registry settings and then import them back in if I had to reinstall Blue Iris and this worked perfectly. Would I be able to do this with my 3.0 settings to 5.0? Also, will an upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10 wipe my Windows settings and apps or will everything stay intact?

I have another question, but I will post that later.

Thanks and glad to be back
Chris

 

[TonyR]

I cannot answer regarding going from BI version 3.0 to 5.0 (I went from 4.0 to 5.0 with a minor hiccup) so Ill defer to others.

I can, however, highly suggest NOT performing an upgrade from Windows 8 or 8.1 (or 7) but instead do a complete reformat and install of Win 10 using the MS Windows Media Creation Tool on a USB flash drive...quick and painless, IMO.

P.S. - Welcome back!

 

[IAmATeaf]

I’d personally wipe and start from scratch including BI and cams. When people upgraded from 4 to 5 plenty reported issues and there a big thread on issues and help so looks around, find the thread and have a read.

In terms of stability, it all depends on how you currently use 3, I’ve been using 5 since it was released and haven’t had any real issues.

Right now with 5 it is in a state where there are changes being implemented, one being sub streams which can cause issues but the developer now categorised updates according to stability so you could install the latest stable release

 

[Lockwood]

Thanks for the replies guys. That's what I was afraid of. If I had the computer down here with me I could do the complete wipe and install and set up everything, but I don't want to spend my time up there doing just that all weekend. I'll have to think about it.

 

[TonyR]

FWIW, the last Win 10 complete wipe and install was 2 weeks ago and was on a HP SFF desktop PC with a HDD, took only 15 minutes using the MS Media Creation Tool on a flash drive. The important Windows updates take longer but that'd be the same even on an upgrade.

 

[ljw2k]

I installed V5 coming from 4 and all went well no hiccups and the interface is much more rewarding and full credit to BI , keep up the excellent work guys.

 

[shalem2014]

I'm contemplating updating to Windows 10 and Blue Iris 5, so that I can utilize the H265 compression (can't do that in 3.0). This will help me a lot as the only internet we have there is DSL and the upload speed it horrible. The problem is I don't have the time to dedicate working out all the kinks again if any arise, especially since I'm not at that house too often.

So my question is - How stable is 5.0? If I upgrade, will my camera settings still stick? I know in the past, I used to be able to export my camera and Blue Iris registry settings and then import them back in if I had to reinstall Blue Iris and this worked perfectly. Would I be able to do this with my 3.0 settings to 5.0? Also, will an upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10 wipe my Windows settings and apps or will everything stay intact?

I don't think H.265 support is going to help you much with your DSL connection. Blue Iris 5 has H.265 decode support, which allows it to work with H.265 camera streams, but it's not going to stream H.265 back to your phone or UI3 web interface during viewing, as it only supports recompressing to H.264.
Yes, you can do an upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10 easily, and it will keep your settings and apps. But as another user said, it would be recommended to reformat and do a fresh install. That way, your new Windows installation would be faster and not have hidden configuration errors left over from your existing Windows 8.1 installation.

 

[looney2ns]

FWIW, the last Win 10 complete wipe and install was 2 weeks ago and was on a HP SFF desktop PC with a HDD, took only 15 minutes using the MS Media Creation Tool on a flash drive. The important Windows updates take longer but that'd be the same even on an upgrade.

Do you just stick with the drivers that Window's installs?

 

[TonyR]

Do you just stick with the drivers that Window's installs?

Yessir, so far no issues; 2 Panasonic Toughbooks for a local PD, a Dell Latitude laptop, a HP SFF desktop and 2 Dell Inspiron desktops (1 of those a BI server).

 

[Lockwood]

Thanks for all the help again everyone. I have a spare 256GB SSD drive that I will take with me the next time I go to the house. I'll put that in, take out the existing boot drive, install Windows 10, perform the updates and any other configurations I need to make and see how far I can get with BlueIris while I'm there. If I get it all done, great. If not, I'll swap SSD drives again so I can view my cameras while I'm away and finish up the next time I'm there.

Chris

 

[TonyR]

Thanks for all the help again everyone. I have a spare 256GB SSD drive that I will take with me the next time I go to the house. I'll put that in, take out the existing boot drive, install Windows 10, perform the updates and any other configurations I need to make and see how far I can get with BlueIris while I'm there. If I get it all done, great. If not, I'll swap SSD drives again so I can view my cameras while I'm away and finish up the next time I'm there.

Chris

You may already know this but ultimately, you'll want to put only Win 10, Blue Iris and BI's "db" folder on the SSD, and all of BI's video clips on a HDD, preferably one that is surveillance-rated, such as a WD Purple.

Then optimize BI's CPU operation as here.

 

[Lockwood]

Yep, that's how I have it already setup. Have a WD purple for clips as well. Thanks for the insight though.