Using NVIDIA card with Security System Setup...

[Termin8r]

Hello, I now have two 4k security cameras and one 2k security camera. Will be using an EliteDesk 800 G5 SFF i7-9700 64GB Ram along with BI.

I also have a 4k monitor that's capable of refresh rates of 144Hz which I'll be using for our security surveillance system.

My question is this, will having an NVIDIA RTX 3050 card installed help improve the visual quality of our video recording/monitoring and or even encoding?

Any benefits or negatives in using the NVIDIA card as opposed to the onboard GPU?

The card has ports that will support 4k at 144Hz.

 

[wittaj]

Not really. The card will use more power and are typically inefficient.

At one point a GPU was beneficial, but now with substreams it can take more processing power to offload video to the GPU than not using the GPU card.

 

[Termin8r]

OK, I had my eye on an NVIDA RTX 360 low profile card that would have fit the PC and was priced low.

Was thinking the video feed would also look more fluid (less ghosting or blurring) on higher speed movements using higher refresh rates than what the stock GPU can achieve.


I'm not well informed enough yet about substreams. Cameras are capable of producing several different substreams at different resolutions or frame rates? At the same time?

Or this is handled (substreams) through BI?

 

[wittaj]

Ghosting and blurring is due to too slow shutter speed and not enough light.

The cameras produce the substreams. Most cameras now produce a mainstream and 2 substreams.

Make sure you look at the optimizations wiki to ensure BI runs its best. It explains things like FPS, substreams, etc.

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

We are recording video for surveillance purposes, not Hollywood movies, so 15FPS is the optimal FPS for BI, so higher refresh rates and what not really are not helpful.

Sure 60FPS can provide a smoother video but no police officer has said "wow that person really is running smooth". They want the ability to freeze frame and get a clean image. So be it if the video is a little choppy....and at 10-15FPS it won't be appreciable. My neighbor runs his at 60FPS, so the person or car goes by looking smooth, but it is a blur when trying to freeze frame it because the camera can't keep up. Meanwhile my camera at 15FPS with the proper shutter speed gets the clean shots.

We wouldn't take these cameras to an NBA game to broadcast, nor would we take the cameras they use at an NBA game to put on a house. Another example, I can watch an MLB game and they can slow it down to see the stitching on the baseball. Surveillance cams are not capable of that. But try to hang either of those cameras on the side of your house and see how long it lasts and how poorly it performs in low light.

Watch these, for most of us, it isn't annoying until below 10FPS







YMMV and these recommendations are for BI not an NVR. Anytime you run the same brand of NVR and cameras, you can increase things like FPS, but again, if you can't tell any difference, why?