Using sub-streams dropped CPU utilization down dramatically:

bradner

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Followed the sub-stream guide here and reduced my CPU from 94% to ~35%!

I don't know why it took me so long to stumble across using the sub-streams instead of the main streams and make this change but WOW! I don't see any real difference in the images of the 20+ cams I have.
  • i5-4590 @3.3Ghz with 12GB RAM
  • 7300 kB/S - 114 MP/s
  • CPU at ~36%
You have to make this change too free up CPU overhead if you're near the upper end.
 

biggen

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I don't see any real difference in the images of the 20+ cams I have.
There is no recording difference. You are still recording the high resolution stream. Only using the subtream for the preview grid and motion detection.

Substreams really are game changer. Now folks don't have to choose Intel only CPU configurations when building out a BI host.
 

bp2008

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@biggen And they don't have to use low frame rates or spend a fortune on a super crazy high-end system anymore!

Overall I am really happy with how well Blue Iris handles sub streams now. It could have been half-baked like the "Limit decoding" feature which leaves multiple ways you can accidentally overload your system in the blink of an eye. But with sub streams he took it all the way and really made it foolproof. There are still some rough edges of course, but these are minor things.
 

ARAMP1

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I built a system with an i9-9900K to handle multiple 8mp cameras. (It got out of hand a little while ago...now I'm just adding cameras because I can). This was before substreams was a thing. With substreams enabled, I dropped from 27% -30% to showing between 0% - 2%.

LOL. 0% CPU usage. It's probably a little more than that in reality.
 

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TheGooginator

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I must agree that this is a game changer for me as I build out my camera setup and not have to think about doing any upgrades to my Blue Iris hardware for a long time to come.
 

OICU2

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Does each cam have to be configured individually or is there a general "use substream" checkbox somewhere?
 

sebastiantombs

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Each camera needs the substream configured separately. BI needs to know "where" to find that information because it varies from brand to brand and, possibly, from camera to camera.
 

OICU2

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Thanks... found it for Hikvision which is most of my cams.
 

bradner

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Does each cam have to be configured individually or is there a general "use substream" checkbox somewhere?
You need to make sure the sub-stream is enabled in the cameras own UI AND then put the correct path in the BI (choose camera --> Video tab --> Configure button)

See the Wiki I linked to in my original post.
 

Rockford622

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I just found this out myself and must say I am very impressed at the dramatic drop in CPU usage by using substreams. My only concern is, since the substream does not have the level of detail as the main stream, is that somehow going to reduce Blue Iris's ability to detect movement in video frames and thus miss potential alerts? Other than that, it really seems like a win-win!
 

fenderman

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I just found this out myself and must say I am very impressed at the dramatic drop in CPU usage by using substreams. My only concern is, since the substream does not have the level of detail as the main stream, is that somehow going to reduce Blue Iris's ability to detect movement in video frames and thus miss potential alerts? Other than that, it really seems like a win-win!
It wont affect motion detection. The pixel density of the substream is way more than needed for accurate motion detection.
 

MrSurly

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I started this adventure only a few weeks ago and people here turned me onto the new substream feature right away. I am as amazed as you, because my TINY PC was marginal when mainstreaming only four cams. I now am running nine cams (mostly 4 & 8 MP) and have five more to install. I started with four and was looking at upgrading the PC until the sub stream scheme saved the day. Now I have plenty of overhead, so, ordered more cams! I'm running nine cams on 8~12% of an i5-6400T, 32G ram. I currently have my sub FPS really low based on a tip form a member when I was trying to troubleshoot an issue. Another person said don't do this. I AM curious, though... what's the impact of running the subs at, say, 3FPS or 10 or 15 vs the 25 or 30 of the main?
EDIT, nevermind. I don't want to sway this off-topic. The WiKi covers this well enough (and some experimentation will fill in the blanks)
 
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eeeeesh

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I was having problems with Blue Iris running on my Virtual Machine (currently running ESXI 6.7 ). I have run Blue Iris that way for at least 6 years now, but earlier this year I replaced some older Hik cams and added a couple more. CPU usage in UI3 would normally be around 50% but sometimes I would find the CPU pegged at 100% for no apparent reason. I even started keeping track of CPU usage when I got up first thing in the morning. You can see normally it would be around 10 GHz, I changed 4 of the 11 cameras to sub streams on 8-31-20 and it dropped down to around 6 GHz. I changed over 3 more cameras to sub streams on 9-2-20 and now CPU usage is around 5 Ghz which translates to less than 20% when viewed in UI3. As I type this, ESXI is indicating 5.1 GHz and UI3 shows 15%

I normally view my main 4 cams in Blue Iris and I have left those cams alone at this point. Note on 8-10-20 (in red) I even added two more cores to the virtual machine, but it didn't make much of a difference

Very pleased with the change and I have not run across any negative side effects


9900 - 093.jpg
 

Rockford622

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I started this adventure only a few weeks ago and people here turned me onto the new substream feature right away. I am as amazed as you, because my TINY PC was marginal when mainstreaming only four cams. I now am running nine cams (mostly 4 & 8 MP) and have five more to install. I started with four and was looking at upgrading the PC until the sub stream scheme saved the day. Now I have plenty of overhead, so, ordered more cams! I'm running nine cams on 8~12% of an i5-6400T, 32G ram. I currently have my sub FPS really low based on a tip form a member when I was trying to troubleshoot an issue. Another person said don't do this. I AM curious, though... what's the impact of running the subs at, say, 3FPS or 10 or 15 vs the 25 or 30 of the main?
According to the wiki article concerning substreams here Sub Stream Guide, the substream should be the same frame rate as the main stream.
 

OICU2

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I seem to be getting some erratic performance in UI3 when viewing certain cameras. On the full UI3 display page, all cams display sub stream with no issues. When I click on a specific Hik cam, that view comes up momentarily with the sub stream and then switches to main stream but the frame rate goes down to two, one or zero then back up to 20 and back down again but eventually the stream freezes displaying the orange stream delayed time clock. I'm going to have to compare my Hik cams and see if any settings are different between the ones that work and the ones that freeze up.
 

eeeeesh

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What does your bit rates look like (Blue Iris > 'Status' icon top left (looks like a graph with an arrow) then cameras tab. That is how I checked mine to see if the sub streams were working properly. Here what my 11 cameras look like with 7 of them using sub streams.

Tri -  1152.jpg
 
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