video freezing during playback

[kylen]

On some of my clips I get about a 4 or 5 second freeze in the clip. I.e. it will start recording, look good and then just freeze randomly for about 4 or 5 seconds as if the clip was paused (I tried uploading both an mp4 and avi clip of the freeze but i keep getting invalid file error from ipcamtalk?). This is occurring on all cameras however the freezes on the 2 tenvis cameras are only about 2 or 3 seconds. Here is a rundown of what I have going...

intel core i7 with 6GB ram dedicated pc - cpu usage hovers around 5-10%, RAM usage around 40-50% running BI4.0.0.22 service. (just updated today - this was occurring on 4.0.0.21 as well)
video records to a usb terabyte portable hd
1 Poker PTZ 2MP cam hard wired on CAT6 recording motion d2d. Camera set at 30fps, BI set to receive at the max(33fps with auto adjust off), 10mb receive buffer
2 Tenvis JPT3815w (basically forscam knockoffs). Both are 640x480 hard wired on cat6 recording motion via re-encoded h.264 with 1.5mb receive buffers. Both of these cameras are set in their firmware to deliver 30fps however BI has never been able to get more than 7.5fps day and 3.8fps night (this is another issue all together and I plan on phasing these cameras out shortly). Despite what people have said about forscam though I have had a decent experience with these cameras - aside from the poor picture quality, when running on wifi and hardwired these cams have stayed running and caught every bit of motion with no issues - no dropped signal on wifi either.

I think i have covered all the pertinent settings relating to this issue of the 4-5 second freezes, if anyone has any ideas on how to eliminate this please let me know! I have been trying to figure it out for a minute now and I am still seeing the problem. Again - it does not occur on every clip....it just seems to be random at this point. Please help!

Thanks
Kyle
.

 

[fenderman]

Here are a couple of things to try..
First, record new clips to the internal hard drive to eliminate the usb drive as the issue
Second, try recording in BVR format if you are not doing so already..
Third, keep a live feed open on one of the cameras via the browser and see if it is freezing there...there might be a network issue.

 

[kylen]

I tried changing the initial directory to the internal hd and still am getting a freeze in the clips. I am recording all streams in bvr. And as for keeping the feed open in the browser to watch for a freeze there, are you referring to the BI web server or the cam's own internal browser?

 

[fenderman]

Using IE or Chrome to get the feed directly from the camera.

 

[kylen]

i take that back - i was still recording to the usb hd. i will report back once i get more testing on the internal c hd.

 

[kylen]

after some testing recording to the internal c hd I am still experiencing the problem. Any more suggestions?

 

[fenderman]

Have you monitored the live feed for this issue?
Also, what are your settings for pre-trigger frames?

 

[kylen]

I have not been able to monitor it enough to catch it live yet, but pretrigger frames are set at 50

 

[fenderman]

You cameras can probably record to your pc direct...you might want to try that for testing..

 

[kylen]

Ok so I got a chance to get some testing in and here is what I think may be going on...

Tested the Poker cam under a variety of network loads (Poker only, poker+1cam, poker+2cams, Poker+misc network traffic, and full load - poker + 2cams + misc network traffic) and with different combinations of both d2d recording and re-encoded h.264 with receiver buffers on the poker of 10mb, 15mb, and 20mb. I also turned off the pre-trigger buffer on some tests.

I believe I have isolated my issue to the following - BI was sometimes having trouble compiling the pre-trigger frames onto the front of the clips on the fly. It sometimes caused something to have just enough lag to miss a few seconds of the clip. This explains why the lower quality cameras would only have a 2 second pause while the 2MP poker would have a 4 second pause - larger lag for the larger file sizes.

I turned off the pre-trigger buffer and the problem occurred 1x initially on the very next recording and then has since disappeared (Went back to full load with the d2d setup with everything the same minus the pre-trigger buffer). I may just be getting lucky but I have recorded a significant amount of clips now without the pre-trigger buffer and I am not seeing the problem. Who knows - by the time I finish this post the problem will be back haha.

Now I am stuck wondering what to do next. The pre-trigger buffer is pretty important and I definitely would like to have it properly working but at the risk of having a corrupted clip I think I will leave it off until I get a proper solution to the issue.

Suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[kylen]

That makes sense - the very next test I ran under the same conditions as above after I posted that and I got the pause again...... figures..... at least it is occurring A LOT less frequently now.... Back to the drawing board I guess.....

 

[fenderman]

Yes, you need the pretriggers...your first step should be taking blue iris out of the equation, record the poker direct to pc, or use something else like ispy to test the recording...it may be a network issue..

 

[kylen]

After testing the clips through the poker's own interface all of the clips look good. No pauses are occurring. Looks like the issue may be in BI somewhere....

 

[fenderman]

After testing the clips through the poker's own interface all of the clips look good. No pauses are occurring. Looks like the issue may be in BI somewhere....

You should really record to the pc to eliminate anything else, viewing alone is not definitive unless you can see the pauses in BI live.

 

[kylen]

sorry for not mentioning it, i thought i had...but since your second post I have changed BI to make all initial recordings go directly to the internal c drive on the pc itself. after some time there bi moves them to storage on the usb drive. so all of these issue have been occurring while writing to the pc

 

[fenderman]

No i mean to test writing to the pc by the camera itself...talking blue iris out of the equation but leaving the pc...it could still be something the pc is doing...

 

[Zxel]

Try running a DPC tool to see if there is an issue with the realtime recording capability of your PC. Here is a thread that explains it and has a download link (http://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php?1585-Is-A-Gigabit-Router-needed-to-run-7-Hikvision-DS-2CD2032-I-at-maximum-performance&p=13590&viewfull=1#post13590).

Keep the DPC tool running and see if you are staying out of the red. It's a long shot, however, difficult problems can be discovered with the DPC tool that defy the norms (CPU - RAM - HD).

 

[kylen]

i will try that dpc tool and let you guys know how it looks. I did do tests with just the camera writing to the pc directly as you said - no BI. All of those clips look good. No issues with it happening when its only the camera and pc.

 

[kylen]

ok so after some testing and using the dpc tool i have noticed that I am experience some issues. The dpc tool is showing spikes every so often, not consistently, but enough to possibly cause the lags in the live video feeds. I have followed the instructions on the dpc tool's website and went through disabling various device drivers one at a time. I am unable to identify the exact cause of the latency spikes. I disabled various network drivers, sound drivers, and Bluetooth drivers. I still get the occasional latency spike. On my camera's settings I changed the bit-rate from a constant to a variable bit rate, and changed the I/P rate to 100. I have been playing around with various settings and still cannot get the pauses to completely go away. Any ideas on how to proceed, knowing that i am having occasional latency spikes that i cant identify?

 

[Zxel]

Latency issues can be VERY difficult to peg (one reason why the dpc tool is so helpful), you will need to be methodical and precise in what you do to find it. That being said I suggest the next tool to get familiar with is the Resource Monitor (in the Accessories-System folder in your start all programs menu). You will notice that it is very detailed on what is happening under the hood for your CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network. What you are looking for is a correlation between it and the dpc tool spikes, this could be as simple as a program checking for the latest updates for itself, or more subtle like excessive error correction on a failing sector on a hard disk, literally it could be almost anything.

You can also look in the Event Viewer (in the Adminstrative Tools menu folder) for events that correspond. Using the "create custom view" can be very helpful in pegging a program issue.

I would also do some testing, like...

With BI off and with as many programs not running as possible (you can use windows task manager to kill things if needed) can you get a clean DPC check?

a. If it isn't clean you have a low level system issue - nothing to do with any program you were not running (doesn't mean it isn't a program - could be one that was still running when testing). At this point you should start disabling drivers and do everything you can to only run the programs that you absolutely have to - the goal is to get a clean dpc check. Another thing to check would be any computer overclocking or "boost" settings in your computers BIOS, especially things that are supposed to make things "faster - better", there is no free lunch and the payment for some features is less stability (on the micro-second level, not something in other types of computing you would notice, however, in real time recording it does. If you go thru all this and still cannot peg it I recommend a system backup (so you can restore it later) and then a complete clean install of windows. After the clean install of windows run the dpc tool before you install ANY other software (except for the windows updates - although doing one before updates and then after updates is not a bad idea), you should have a clean dpc check at this point - if not it could be an issue with a weak/failing hardware part (anything - from the motherboard to a usb card...) or a windows default driver that does not play well with your hardware setup.

b. If it comes up clean start the slow (ya, I know - big pain in the arse) process of enabling one program at a time till you peg it, you will peg it.

Don't give up and feel free to ask for help or clarification of anything you need to do, it can take some time to find the issue. Also be aware that the dpc problem may not be the one causing your initial problem - it still may be something unrelated, however, having a clean dpc check is never a bad thing and always desired on a realtime recording/playback machine.