Want to upgrade blue iris and system need advice

[SodFather09]

Hello I have an old version of blue iris 5.5.4.5 I would like to download and install the newest version of BI 5.9.9.25 . My support has expired from my understanding the links within BI don’t work so you need to go to the BI website scroll down to the bottom and buy a new extended maintenance support key. Is this correct ? Then the code is emailed to me and I just copy and paste the code into BI ? I’m asking because last time I upgraded to 5xxx for some reason it didn’t work as planned.


I also want to upgrade my system right now I have 7 cameras at 2k and they are running around 5 to 15 fps I’m using sub streams with all my cameras as you should be current cpu is at 8% to 12% on i5 750 … lol yes I know it’s old . I would like to have future upgrade support for up to 15 cameras total probably 2k or 4k . I’m looking at a dell system with a dell inspiron 3030 with an i5 14400 16gb ram DDR5 off eBay. Or I could get a dell optiplex 7060 , i7 8700 with 32 gb ram dd4 for cheaper which one should I go for a new 14th gen cpu or an older cpu i7 8700 ?


Also on the new system I want to run AI
Is code project.al the best way to go? or Deepstack ? What is everyone using in 2025?

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[wittaj]

Yep that is the current best method to update due to a change in the payment processing vendor.

Deepstack isn't really being maintained anymore and any day a BI update could break it's functionality. CodeProject is the current AI program.


If you are getting new cameras, they will likely have AI built in and that might be enough for you.


Unless you have special use cases or cameras without built-in AI and need to use CodeProject or Deepstack, you may find the camera AI to be better.

Many here use strictly the camera AI and get no false triggers and none of the CPU maxing out during rain events and don't wake up to hundreds of "no object find" triggers either.

You may find that the camera AI has got so good that doing CodeProject is kinda overkill and adds more complexity, time delay, and potential for issues.

Whether to use camera AI or BI AI is obviously up to you, but of course, the AI in the camera may be more than sufficient for your needs without needing BI AI. Do you need the orange box around every object? Do you want to identify animals or logos? Or is just human or vehicle sufficient.

The camera AI is useful to many people, but BI has way more motion setting granularity than the cameras, and some people need that additional detail, especially if wanting AI for more than a car or person. For folks that want AI and alerts on animals or specifically a UPS truck then they need the additional AI.

There isn't really a best practice because every field of view is different and use case and needs are different.

To many here, BI motion without AI is more than adequate for what they do.

To many here, camera AI is more than adequate for what they do.

To many here, using the BI AI adds additional functionality that the above alone can not do.

It comes down to testing with each field of view and which one gives you the most consistent results.


While some of that third party stuff is cool like tagging was it a dog or a bear, I don't need all that fancy stuff. If my camera triggers BI to tag an alert for human or vehicle and BI can accomplish what I need by way of a text or email or push or whatever, that is sufficient for my needs. I just want to be alerted if a person or vehicle is on my property and the camera AI does a fine job with that.

However, I do run BI AI on a few cameras so that it knocks out headlight shine so that the alert image includes the vehicle. The camera AI will trigger for a car, but the alert image was always just the headlights. I also run the ANPR AI module. I am running it with the CPU and not a GPU.

The true test....I have found the AI of the cameras to work even in a freakin blizzard....imagine how much the CPU/GPU would be maxing out sending all the snow pictures for analysis to CodeProject LOL. My non-AI cams in BI were triggering all night. This picture was ran through AI (without the IVS or red lines on it) and it failed to recognize a person in the picture, but the camera AI did. This pic says it all and the video had the red box over it even in complete white out on the screen:

See this thread on how using just Dahua AI may be sufficient for your needs (and other cameras with AI would perform similar):

Who uses Dahua AI capable cameras? Reliable AI for triggering events? Pro's/con's?

 

[SodFather09]

Yep that is the current best method to update due to a change in the payment processing vendor.

Deepstack isn't really being maintained anymore and any day a BI update could break it's functionality. CodeProject is the current AI program.


If you are getting new cameras, they will likely have AI built in and that might be enough for you.


Unless you have special use cases or cameras without built-in AI and need to use CodeProject or Deepstack, you may find the camera AI to be better.

Many here use strictly the camera AI and get no false triggers and none of the CPU maxing out during rain events and don't wake up to hundreds of "no object find" triggers either.

You may find that the camera AI has got so good that doing CodeProject is kinda overkill and adds more complexity, time delay, and potential for issues.

Whether to use camera AI or BI AI is obviously up to you, but of course, the AI in the camera may be more than sufficient for your needs without needing BI AI. Do you need the orange box around every object? Do you want to identify animals or logos? Or is just human or vehicle sufficient.

The camera AI is useful to many people, but BI has way more motion setting granularity than the cameras, and some people need that additional detail, especially if wanting AI for more than a car or person. For folks that want AI and alerts on animals or specifically a UPS truck then they need the additional AI.

There isn't really a best practice because every field of view is different and use case and needs are different.

To many here, BI motion without AI is more than adequate for what they do.

To many here, camera AI is more than adequate for what they do.

To many here, using the BI AI adds additional functionality that the above alone can not do.

It comes down to testing with each field of view and which one gives you the most consistent results.


While some of that third party stuff is cool like tagging was it a dog or a bear, I don't need all that fancy stuff. If my camera triggers BI to tag an alert for human or vehicle and BI can accomplish what I need by way of a text or email or push or whatever, that is sufficient for my needs. I just want to be alerted if a person or vehicle is on my property and the camera AI does a fine job with that.

However, I do run BI AI on a few cameras so that it knocks out headlight shine so that the alert image includes the vehicle. The camera AI will trigger for a car, but the alert image was always just the headlights. I also run the ANPR AI module. I am running it with the CPU and not a GPU.

The true test....I have found the AI of the cameras to work even in a freakin blizzard....imagine how much the CPU/GPU would be maxing out sending all the snow pictures for analysis to CodeProject LOL. My non-AI cams in BI were triggering all night. This picture was ran through AI (without the IVS or red lines on it) and it failed to recognize a person in the picture, but the camera AI did. This pic says it all and the video had the red box over it even in complete white out on the screen:

See this thread on how using just Dahua AI may be sufficient for your needs (and other cameras with AI would perform similar):

Who uses Dahua AI capable cameras? Reliable AI for triggering events? Pro's/con's?

Thank you for the quick reply . I never thought about using the Camera AI, I know a few of my dahua camera’s have this feature. With that said if using the camera AI then it wouldn’t use the system cpu correct? Also is there a guide on how to setup AI using the camera? Thanks again

 

[wittaj]

That is correct the CPU usage is minimal.

In the dahua camera it is fairly easy.

From memory, I think it is:

Uncheck the MD box

Uncheck the SMD box

Select SmartPlan

Select IVS

Draw an intrusion box and select the AI you want to trigger on (human or vehicle).

Leave min and max size at the default 0,0

And I will say it again - leave MD and SMD turned off



Then in BI, there are a few places you need to set this up in BI (assuming you already set up the IVS rules in the camera GUI):

In Camera configure setting check the box "Get ONVIF triggers".

Hit Find/Inspect on the camera setting to pull the coding for the triggers.

Go into Motion Setting and select the "Cameras digital input" box OR "ONVIF/CAMERA EVENTS" based on which BI version you have. Turn off BI Motion Detection if you don't want to use it:

On the Alerts tab uncheck the Motions Zones tab (those are alerting you to any BI motion in those areas in Zones A thru H) and select ONVIF and External check boxes.

On the "On alert..." actions, select how you want to be alerted (email, push, SMS, etc.)

 

[SodFather09]

That is correct the CPU usage is minimal.

In the dahua camera it is fairly easy.

From memory, I think it is:

Uncheck the MD box

Uncheck the SMD box

Select SmartPlan

Select IVS

Draw an intrusion box and select the AI you want to trigger on (human or vehicle).

Leave min and max size at the default 0,0

And I will say it again - leave MD and SMD turned off



Then in BI, there are a few places you need to set this up in BI (assuming you already set up the IVS rules in the camera GUI):

In Camera configure setting check the box "Get ONVIF triggers".

Hit Find/Inspect on the camera setting to pull the coding for the triggers.

Go into Motion Setting and select the "Cameras digital input" box OR "ONVIF/CAMERA EVENTS" based on which BI version you have. Turn off BI Motion Detection if you don't want to use it:

On the Alerts tab uncheck the Motions Zones tab (those are alerting you to any BI motion in those areas in Zones A thru H) and select ONVIF and External check boxes.

On the "On alert..." actions, select how you want to be alerted (email, push, SMS, etc.)

Hey thanks again will all the camera AI work on 5.5.4.5 ?? Or do I need to update the software? Everything you said seems to be understandable. I looked within my BI (just browsing) and few options I didn’t see . I’ll go over it all tomorrow. Thanks again maybe the camera AI is all I need , I just want to detect humans and vehicles.

 

[wittaj]

It should.

The screens or names may be a little different, but the general concept is the same.

And yep the camera AI for human and vehicles works great!