Cameras not saving recordings/clips properly

MinimumJargon · Post by **MinimumJargon** » Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:34 am

So I built 2 computers running the same type of cameras/version of BI and OS
both PCs run about 25% CPU, plenty of Ram, 4T Purple hard drives. Running as a service. I'm not having any hangups there.
I've spent the past 3hrs checking everything to see what I've had to of missed
because I've had one running perfectly for a month now but the other one I built will not save clips properly.

The bullet camera (DWay) was functioning properly till I began stopping and starting recording a couple of times.
It was set for continuous and trigger.

(Carport) will not save anything from continuous recording. It will create and save a manual trigger that are viewable and are saved in the new folder.
When you click on the continuous clip it "says file not found"
It's set for continuous and trigger.

(Back Porch) was saving triggers fine and functioning normally. I switched it to continuous and the same issue it just sits on "0 sec" in the clip file.

When I try to manually trigger the camera it will save the 10sec clip but then the "0 sec" continuous clip jumps to I crazy inaccurate amount of time (48 min)+-

On both Cameras are h264 and recording "direct-to-disc"

I don't believe this is a camera issue I think I've got a database issue.
I have no errors in the logs
Both are set up the same way, DB on the C drive and all files save to the secondary local 4T HD
I have tried rebuilding the database I few different times and always get a "success"
I myself am at the point where I just want to wipe and start over
so I'm looking for a little guidance before that.

Any help is appreciated, JR

Matts1984 · Post by **Matts1984** » Fri Dec 10, 2021 1:38 pm

Eek, it seems like you know what you're doing and nothing is jumping out immediately to me as to what the issue is... totally get that it would be VERY frustrating.

It's very much grasping at straws but what does your 'Blue Iris Settings > Clips and archiving' look like? How about your 'Blue Iris Status > Clip Storage'.

If you manually go to the Clip storage folder... are there files there? Are they all of zero size?

Other than your Combine/Cut settings on your cameras, everything else is essentially the same as mine. I don't think this is it but your do have 'Record dual-streams if available' unchecked. (I do have mine checked as the substreams use very little storage) Is there any chance you're only receiving the substream and not the mainstream? This would be very apparent in the 'Blue Iris Status > Cameras' tab.

MinimumJargon · Post by **MinimumJargon** » Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:50 pm

Matts1984 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 1:38 pm Eek, it seems like you know what you're doing and nothing is jumping out immediately to me as to what the issue is... totally get that it would be VERY frustrating.

It's very much grasping at straws but what does your 'Blue Iris Settings > Clips and archiving' look like? How about your 'Blue Iris Status > Clip Storage'.

If you manually go to the Clip storage folder... are there files there? Are they all of zero size?

Other than your Combine/Cut settings on your cameras, everything else is essentially the same as mine. I don't think this is it but your do have 'Record dual-streams if available' unchecked. (I do have mine checked as the substreams use very little storage) Is there any chance you're only receiving the substream and not the mainstream? This would be very apparent in the 'Blue Iris Status > Cameras' tab.

Here are some more screencaps.

Yes, anything that does manage to save does go to the designated folder.
the DWay camera, when it was recording continuously was saving to the proper folder.

I'll post the status photos next, but all cameras show traffic on the main and sub streams and
the resolution change when selecting the camera fullscreen is very apparent.

I have the 'Record dual-streams if available' unchecked as I saw no need to duplicate every clip with a low-quality version.
(This is if I correctly understand what it does)
This is how my other one has been set up and I've been happy with it.

Thanks for the input

MinimumJargon · Post by **MinimumJargon** » Fri Dec 10, 2021 7:01 pm

status page

IAmATeaf · Post by **IAmATeaf** » Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:23 pm

So New and Stored are on the same local drive by the looks of it, there is no real point of moving clips around folders in a local drive so set Stored to 0, increase New to whatever size is available, untuck the limit by age option and then select the Delete option. This will let BI manage the clips and it will delete older clips as it needs the disk space.

Also even with the way you have it currently setup 10gb is nothing and BI will spend a lot of PC resources to move files from New to Stored.

IAmATeaf · Post by **IAmATeaf** » Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:49 pm

That clip that you can’t play is 0 secs long? Screenshot is a bit fuzzy so can’t really see.

Within the cam what do have set for the clip size? I have mine set to 1 hour and I do this to end up with files of a manageable size, some of your clip file size is 3.5Gb which if you need to backup an unaltered file is what I would regard quite large.

TimG · Post by **TimG** » Sat Dec 11, 2021 2:34 pm

The only time I have had recordings that couldn't be played, it was because a camera was outputting something that BI5 couldn't deal with. Can you show us the camera settings from the camera webserver itself ? Are there any embelishments like + on the H264/5 ? Needs to be set to basic to be most compatible with BI5.

MinimumJargon · Post by **MinimumJargon** » Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:26 pm

IAmATeaf wrote: ↑Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:23 pm So New and Stored are on the same local drive by the looks of it, there is no real point of moving clips around folders in a local drive so set Stored to 0, increase New to whatever size is available, untuck the limit by age option and then select the Delete option. This will let BI manage the clips and it will delete older clips as it needs the disk space.

Also even with the way you have it currently setup 10gb is nothing and BI will spend a lot of PC resources to move files from New to Stored.

Yes I'm aware. For now, New and Stored are on the same drive but that will change later on.
Though I have monitored usage when it's managing the files, for when that time comes, to see usage and at least for me it seems negligible this way.
I will mess with the 10GBs more, probably match it to an average day, but for now, it's functioning in a way I'm fine with.

IAmATeaf wrote: ↑Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:49 pm That clip that you can’t play is 0 secs long? Screenshot is a bit fuzzy so can’t really see.

Within the cam what do have set for the clip size? I have mine set to 1 hour and I do this to end up with files of a manageable size, some of your clip file size is 3.5Gb which if you need to backup an unaltered file is what I would regard quite large.

Yes, it stays on 0 seconds but I get no errors in the log. It's like it is sending it to the folder but never makes it and BI is oblivious.
I'm reformating the hard drive atm and running another disk check to see if that helps.
I'm suspecting a strange HD failure.

My clips are set to 6hrs or 4GBs(which is usually about 6hrs). I find I can move the slider in the app well enough to find what I want. Purely preference here.

TimG wrote: ↑Sat Dec 11, 2021 2:34 pm The only time I have had recordings that couldn't be played, it was because a camera was outputting something that BI5 couldn't deal with. Can you show us the camera settings from the camera webserver itself ? Are there any embelishments like + on the H264/5 ? Needs to be set to basic to be most compatible with BI5.

All my cameras can run H264 or H265, they are all set to H264. They have no (+) mode.

Post by **YrbkMgr** » Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:54 am

I may be way off with this but I recently had a similar experience because of a corrupted CLIPS.DAT. Check out p113 of the help flie - The Database and Clips List. Database compact/repair, Repair/Regenerate, and Delete and Regenerate. It's worth a shot, but be aware... prior to v5.5.4.0, delete and regenerate will lose motion zone and memo info from DS in the clips list.

Ken posted some details about using the database tools - which is why it came to mind.

Compact/Repair: Deletes "holes" in the database, e.g. deleting records of deleted items.
Repair/Regenerate: Repair/regenerate will try to synchronize the database with content on the file system.
Database -> Delete & Regenerate: The function will delete (start from scratch) and recreate the database by re-scanning your hard drive and rediscover all your recordings in the All clips folder.

The Alerts folder will also be re-scanned to regenerate the Alerts list. However, for most users, the Alerts folder is empty which means the Alerts list will be deleted. If you choose to save Hi-res JPEG files, the Alerts list can be recreated with the saved images. However, keep in mind the alert list will JUST have a snapshot of the alert. To actually playback the alert, you need to go to the corresponding Clip and scan to the time of the incident.

Since the Database is completely recreated, data that is ONLY stored in the DB may be lost, such as memos, alert images and other flags that exist only in the database.

MinimumJargon · Post by **MinimumJargon** » Mon Dec 13, 2021 6:59 pm

Solved the issues, Hurrrraaayyyy

After no change with the harddrive format and disk check, I went ahead and rolled back BI5.
The version I was running was 5.4.9.18
rolled it back with no change and then updated back to 5.4.9.18, no change.
Then I when ahead and updated both servers to 5.5.37, rebuilt the database again, rebooted and everything started working.
Everything seems a little smoother which is nice but CPU usage went up a few %'s. Oh well.
Still not sure what made the difference on one but not the other since they a hardware/software mirrors, I'm over it though, it's working.

Thanks for all the input everyone