Minimize PC CPU usage

General discussion about Blue Iris
kirk39
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Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2024 8:32 pm

Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by kirk39 »

Right now I have (3) 2k cameras set up with Blue Iris, constant recording at full resolution. File format is native Blue Iris DVR (bvr) and "use FLAC audio compression" is checked. I access Blue Iris on another PC on the LAN to occasionally review footage, using UI3 web interface on Chrome. This file format seems to result in the lowest CPU usage between 10% and 15% (Core i5-11400 Win 10 LTSC). The only real negative that I've found that makes it unusable is the UI3 web interface has strange pixelation artifacts that trail fast or slow moving objects. H.264 and h.265 seem to result in CPU usage closer to 50% and that I would like to avoid as this machine is also doing other things 24/7.

Does anyone have any comments or recommendations as to what the best settings might be to achieve highest quality with the lowest CPU usage? Bitrate and storage are somewhat less of a concern.

Kind regards.
louyo
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by louyo »

If your purpose is surveillance versus watching pretty pictures:

1. Use sub streams. When you bring up a single camera, it switches to full.
2. Likewise, in your record setting for each camera, use substream plus alerts. Alerts will be in full stream.
3. Use direct to disk recording for each camera.
4. Cut your FPS to 15.
5. Cut your resolution to 1080P
If you want pretty pictures full time, just do direct to disk recording.
All I can think of at the moment. We run 14 cameras like that and CPU (on an I5) is between 10-15% with console off and 2 systems connected via the UI on the LAN.
Oh yeah: YMMV :)
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Pogo
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by Pogo »

Ditch H.265 and stick with H.264. Adjust bit rate accordingly for your best quality to storage ratio.

If you aren't already using the QuickSync GPU hardware acceleration on that 11400, give it a shot. You may be surprised.

Once you get the main setup working a little more efficiently you'll automatically see an improvement in UI3. You can then tweak both accordingly, but BI needs to be dialed in first for the best UI3 results.
louyo wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2024 4:06 pm 4. Cut your FPS to 15.
5. Cut your resolution to 1080P
?????

For a couple of 2K cameras running on an i5 11400?

You forgot "set the 'I' frame to 1". ;)
kirk39
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by kirk39 »

It seems that no matter what settings I use, if it's direct-to-disk recording, this is the result from a web browser.
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IAmATeaf
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by IAmATeaf »

Do you only get this when viewing, are the recording fine?
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Pogo
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by Pogo »

kirk39 wrote: Thu Apr 11, 2024 1:27 am It seems that no matter what settings I use, if it's direct-to-disk recording, this is the result from a web browser.
On what and where is the web browser relative to the Blue Iris server?

While the pic is hard to analyze, it looks like lack of bandwidth and/or limited processor horsepower on the viewing device simply can't render the image.
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TimG
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by TimG »

Agreed. The OP is stating that UI3 does this on a remote LAN pc:

1. Does the video look OK when viewing on the actual BI5 pc using BI5 ?
2. Does the video look OK on the BI5 pc when using UI3 ?

And for Pogo (ONLY):

3. Set the I frame to 1.
4. Set all other settings to 11 :shock:
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kirk39
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by kirk39 »

For the time being, I have reverted to all content being re-encoded to h.264 which may be the native file format for the TAPO cameras anyway, but seems to be the only thing that produces clear video via UI3. It does however take nearly 50% of the server's 11400 processor to achieve this, even with Quicksync enabled, for the 3 cameras, continuous recording. I'm viewing on a different Win7 PC on full gigabit LAN (verified) with Firefox or Chrome both producing the same artifacts. This 'client PC' has a Radeon RX580. I don't have a way to test on the server directly as it's headless at the moment and I only access it via RDC (LAN only).

Oh, the client PC is an older Core i5-750 at 4.2 ghz. This machine, along with the RX580 is significantly faster than any machine I've seen my workplace provide in the past 5 years.

I'll try to find some time to test more this coming weekend. Thanks for all the helpful responses and sorry I can't get some time to test right away.

Is there a BI client of some kind that I can install on the Win7 client PC that might work better that the UI3 stuff?
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Pogo
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by Pogo »

Have you set up sub streams yet, or did I miss that?
kirk39
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Re: Minimize PC CPU usage

Post by kirk39 »

Pogo, I have not yet set up sub streams. Based on you suggestion, I assume that's possible. How would I do that?

These are 2 fairly powerful PC's (even the old crappy one), I was hoping to review footage full resolution if possible.
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