I just picked up an ANNKE C800 camera. it seems weird but I think it is working but not as I expected. If I set the unit to work with MPEG encoding H.264 I get very bad artifacts on the screen and it doesn't work correctly. But when I set it to use H.265 it works fine.

The screen doesn't get updated on the display and it seems to be lagging when watching the view from inside of Blue Iris. if I go headless and access through the web portal, then I get a better frame rate and it looks almost OK. If I do a direct to disk record, and play back the recording then it's perfect without any dropped frames or lag time. I am fine with this as it's not like I am watching the screen to see what is happening, more it's a security system to have a view of what did happen after the fact and have a means to see it so recording trumps everything.

I have no idea how new the unit. bought it from Amazon. the following is the firmware on the unit

Model. I91BN
Firmware Version. V5.5.102 build 210611
Encoding Version V7.3 build 200921
Web Version. V4.0.1 build 200814
Plugin Version. 3.0.7.29


just wondering if anyone else out there has the C800 and can tell me if this seems recent firmware and if there any reason to upgrade from what I described above.

thanks

Hi,

I don't know your particular camera model but here are some thoughts I had while reading your posting.
#1 You probably should be using the BI proprietary bvr format for recording. If you need MPEG, export the files. Not too sure, but I believe this can be automated within BI.
#2 Direct to disc recording is highly recommended in most cases.
#3 H.265 has a much higher compression than H.264. Less data needs to be transferred and processed.
#4 Regarding lagging you could try to untick "Send RTSP keep-alives" under Camera settings --> Video --> Configure (Advanced section at the bottom left of the dialog).
I had issues with a 8MP Hikvision which was constantly lagging behind the other cams. Unticking this resolved it.
From the BI help: "RTSP “keep alives” are reply packets sent occasionally to the camera. Most cameras either require them or tolerate them. In rare cases, these “break” the stream and will cause continuous re-connects each 20-30 seconds."

I would be interested in your reasoning:

1. Why should you be using the proprietary .BVI file format? Considering that h.265 is a defined standard and .mp4 is also a defined standard does that not lend itself to more options. Like you are not tied to the full limitations of Blue Iris for quick viewing of the video footage and considering your point #3, then recording in .BVI has you stuck as your can't then use the footage anywhere else or do anything with it as Blue Iris cannot export out in h.265 format.

2. I am doing direct to disk recording for everything. But as it turns out, Blue Iris don't handle that very well either. It seems to work fine just as long as you are local, as in you have a user logged into the windows10 OS and have the Blue Iris software running as an app, and are not using it as a background service. I have found that for some reason that I don't totally understand, that if you have Blue Iris running as a service, and with it writing video direct to disk in a continuous state. (ie recording 24/7) then for some reason it corrupts the file and doesn't write in the correct format. I had it set to break the files into 1 hours blocks so you'd get 24 files per camera each containing a 1 hour block of recorded time. The first .mp4 file is written fine, but every sequential file for some reason is corrupted. This doesn't happen with the .bvr but then you are limited with that of point #1 in you are locked into using BI for everything. I have tried to contact support that I thought I paid for when I bought the software but they seem to be rather useless in actually responding to paid customers. Pitty

#4. I will give that a try with the active Red Link camera and see if it makes any difference. I have pulled the main camera and replaced it with the Annke (that is a Hikvision knockoff or a rebrand as it takes their firmware and used their configuration software). I really don't care what camera's I use just as long as they work and are reliable.

thanks for any help or insight that you can offer.

#1 Please don't ask me for technical details but from what I read and have experienced myself, BI works best with its own file format. Using this is recommended pretty much everywhere.
I assume avoiding the issues you've described under #2 is a strong argument for using bvr.
You can still have the files exported to H.265/mp4. Check under BI Settings --> Clips and archiving. There is an option Queue for convert/export. Under Configure you can choose H.265/mp4. The BI help file should provide further details. I personally don't export or in rare cases I do it manually. So I can't give you a full walkthrough here.

#4

I really don't care what camera's I use just as long as they work and are reliable.

Me too!

I think BVR is the only file format that will give you the best functionality with BI5.

The BI help file states:

It’s recommended that you retain the default, yet proprietary, BVR file format. There are a
great many software features which rely on this simple flat-file format. It’s the only one
offered that may be played at the same time that it’s also open for active writing for
example. It’s the only one that may be used for multiple-camera timeline playback. It also
offers the best overall experience with remote viewing. Select another format only if
absolutely required by a particular use-case. You can always use the Trim/Convert/Export
tool from the clip viewer to save it into another “export format” later on if you need to share
the video.

Definitely use the BVR file format. It is the only format that will allow you to write and read a file at the same time.
BVR really is just a container and it is still recording in the native stream format. But allows it to embed metadata and information BI can understand.

If and when you see a clip you want to take off your BI server, just right click on the clip you will see 2 options.
[Download] Will download the native file format (BVR in this instance)
[Convert/Export] This will bring up a prompt and you can select AVI/MP4/Windows Media/UI3 AVI

The file then downloads to your device and you have the best of both worlds.