Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

adam7456
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by adam7456 »

In my case the BI5 video is late. The clocks are correct and synced.

Here are the FPS/Key numbers of all my cameras. It is only the new 811A that is having issues like this.

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Pogo
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by Pogo »

The 811A is notorious for this problem with Blue Iris. Most love to blame Reolink, but others will go whichever way the crowd does. Others try everything under the sun and nothing worked until a beta firmware release by Reolink a few months back designed specifically to address the issue -- and it works.

The thread is gone due to the server crash last summer but here is the firmware release that stabilizes the latency issue and evidently cleaned up a few other bugs as well. It made my 811A a whole new camera and I couldn't be happier with it now. That said, it is currently in use in a non-Blue Iris monitoring environment but is also still an active Blue Iris device with the associated status/performance reporting, etc. No dropouts. No latency. No issues.

The true test after upgrading the 811A firmware was to simply aim it out my driveway side-by-side with a Honic 1080p analog beast and let em cruise together for a couple days to observe the sync (or lack thereof). The 811A was in lock step with the Honic after nearly 48hrs which was good enough for me to proclaim the previously insane latency a solved problem.

Now there are other operational aspects that can obviously affect the performance of a 4K camera -- like bandwidth and available processing horsepower, (obviously). Given enough of each to not pose a concern, the new firmware should fix the lag/latency issue between the camera and Blu Iris. It did for me. That said, the firmware highlighted below is not what you will find as the latest available release on the Reolink download site and is a newer beta release made available to one of the contributors of the lost thread who posted a download link for anyone interested. I took a chance on it since my 811 had been for sale for 50 bucks on FB over four months and only received 12 views -- most of them probably mine. LOL I had little to lose and a new 4K camera to gain if it work as advertised. Glad I took the chance.

If contacting Reolink directly doesn't yield a link to the below firmware or they claim to know nothing about it, your choices are to try moving it up the ladder at Reolink or I'll make it temporarily available so folks can snag it and distribute it accordingly to any other interested parties. BTW, the firmware listed at Reolink does address the clock/time sync issue that is cured at the ONVIF level. No specific mention of its effect on the actual streaming latency problem, if any.


Reolink 811A Lag Fix Firmware.jpg
Reolink 811A Lag Fix Firmware.jpg (38.94 KiB) Viewed 49268 times
adam7456
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by adam7456 »

Thank you for the detailed response. By any chance would you know if that firmware would be compatible with the new hardware version they are selling? The name of the firmware you have is for hardware version IPC_523128M8MP. The camera I just got from them is hardware version IPC_560B158MP. I really don't want to brick a new camera. I will reach out to Reolink as well and see what they say.
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Pogo
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by Pogo »

I coincidentally just snagged this screenshot of my INFO page to follow up on the above. Figured I may as well also include my BI config noting the additional buffer size.

You could cross reference your newer hardware version to the current firmware listed at Reolink for my hardware version and see if they match. If so, the current firmware I'm running will very likely also be compatible. I believe it may also be compatible with the 810A if I recall correctly. edit: That said, using the Reolink camera selection link just now on their download center page for the RLC-811A automatically brings up the hardware version listed for my camera. No option to arbitrarily list/enter anything different.

Do your 811s show different hardware versions? Do they have the same firmware? Have they both been updated to what is supposed to be current for each hardware version? Getting this nailed down would be helpful in determining which direction to go next.

RLC-811A Info Screen Shot.jpg
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811 cfg.jpg
811 cfg.jpg (109.65 KiB) Viewed 49263 times
adam7456
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by adam7456 »

This is the hardware and firmware versions on my camera. I've only connected 1 of the 8 that I bought. Most will connect to a Reolinik NVR at another property but I had planned to use several with BI5. For the hardware version I have there is no firmware listed on Reolink. The hardware number difference between your camera and mine seems significant.

I have submitted a ticket to Reolink and asked about any firmware updates for hardware number. I also mentioned the time problem. Still waiting to hear back from them.

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Pogo
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by Pogo »

Have you tried a firmware check/update from the camera menu itself to see what response is returned?

And as you're probably aware, there is quite a bit of traffic on the subject at Reddit and the Reolink Community forum itself. I believe one or the other contains a post similar to the lost one I mentioned here by the same author.

The 811A can certainly give you a run for the money with Blue Iris, but is well worth the effort to get sorted out if you are patient and resourceful enough to go the distance.
adam7456
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by adam7456 »

I received a response from Reolink. They provided an updated firmware for hardware version IPC_560B158MP. I applied it and rebooted everything but it did not solve the time delay problem that shows up in BI5.

Here is a link to the firmware.
https://support-d.reolink.com/attachmen ... EOLINK.pak


Camera details after the update.

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After resetting the camera in BI5 the camera feed in BI5 is still about 3 minutes behind.
Time codes: top left is the camera time as seen in BI5, top right is the BI5 time, bottom is camera time as seen in the Reolink app.

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Pogo
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by Pogo »

Quick response. May want to keep the iron hot while you have someone at the other end who is responsisve.

Any comment from them regarding the firmware version I referenced as a cure for my problem?

And have you tried the basic BI Reolink config I posted? I'm personally not sold on the whole RTMP alternative approach folks seem to think is the way Reolinks need to be configured in Blue Iris.

One other major question: Have you compared the actual video from your problem 811 to another camera side by side to gauge the level of actual streaming latency? If you mentioned that already, apologies for not recalling...
adam7456
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by adam7456 »

The response from Reolink was very brief. It was sorry for the problems here is a firmware to test and let us know how it goes. I did respond back to them with more details of the problem. Later tonight I will grab another 811A and hook it up to see if it has the same issue. I did give them the name of the firmware you mentioned and asked if it would work but they didn't respond to that question.

I did try the configuration you posted. I noted you had selected 264 in the dropdown but the main stream was set to 265. I tried every possible configuration and the time delay was still there.

This is supposed to be animated gif, not sure if it will display correctly there. It is a 20 clip of the camera clock vs the BI5 clock. The camera advances 4 seconds to the BI5 20 seconds. If the animation doesn't show this is a direct link to it. https://i.postimg.cc/BnfGCf7n/time-difference.gif

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adam7456
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Re: Camera's timestamp and BI timestamp don't match and progressively diverge

Post by adam7456 »

One thing Reolink had me do was stream the camera using VLC. The most VLC was off by time was 5 to 10 seconds after hours of running and not 10+ minutes like BI5 gets. The problem would seem to be on the BI5 side of things.
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