Config/resource goof.

[tardigrade]

Starting to accept the fact that I goofed when selecting a PC for my 6 camera (and growing) BI system. The i7 8700 (w/ 500 gig C drive and a second 2 terabyte D drive), does not have a separate graphics card so when CPU becomes stressed, the screen goes blank for a few seconds (at least that's my current hypothesis). I don't believe this mini tower has space for a graphics card. Mainly just a nuisance, I need to move away from an older PC that will not upgrade to win 11, so considering moving this one over and getting a better server. Mainly it's just a nuisance, but I need to replace an older PC that will not upgrade to win 11, so considering rotating this one over and getting a better server. Beig a novice at this, I severely underestimated some things.

Any recommendations on future proofing the next server as well as fixing my current problem? Guess I need to research it again to see if there is a way to shoehorn a graph card in there. Do you guys think a graphics card will solve the problem?

[MikeBwca]

A decent graphic card would fix it.

I have a NVidia Gefore RTX 3060, Works great for my 10 camera & 4 clone BI system. 11 use CP.

[Pogo]

There's nothing broken to fix and you hardly need an add-on graphics card.

That 8th Gen i7 has a UHD 630 GPU built right onto the physical architecture of the processor footprint and is considered one of the sweetest of the Intel CPU/GPUs by many accounts.

You just need to ensure QuickSync hardware acceleration is activated on the Windows system and configure Blue Iris accordingly to take maximum advantage of it. When you do, your CPU will drop to single/low double digits and run quite comfortably there. The only reason to consider adding additional graphics support would be strictly for fairly involved AI processing duties.

What you have is a more than capable rig for Blue Iris that most would love to have.

[MikeBwca]

Ohhh. I stand corrected,

[TimG]

Also is the OP using sub-streams ? Direct to disk ?

[IAmATeaf]

As @TimG states with sub streams enabled I’ve done away with hardware acceleration and the possible problems that having this setting enabled might cause.

For my system disabling HA actually lowered my CPU usage?

[Pogo]

Disabling QuickSync HA to eliminate "the possible problems'' would generally indicate problems elsewhere already, not with Intel UHD Graphics..., sub streams or no sub streams.

As @TimG states with sub streams enabled I’ve done away with hardware acceleration and the possible problems that having this setting enabled might cause.

I don't recall seeing such a statement..., at least not in this thread -- yet.

Let's get the OP in the saddle with some logically sound advice for his very cool rig and see how it goes before dicking with what is already a poorly functioning system with old and bad advice from the IPCT cut and paste messiahs, shall we?

The odds are pretty high that d-to-d with sub streams and QuickSync will do exactly what it's supposed to do..., drop his current CPU utilization by probably 80% or better which was the "configure Blue Iris accordingly to take maximum advantage of it" part of my first post..., should the OP ever ask how.

Maybe you guys should even give it a try again one of these days.

[tardigrade]

Well, I did go through and fix a lot of the issue by changing substreams, picture quality, and a few other things listed in a tutorial I ran across a while back. It helped a lot freeing up CPU time but screen still blanks out enough to be an irritation; there's still probably some more tewwks I can make (this is a continuous learning project it seems). I'll dive into the QuickSync once I get a little reprieve from other things. In other news, my bedroom AC went out; changing that thing has been taking all my free time the past few days.

[Pogo]

Good luck with the A/C. Had to fire ours up yesterday for the first time this season too. Fortunately it did!

So..., the erratic display you're experiencing is not likely related directly to your BI server itself. That said, other unrelated functions and tasks running on the same box could indeed be introducing unnecessary challenges to the efficiency of Blue Iris.

Virus scans, system maintenance apps such as CCleaner or Advanced System Care, any auto defrag or trim processes..., all should be avoided as should automatic Windows AND Blue Iris upgrades. My personal preference is to schedule and monitor Windows upgrades in the event of any unexpected results. My BI upgrades and support ended a couple years ago and I'm quite happy with my last allowable version (5.7.4.2).

The cameras haven't been discussed yet, nor has the network, both of which need to be considered and accounted for in the whole configuration mix. What cameras are we talking about and what kind of network topology is Blue Iris running on? Running a bunch of 4K cameras using H265 at high resolutions on even a fairly robust network can yield very poor results, including what you're describing. If the network is marginal, it'll just be worse.

Here is a portion of another recent thread that covers the most basic settings considerations for getting cam configs, d to d, subs, and HA going. Though specific to a particular camera brand, it may still be helpful in sorting out your situation as well. As concluded by the OP of that thread, the method(s) suggested worked as advertised.

https://blueirissoftware.com/forum/view ... 9&start=10

You'll get it sorted out, so don't scrap that 8700 just yet!