BI4, 3 cams, lots of memory, still in the red though

flyinhawaiian · Post by **flyinhawaiian** » Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:19 pm

Hey all,
Hoping someone can help me here, been using BI for well over a decade and a few versions, never had many issues I couldn't figure out but this one has me stumped! Issue is that the lower bar that shows memory and CPU usage is always in the red @ 1.01G for RAM. Here's the specs for my setup:
Win 7 64 bit
>stripped down and tweaked for performance
>no software running except for blue iris and a few Windows components, 34 processes running which includes 3 for BI
>latest intel video driver installed a few days ago, no difference using hardware acceleration (intel driver/+vidpost processing/none), so turned off at the moment
Intel NUC 5IRYB mini pc
Intel core I5@2.7ghz
16GB DDR3 ram @ 2.4GHZ, dual channel
500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD (C drive)
4TB WD Purple drive running via USB3.0 port (no extra sata ports)
BI ver. 4.8.4.4 w32 (never could get x64 to work properly), paid version
3 cameras:
>2 HIKVision DS-2CD2085G1-I cameras, both running @3840x2160, 8fps, vbr@2048bits and 24 iframe
>1 older Dahua IP cam on ethernet, disabled wifi, 1080p, 8fps, vbr@2048 bits and 24 iframe
Running system completely off grid with 2-100A AGM and 4 solar panels (yeah, way overkill, but don't want ANY failures, power to all 3 cams are also powered by system for 100% off grid surveillance)

Have played with lowering fps/bitrate and other settings, h264+ on and off, nothing really brings down the memory usage unless I lower everything to unusable/unacceptable video. I am recording non-stop, file sizes are down to ~74mb/5 minute clips per camera (interestingly, even the 1080p is at the same size). Speeds at the external drive are reporting 65mb/second, plenty enough to record those files all day long.

Biggest issue right now is that it is struggling to record and trigger properly. As soon as movement is triggered, I can literally see the ram usage shoot up and it doesn't seem to be triggering, almost as if the fps drops to ½fps and it ignores the trigger.

So, my questions are as follows:
1. Is BI ver.5 better at managing memory and would it help this system run smoother if I upgrade? Don't want to set everything up again, only reason why I haven't upgraded yet.
2. Is it possible to allocate more memory to BI via its own settings? There's literally 16gb and BI is only using 1gb of it.
3. Are there any other settings or tweaks to BI that can help this system work more efficiently?

I'd like to add another cam to this system, but I'm afraid it will render the system completely useless if I do. Would really like to continue using the NUC as it is extremely low on power consumption and unobtrusively mounted to a monitor.

Any input is appreciated!
Chris

IAmATeaf · Post by **IAmATeaf** » Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:34 pm

What exactly is the problem? What CPU is in the NUC?

Are you sure the red doesn’t designate an overallocation issue with your storage?

The iframe should match the fps so try that first and secondly why such a low bitrate for the 4k cam? Also I’d personally not use VBR for the 4k cams.

The reason why the clips are the same size is that you are severely limiting the bitrate, I run my 2Mp cams at 4096 and my 4Mp cams at 8192.

IAmATeaf · Post by **IAmATeaf** » Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:48 pm

Also how is the external drive connected? If via USB then that speed might be attainable for a single write process but will be split across any other write attempts.

flyinhawaiian · Post by **flyinhawaiian** » Sun Dec 12, 2021 6:14 pm

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Thanks for the reply and suggestions!
The main problem I'm having is that there's stuttering when triggered. It acts like it drops to ½fps when there's a trigger and it doesn't always capture the movement, its about a second or two delayed when it captures an image (which is emailed as an attachment).

I've gotten the "RAM" down to about 982MB by changing the camera settings, but now the cpu is running between 88 and 98%. I can alleviate that by closing the main screen and just use the website ui. Within UI3, it shows nice numbers at the bottom for mem and cpu, so I'm thinking this is more of a video issue within the NUC. The NUC is a core-I5 Broadwell-U, running at 2.7GHz, that should be plenty enough for a stripped down machine to handle the processes, as this system used to run on an older machine with a quad core processor and only 8gb of memory. I'm still not convinced this is a hard drive issue with the slow down, and your comment about write attempts seems to also point to it. Single write speeds are relatively fast @ 45mb/sec, and there shouldn't be anything else writing to that drive ever, only BI uses that drive, but I'm not sure whether BI is writing 3 separate processes for the 3 cameras. That seems to make more sense though, multiple writes for the cameras.

I've attached some screen shots of various stuff from my system to help with identifying what might be causing the slow downs. I'm thinking at this point it may just be the NUC not strong enough to handle 3 cams writing to a usb drive.

Not sure what else I can do to give it more writing speeds, other than possibly running the WD Purple as boot and storage via sata port. Maybe run a WD red or black drive? Guess I can test the speeds of each with CrystalDiskMark on that usb port and see if I gain anything from the faster drives. I think I have a red and a black laying around here somewhere.

IAmATeaf · Post by **IAmATeaf** » Sun Dec 12, 2021 7:22 pm

Stuttering for me can be caused by a combination of Intel video drivers and hardware acceleration within BI.

What version of the the Intel video drivers are you using?

As BI will be writing a clip for each cam then even though it’s from the same process it will be attempting to submit those requests to the drive.

It’s USB that is the limiting factor so I don’t think that changing the drive for something quicker will help as it’s USB that will bog down.

What pre-trigger times do you have and it might be worth trying to increase the buffer for each cam, think the default is 6 so try 12 or even 18.

If you can, even if on a temp basis i would try attaching a drive via the onboard SATA and see if you still get the same issue.

flyinhawaiian · Post by **flyinhawaiian** » Mon Dec 13, 2021 5:46 pm

Gahhh! What a mess!!!

So I've been trying to update to the latest Intel graphics driver, but the latest seems to be unsigned and is giving an error in device manager. Also, there's no menu for adjusting it, almost as if its running in a generic video mode. Its showing the version is 20.19.15.5171. I've tried 3 others from their site with better luck but older driver (one was from 2015).

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For the pre-trigger, I'm running continuous so no times on that, but have pushed the pre trigger vid buffer up to 3, it was turned off on each camera. If I understand this correctly, it keeps 3 seconds in memory before writing direct to disk?

So, running BI without the main screen open seems to be much more stable with recording and triggers, even when viewing using the UI3 via Firefox. I'll play around with the drives over the weekend and see if that helps. I found some info on running two drives in the NUC by using an m.2 drive (which I am), so there has to be some setting somewhere to make it run a 2nd sata drive using RAID, just gotta read up and figure out how to make that work.

Thanks again for the info and different things to try! I'll let ya know if I have any success with the drives.

IAmATeaf · Post by **IAmATeaf** » Mon Dec 13, 2021 7:37 pm

You don’t need RAID just normal SATA.

NagaFluox · Post by **NagaFluox** » Tue Feb 20, 2024 6:32 am

Have you considered trying a different approach by connecting a drive via the onboard SATA to see if it resolves the stuttering issue, given that USB might be the limiting factor as you mentioned?