FOSCAM G4

[davidcbittner]

Does anyone have and/or successfully configured a foscam G4 camera to stream smoothly with BI? I got one of these the other day and I just can't see to get it to stream smoothly. What I mean by that is I have it set up correctly for a main stream and sub stream and the picture quality seems to be great but when I am watching the camera's main stream it seems like it streams nice and smooth for 10 seconds then hiccups and drops a couple seconds. You have to use the foscam VMS software to get into the camera and set the main stream video and sub stream video settings.

I've tried just about every combination and setting in both the foscam VMS and BI but I just can't seem to get the picture to stream smoothly like my other cameras.
Right now in the VMS software I have the main stream set to QHD mode, resolution 2Km, bit rate 4m, frame rate 25, key frame interval 50, rate control mode vbr and in BI I have the video set to: size 856x480 and I can't change that, the max rate is 400000 [25 fps]

Any suggestions
Thanks
David

[TimG]

What does BI5 show your keyframe to be? I would expect 0.5 with those settings, but it needs to be 1.

[IAmATeaf]

It might also be worth trying to drop the frame rate down in case the cam is struggling with it being set high?

[davidcbittner]

Thanks for getting back to me. BI shows the FPS kind of all over the place. On my picture it is the My Camera 4 (Cam4) and you can see when I did the screen shot there it was around 14/.6 I have dropped the frame rate to 20 and got the key frame interval on the cam set to 20 which I think should give me the 1 key rate you mentioned. Dropping the frame rate in both the Foscam VMS and in BI did not seem to help. If I watch the one window there in BI that FPS/Key is all over the place it's not steady at all. I have 4 bars on the wifi signal in the Foscam VMS so I don't think it is my wifi signal. I just think this Foscam camera is a pain with this VMS software crap you have to use. All my other foscam cameras are controlled via web based access to them they have a little web server built in. This new G4 you have to use their app. The image format in BI neve changes no matter what quality I pick in the foscam VMS. I'm just about to try and load the older app and system firmware that I found. It looks like by all the versions they released for the G4 in august 2020 the firmware notes said to login to your camera with the web browser to upgrade the firmware. The next firmware release says to login to VMS to start the firmware upgrade so it does look like at some point the firmware was there for the web browser maintenance not that bad vms software.

I attached the pictures from the settings if you have any more suggestions (short of tossing this camera in the junk pile and learn my lesson) I am open to trying anything.
Thanks
David

biset.jpg (211.75 KiB) Viewed 3922352 times

bistats.jpg (228.91 KiB) Viewed 3922352 times

foscam_vms.jpg (202.81 KiB) Viewed 3922352 times

[Pogo]

You don't seem to have any hardware acceleration enabled. Adding the G4 may simply be pushing the processor (or graphics card) to its limits.

Otherwise, try CBR to stabilize your bit rate and try a 2MP resolution (1080p) and a 2048bps rate and see what happens.

The other possibility may well be wi-fi related. A strong signal doesn't mean a good signal.

[TimG]

I know the help file states that main and sub stream fps and iframe should be the same, but I don't think it's causing this. That's likely to be for synchronising motion between the streams.

Are you able to view this stream in VLC ?

[davidcbittner]

The G4 looks like it streams on VLC nice it does not appear choppy dropping frames like it does when looking at it through BI.

I am not sure about the hardware acceleration because I am using sub streams and I read earlier as much as I could to try to solve this that:

"If you're using sub streams there is no reason to use hardware acceleration. Since sub stream support was added to Blue Iris hardware acceleration has become a little problematic and can produce bad results. You're better off using sub streams and shutting off all hardware acceleration. Sub streams will reduce CPU utilization far more, by a factor of five to as much as fifteen, than hardware acceleration can."

I'm not sure what CBR is I don't see that as an option anywhere to turn that on. On the foscam VMS software there is rate control mode and I can pick none or VBR I've tried both none and VBR and neither seems to make much of a difference.

I'm not sure why I get the choppy kind of dropped frames when looking at the cam with BI and now that I tried VLC I don't see that choppy dropped frames.
David

[Pogo]

I know the help file states that main and sub stream fps and iframe should be the same...

I seem to see this reference frequently around here (among others from the vaunted 'help fie'). Makes no sense whatsoever, especially when it's not even possible in many cases. Just because it's in the help file doesn't necessarily it applies to anything if the information provided is more than a year or two old..., hell, even a couple months these days.

The help file is more obsolete with every new version upgrade and way overdue for an overhaul/update..., or a running index of revisions and major changes for the incessant updates and the associated fixes for the incessant updates. Referring to it as anything more than 'a possible source of information relating to your particular problem' can be very misleading at best and flat out wrong at worst.., e.g. 'the I-frame needs to be set at 1'. This is simply not correct in any way shape or form unless '1' is the only setting available.

Another good one is 'no need for hardware acceleration now that we have sub-streams'. That's only true if you have one fast-ass iCore CPU 6th gen or higher and don't care to optimize its performance -- especially if using any AI add-ons. More BS from the wiki cut and paste crowd.

Don't get me wrong, the BI help resource is loaded with fundamental operations guidance, but related almost entirely on menu functionality, not real world situational examples of problems and solutions. Use it where it applies to you, not how someone else interprets it for you without completely understanding the context of your particular problem or situation.

CBR= Constant bit rate.

Is VLC running on the same machine as your BI server?

[TimG]

Another good one is 'no need for hardware acceleration now that we have sub-streams'. That's only true if you have one fast-ass iCore CPU 6th gen or higher and don't care to optimize its performance -- especially if using any AI add-ons. More BS from the wiki cut and paste crowd.

I disagree. That was my own findings during an experiment when I still used an i5-3330 cpu for BI5. There is no wiki cut and paste crowd here, just a lot of enthusiasts who experiment, and of course Ken, who writes the software.

[Pogo]

If you were adhering to some of the other advice I've seen here to run everything at @1080p/15fps regardless of your cameras all being 4K 25fps, i can see how it could be possible. I don't think there is much debate about CPU efficiency/headroom clearly being improved when using hardware acceleration -- particularly with Intel processors.

But back to the subject matter...

If the OP is running an Intel processor at marginal limits without Quick Sync and experiencing problems as a result, the probability is very high that he can regain processing horsepower by enabling hardware acceleration in his BI configuration.