Would Blue Iris manage with my hardware?

[rallydarkstrike]

Hi all - I do work for a client who wants to set up a small-scale security IP camera setup - 6-7 cameras (5 wireless, 2 wired) is preferred, but they'd be happy if we even ran 4 off of it. They already have another DVR that is maxed for camera capability already and wanted to just add a few more cameras around their place for added security without having to pay for a whole other DVR, so we thought of going the PC-turned-DVR route.

They suggested trying to repurpose an older desktop PC they aren't using that is sitting around. I do computer repair and the like, but security camera systems are new to me...so I am not sure what specs are really necessary for a basic system with only a 'few' cameras...? I've been trying iSpyConnect on it for a few days, but it's murdering the CPU on the repurposed system (the CPU is at Ninety % use constantly and the camera framerates are dipping into the single digits...). Curious of Blue Iris would be able to run more effectively on it compared to iSpyConnect...?

It's not the greatest system in the world, admittedly, but it is quad-core and has a decent amount of RAM, so we thought we would try it as it was already sitting around unused. Specs are the following...

AMD A8-5500 Vision APU @ 3.2GHZ
12-14GB of RAM (I forget which, to be honest - I don't have the system here with me to check, but it's either 12 or 14!)
Integrated AMD Radeon HD7560D Video Card

I've heard that Blue Iris is easier on hardware than iSpyConnect, so could it manage to run a 4-7 camera setup on the above hardware effectively?

Cheers and thanks for any responses!

[TimG]

Hi, have you tried BI5 as a trial ? I believe a 15 day trial is offered. Blue Iris has many ways of reducing CPU usage, and is able in some cases to use certain video cards as accelerators - but I don't think the trial version will let you use those. You can see from my signature the system and cameras I am running, and BI5 uses around 9% CPU recording 24/7.

Tell us what camera you have, and have a look at the "PC Configuration" part of the forum to see what other people are using.

You can of course send an email to support. If they have enough time they will respond.

[rallydarkstrike]

Thanks for the reply - I emailed support last night to see what they suggest.

I'm fine with Ninety % CPU usage, but the framerate drops with iSpyConnect made it useless for recording...I would hope they'd be better for BlueIris.

Nope, I've not tried the trial...never even noticed there was one, to be honest! The cameras we would want to connect are all Amazon stuff...5 TonTon WiFi IP cams ( https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GR3 ... UTF8&psc=1 ), and 2 wired Lookcctv cams ( https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RXR ... UTF8&psc=1 ).

[HeneryH]

I've heard but not confirmed that the trial version does NOT allow you to set Direct-to-Disk which would be one of the biggest improvements to CPU usage.

I never understood why Ken would put a trial version out there that would make his product seem worse. It makes no sense from a marketing perspective.

[reddawg]

Hi all - I do work for a client who wants to set up a small-scale security IP camera setup - 6-7 cameras (5 wireless, 2 wired) is preferred, but they'd be happy if we even ran 4 off of it. They already have another DVR that is maxed for camera capability already and wanted to just add a few more cameras around their place for added security without having to pay for a whole other DVR, so we thought of going the PC-turned-DVR route.

They suggested trying to repurpose an older desktop PC they aren't using that is sitting around. I do computer repair and the like, but security camera systems are new to me...so I am not sure what specs are really necessary for a basic system with only a 'few' cameras...? I've been trying iSpyConnect on it for a few days, but it's murdering the CPU on the repurposed system (the CPU is at Ninety % use constantly and the camera framerates are dipping into the single digits...). Curious of Blue Iris would be able to run more effectively on it compared to iSpyConnect...?

It's not the greatest system in the world, admittedly, but it is quad-core and has a decent amount of RAM, so we thought we would try it as it was already sitting around unused. Specs are the following...

AMD A8-5500 Vision APU @ 3.2GHZ
12-14GB of RAM (I forget which, to be honest - I don't have the system here with me to check, but it's either 12 or 14!)
Integrated AMD Radeon HD7560D Video Card

I've heard that Blue Iris is easier on hardware than iSpyConnect, so could it manage to run a 4-7 camera setup on the above hardware effectively?

Before anyone can answer your question about whether Blue Iris 5 will handle your hardware, you need to supply more information about your cameras.

What is the make and model of the IP cameras you are using?
What resolution and framerate do they run at?
What video encoding are your cameras using H.264, H.264+ or H.265?

I personally think your current AMD A8-5500 Vision PC is a bad decision for any video security software. To start, your AMD A8-5500 processor is a mediocre processor with a low passmark CPU benchmark of 3997 and does not support hardware accelerated decoding (Intel Quick Sync). You should go with an Intel processor based PC that supports Intel Quick Sync (Hardware accelerated decoding). If your CPU supports Intel Quick Sync Video, then you can use hardware acceleration in Blue Iris to reduce CPU utilization significantly with any camera streaming H.264.

I recommend purchasing a refurbished business class PC such as "HP EliteDesk" or "Dell Optiplex" on eBay. I just purchased a "HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF Intel i5-4590 CPU (4th gen) 1TB SATA HD 8GB DDR3 DVD-RW Win 10 Pro" computer for $94 on ebay. Yes, that was a good deal. You should be able find similar deals between $100-$145. This PC supports Intel Quick Sync and would easily handle all your cameras with room to grow.

HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Desktop - Intel Core i5-4590 @ 3.3GHz 8GB RAM 1TB HDD Win 10 Pro on eBay for Buy it Now $107.99 shipping $20.
Sale ends in: 02d 04h (Sep 3 around 1pm)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteDesk-8 ... SwMTRdUv67

[TimG]

We can add to that this useful information from a recent HeneryH post:

For your system load, you'll need to calculate the pixels/sec. A 2mp camera running at 30 FPS (not recommended) would be obviously much more demanding than a 2mp camera running at 15 fps.

There is an online database with user submitted data https://biupdatehelper.hopto.org/default.html#stats

[reddawg]

Just to add to TimG post about the relationship between higher frame rates and CPU resources,

Many novices installing security cameras think they need to run their cameras at high frame rates like 30fps because they think it's going to improve the quality of the video or they might miss something. While 30 fps will provide a smoother playback, the human eye does not pick up much difference between 15 and 30 frames per second and it is not until your frame rate drops below 7.5 fps that it becomes noticeable. See the below YouTube video for a comparison.

Security Camera Video Recording Frame Rate Comparison
https://youtu.be/W7LYhTPc-Nw

[spammenotinoz]

Just to add to TimG post about the relationship between higher frame rates and CPU resources,

Many novices installing security cameras think they need to run their cameras at high frame rates like 30fps because they think it's going to improve the quality of the video or they might miss something. While 30 fps will provide a smoother playback, the human eye does not pick up much difference between 15 and 30 frames per second and it is not until your frame rate drops below 7.5 fps that it becomes noticeable. See the below YouTube video for a comparison.

Security Camera Video Recording Frame Rate Comparison
https://youtu.be/W7LYhTPc-Nw

You will also regularly find setups with high frame rates, actually drop a ton of frames or experience artifacting, as either the bit-rate, processor or some other component lags.
Best to have a much for reliable\stable frame rate you know will work and be relied on. 20fps possible, but 30 is too high.

[rallydarkstrike]

@reddawg - The cameras in question are...

5 of these: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GR3 ... UTF8&psc=1

2 of these:: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RXR ... UTF8&psc=1

They're all 1080p cameras as far as resolution goes. I hadn't changed the resolution in the settings and had merely tried iSpyConnect on whatever it's defaults were, so I presume 1080p. I know the default framerate in iSpyConnect was 15fps for recording and 10fps for live playback through their web interface.

The wired IP cams are H.265, not sure of the encoding on the wireless cams.

@TimG - I'd already checked the database and found this...

Untitled.png (8.44 KiB) Viewed 18490 times

Seems to suggest somebody was running a system similar to mine with even more cameras (I want to run 7, they were running nine, although the capability of the cameras they were running matters, of course) and the CPU load seems reasonable?