Need help with making upgrade and support choices please

[soarwitheagles]

Hi everone!!

Came here looking for some help.

Ok, here is our situation...

We have had Blue Iris for a number of years. It worked incredibly well for some years. Over a year ago, we started having issues. We could not find the solutions to resolve the issues.

Here are our questions...

1. If we purchase the v.5 with Priority Maintenance will this include tech support to help us resolve issues?
2. Has anyone here purchase the Priority Maintenance and if yes, how has the service been?
3. We need to do a clean install of Windows 10 [Microsoft tech advice], is there anyway to save or should we save the current BI v4 settings?
4. We have a dedicated i-7 4770k with 8GB or RAM but have tons of DDR3 laying around. Would BI v.5 work better with 16GB of DDR3?
5. With the massive improvements of the AMD CPU's, is the general consensus still to remain with Intel CPU's with the hyper threading?

Our system

Intel i-7 4770k
ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer MB
Corsair 1600 DDR3 8GB
Z liquid cooler

Our cameras

10 of 2032's
8 New in box Lorex cameras from Costco [purchased 2 years ago].
8 Waze cameras, but we would understand if we cannot include them in BI.

Ok, hope we did not overdo our first post in asking questions...

Please help us if you can!

Soar

[Thixotropic]

1. If we purchase the v.5 with Priority Maintenance will this include tech support to help us resolve issues?
2. Has anyone here purchase the Priority Maintenance and if yes, how has the service been?
3. We need to do a clean install of Windows 10 [Microsoft tech advice], is there anyway to save or should we save the current BI v4 settings?
4. We have a dedicated i-7 4770k with 8GB or RAM but have tons of DDR3 laying around. Would BI v.5 work better with 16GB of DDR3?
5. With the massive improvements of the AMD CPU's, is the general consensus still to remain with Intel CPU's with the hyper threading?

I can't answer all your questions but I can answer a few of them.

3) I'd export all the settings and then do a fresh install of Win 10, then run something like Debloater on it to get rid of all the junk that Windows installs by default. It'll clean out a lot of stuff that's unnecessary and that just sucks up CPU cycles and memory.

4) In general, RAM is like money- the more you have, the better. I'd go with 16GB if possible.


Some other general tips:

• If you can set your system up to use direct-to-disk recording, do it. That will usually help reduce CPU load quite a bit.

• Let the cameras provide the overlays (e.g. time and date, camera name, etc) and don't task BI with doing it. This is also something that helps educe the amount of work BI has to do.

• Get Reddawg's Blue Iris Update Manager: https://blueirissoftware.com/forum/view ... f=4&t=1034
  This is an excellent update and rollback tool that can (will) come in very handy.

[soarwitheagles]

Thank you Thix!

Hope you do not mind if I ask you how to export all the settings?

[Thixotropic]

Open the main menu and click the "Export Settings" button.
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bi-settings.png (93.81 KiB) Viewed 8079 times

[MikeBwca]

1. If we purchase the v.5 with Priority Maintenance will this include tech support to help us resolve issues?
2. Has anyone here purchase the Priority Maintenance and if yes, how has the service been?

Yes.

I purchased the yearly Extended support. Primarily for 'BI upgrade via the pgm', and, Major Version upgrade protection. It also gives email & prioritized email support.

The Priority support you mentioned also gives the highest email priority support, Phone & Remote support.

Prior to getting the Extended support, I found that BI still responded to my email queries, and, in a timely manner. Even after getting the Extended support, Ken offered twice to remote into my BI server.
I've found hat BI support is committed to resolving issues and will go the extra mile. Now, with that said, some users have complained that they get no response from support. There's a question of how they are requesting support. Other that that, I do not understand their lack of support issues.

[soarwitheagles]

Thank you gentlemen!

I will back up our system, purchase the plan, and get up and running again!

Oh, I have attempted numerous times to attach a pic of our build, but it doesn't appear to work. Any suggestions?

Have an awesome day!

[TimG]

Hi soarwitheagles,

Oh, I have attempted numerous times to attach a pic of our build, but it doesn't appear to work. Any suggestions?

I put mine on my own www domain, but I imagine the popular response will be one of the photo sharing sites on the internet. You then need the URL, and to click on the icon of the mountain range above (when you are editing).

[soarwitheagles]

TimG,

Thank you for helping me understand how to post a pic here!