Issues with getting full frame rate

lludwig

Hi I have a pretty advanced setup and trying to get SecuritySpy to capture full 30 frame/sec. Unfortunately I'm dropping a lot of frames going into the SecuritySpy software. I am running an older Mac Pro but here are the specs and should be more than enough to run the setup required:
Early 2008
2 x 2.87 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8 cores)
16 GB Ram
SSD hard drive
OS X 10.9.2

The Mac Pro is currently headless and know that could be an issue but again should have more than enough CPU cycles.

I'm running a HP Procuve J8697A with a separate VLAN for the cameras with a higher priority. I don't believe the cameras are an issue as through their web interface I am seeing the full frame rate.

The Cameras are IPC-HFW3200S

What am I doing wrong so I can get the full frame rate?

Ben

Hi Ludwig, can you tell us how many cameras you are using? Also, if you open Activity Monitor (which you'll find in your /Applications/Utilities/ folder), what is the CPU usage reported for SecuritySpy?

The IPC-HFW3200S cameras are rather high resolution (2 MP) and provide H.264 video - this puts load on the computer's CPU. 30fps is an extremely high frame rate (normally you would use 5-10 fps for general-purpose video surveillance) so it sounds like you may be overloading the computer's CPU. I would strongly advise reducing your frame rate requirement.

lludwig

4 cameras and do not add SecuritySpy's timestamp or rotate the view. So I'm just passing the compressed view to SecuritySpy. Shouldn't it just store the video? I'll attach a load screenshot.

lludwig

http://screencast.com/t/ebSeMm0YP

lludwig

FYI just capturing the video off the camera via continuous capture (not motion capture) I'm still losing frames, but not all the time.

Also per other discussions I saw on the forum why not setup SecuritySpy as a client/server setup? So the camera server is headless and can run without requiring a login.

See Indigo software on how they do this right. Right now I must create a user that automatically logins in. Not exactly a secure method for an app that deals with sensitive information (ie security cameras)

Ben

Thanks for the Activity Monitor screenshot, SecuritySpy's CPU load is quite high but no way near maxing out, so this is probably not the problem.

To confirm your settings: the "No recompression" checkbox in the Video Device Settings window is enabled; "Capture continuous" checkbox in the Camera Settings window is enabled; text overlay/video blanking mask/transformation (flipping etc.) are all disabled. Is this correct? These settings will give you the best capture performance.

The other question is how are you checking the captured frame rate? If you open the captured movie files in QuickTime Player and Get Info, what does it say there for the frame rate? Is SecuritySpy reporting 30fps in the info text above the cameras' displays in the "All cameras" window?

As for your other question, the way that SecuritySpy is currently implemented (as an app with windows) means that it's impossible to run it before login in its current form, without major structural changes. Please see this FAQ for a good alternative that maintains security.

McChiel

hi Ben,
i am detecting the same problem.

one wired network camera (1,3Mp)
SecuritySpy 2.2.4 running on OSX10.9.3, CPU usage 5,6%
5 FPS in the camera settings, (Motion capture)
i've set all boxes according your previous message
The live stream looks brilliant but all in all i am not getting a higher frame rate but 1fps on SecuritySpy

I also tried the Elro C903IP, this cam gives me max 9fps

What is my mistake here?
Thank you for your help, kind regards
Michiel

Ben

Hi McChiel - SecuritySpy version 2 supports video in JPEG format over HTTP only. Some cameras running in this mode may be limited in terms of the frame rate they will provide. If you can let me know the model of your camera I may be able to provide more information about it.

SecuritySpy version 3 supports JPEG, MPEG-4 and H.264 video over both HTTP and RTSP. This opens up a much wider range of formats, and for many cameras the H.264 RTSP option is the one that provides the best video stream.

Hope this helps.

McChiel

Ah, that would be the case as i use an Hikvision DS-2CD2612F
Maybe wait for the coming update of SS then :-)

thank you
Michiel

McChiel

just upgraded to the latest version.
The problem is still there so i must be doing something wrong

the Hikvision is showing 1FPS while the Elro says 25FPS
each cam has the same settings

When viewing the Hikvision life via quicktime it runs normal

Ben

Hi - make sure you have selected "H.264 RTSP" as the Format for the Hikvision camera in the Video Device Settings window in SecuritySpy.

It has probably remembered the JPEG setting from the old version that you were using.

Does this fix it?

McChiel

YESSS ! that's it
Thank you for your help, great program btw :-)

cgibbins

Hi- I have a similar issue. I used to have my cameras only record on motion detection, however we recently had a situation where the necessary image was not captured in time. So I have tried to switch to continuous capture, but I cannot get consistent recordings with a high enough frame rate in order to capture full motion video without dropping frames. The loss of frames is significant. There may be a frame frozen from 10-20s, or entire vehicles or people pass by without being captured.

In the live view I show 7-11 FPS. The recorded video file is anywhere from 0.07 to 0.79 FPS. I need a minimum of 5-10 FPS in order not to miss critical images. There is also no consistency in the recording file sizes. I have it set to start a new file every hour. Sometimes those files are 10MB, or 80MB, or 500MB, or 1GB, but typically the file size is only around 10-11MB.

I am using Panasonic BB-HCM511A and BB-HCM531A cameras. The cameras and computer are all on the same gigabit network switch. I tried switching the recording destination to the local hard drive (as opposed to NAS) in order to ensure there were no issues with write delay, but it did not solve anything. There is not an issue of CPU load on the Mac Mini computer running Security Spy. I am running Version 2.0.9. I would be happy to upgrade to Version 3, as I have plans to add 3 more cameras and need to change my license anyway, but before I do I would like to make sure if that will solve my problem or if there is another issue.

Here is a slideshow of screenshots of all relevant information:
http://s1295.photobucket.com/user/cgibbins1/slideshow/Security Spy Screen Shots

Any suggestions you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Chris

Ben

Hi Chris,

Firstly, you are using quite an old version of SecuritySpy - I'd recommend you install the latest 2.x version, which is SecuritySpy 2.2.4.

All your settings look absolutely fine - you should be getting a higher frame rate. The only thing I can think of that would stop you for achieving full performance is disk speed, but if you have tested this with your local hard drive then this seems less likely.

As it's old, we are not supporting version 2.x any more and therefore can't investigate this for you, aside from making suggestions about your settings. What I can suggest is that you download and try SecuritySpy 3.x. It has many efficiency improvements, and should give you much better performance. In addition, it supports the MPEG-4 stream from your cameras, so if you change the Format to MPEG-4 in the Video Device Settings window, this will result in much smaller captured file sizes.

You can download and try SecuritySpy 3.x with a 30-day trial period - it will import all your settings so the upgrade is very easy. If you decide not to use it, simply go back to the old version (it won't mess up the older version's settings). If you decide to upgrade, you can do so at the upgrade store with a 70% discount off the full retail price, as you are an existing version 2.x user.

Hope this helps.