Choppy Video and Low Framerate using Foscam 9821W

[Max&Leo]

EDIT: Turns out this problem was an issue with the Wi-Fi connection.

I have been using VDV and now SH for over a year with great success on four Foscam 8910W cameras. Now that the price has dropped a little for HD, I added a 720p Foscam 9821W. The video playback is extremely choppy, and the frame rate is low, about 1 FPS. My other cameras record at between 7 and 10 FPS with no problems. I don't know if this is a problem with the camera or with SH.

In SH, I have tried adjusting the scaling settings to QVGA, and I have tried running just this camera with all others off. In the Foscam control panel, I have adjusted the bit rate from 2 to 4 and back, frame rate from 30 to 20 and back, and key frame interval (I'm not sure what this is) from 30 to 10 and back.

Here are my current settings and data. If anything else would be helpful, let me know and I will provide it.

Connection: Wi-Fi
Internet Speed: 65 mb/s tested
Camera distance from router: 20 feet (though mounted outside under eave)
Computer: Quad-core iMac w/ 12GB RAM; 1TB HD w/ 200GB free
CPU: Usually running around 25%

[Max&Leo]

Here's a video clip: http://youtu.be/76r3bYG9Ws0

[ryan]

That's definitely abnormal. My first guess would be that your CPU is overloaded, but you've confirmed that not to be the case.

If you view the camera in another application such as VLC does it exhibit the same behavior? My second guess is that the wifi signal is very weak.

Update: You posted your reply after I had written the above.

It looks like you're actually getting 3-4 FPS (I'm seeing multiple frames in each second tick on the timestamp). I bought a 9805 to try to investigate an issue with the h264 streams on newer foscam models and it does a similar stutter as you're seeing where it will update quite a bit at the beginning of each second and then kinda pause or lag in the last half or quarter of each second. It does this from any application. Yours is an exaggerated case of this with the lower frame rate, but that stutter is similar.

I don't have the camera here to poke at, but I don't think I was ever able to get that stutter to go away. If I'm remembering correctly I think maybe decreasing the bitrate or random things like that helped, but I'm pulling from a fuzzy memory at the moment.

Leave the resolution at whatever you'd like, but perhaps try a bitrate of 1Mbps and a frame rate of 15, and see if that offers any improvements. If possible (maybe not since it sounds like you've mounted it) try connecting via an ethernet cable, our 9805W seems to behave worse in general when on Wifi, so either that or a low wifi signal or both combined might be affecting your camera as well.

[Max&Leo]

That's definitely abnormal. My first guess would be that your CPU is overloaded, but you've confirmed that not to be the case.

If you view the camera in another application such as VLC does it exhibit the same behavior? My second guess is that the wifi signal is very weak.

Update: You posted your reply after I had written the above.

It looks like you're actually getting 3-4 FPS (I'm seeing multiple frames in each second tick on the timestamp). I bought a 9805 to try to investigate an issue with the h264 streams on newer foscam models and it does a similar stutter as you're seeing where it will update quite a bit at the beginning of each second and then kinda pause or lag in the last half or quarter of each second. It does this from any application. Yours is an exaggerated case of this with the lower frame rate, but that stutter is similar.

I don't have the camera here to poke at, but I don't think I was ever able to get that stutter to go away. If I'm remembering correctly I think maybe decreasing the bitrate or random things like that helped, but I'm pulling from a fuzzy memory at the moment.

Leave the resolution at whatever you'd like, but perhaps try a bitrate of 1Mbps and a frame rate of 15, and see if that offers any improvements. If possible (maybe not since it sounds like you've mounted it) try connecting via an ethernet cable, our 9805W seems to behave worse in general when on Wifi, so either that or a low wifi signal or both combined might be affecting your camera as well.

Thanks, Ryan. I've got a few more things to try still. Although the 9821 is close to the 5th Gen Airport Extreme router, there's also an Airport Express set up as a repeater not too far away. I've unplugged it for now to try this out.

Some of my other cameras are ethernet-based, so I can move the camera temporarily to check FPS there.

I appreciate your prompt reply. We'll get this fixed.

[Max&Leo]

For now I have solved this problem by moving the camera to an area that has ethernet availability.

[Max&Leo]

Turns out this problem was an issue with the Wi-Fi connection. Thanks for the support. I will update the original post.

[ryan]

Great, thanks for letting us know!