Poor framerate

[millenios]

Hi , I have posted here in the past but still have the same issue

I have a server running Windows Server essentials 2012R2

This is a media server/back up server which gets very light use

I am running Sighthound with a single USB webcam & get very low jerky video.

I have recently tried different cameras Logitech C615 and now C920 this apparently support

H.264 directly so I have assumed it would be idea ... at 1080p I get 5 FPS.

Server has a Core i5 3470k running at 4.4Ghz 16Gb of ram and a dedicated HD for the camera.

There are no other usb devices connected. If I reduce the res the framerate hit around 9 fps

but obviously I have a better quality camera to capture better images.

I'm make little difference how I view the files but if I download the captured video off the server the files ate 5 fps.

Am I missing something I keep reading about people running 3-4 cams with a lower spec and getting good results. Would a IP be any better?

Any advise would be appreciated

Thanks.

[Devin]

Hi millenios,

It sounds like the USB may not be able to keep up with your USB cameras. You can test this by connecting this camera to other software (such as VLC or Quicktime) with the same resolution and see what the frame rate is.

IP cameras are more common and tend to be more advantageous for home security. This article contains information about both USB and IP cameras with lists of Pro's and Con's: https://www.sighthound.com/support/what ... ould-i-get

Regards,

-Devin

[millenios]

OK thanks for the response .. looks like the £50.00 I spent on a Logitech C920 was a waste of money :0( I will look at the IP camera route.

Thanks.

[Semper Vaporo]

Hmmm... I am running 5 Webcams of different brands/models and have used several other brands/models over the years I have used Vitamin D Video and SightHound. I also have one IP cam hardwired through a router. I do sometimes see the IP cam have a warning that the frame rate has dropped below 10 FPS (as evidenced by the exclamation point in a yellow triangle below and to the right of the thumbnail image) but I very seldom see the same for any of the Webcams.

I set the Frame Rate for all of my cams to the lowest setting it allows that is still above the 10 FPS that Sighthound requires(usually the next higher setting is 15). One of the Webcams won't set to below 30 FPS (or at least won't stay at that setting).

Presently I have 3 Logitec cams: Pro-9000, Webcam 120 and HD Webcam C270. One Microsoft LifeCam Cinema, and one HP 3100 Webcam.

I do sometimes see what I call a "hitch in the get-along" where the video freezes for a fraction of a second and then runs fast to "catch up"... i.e.: a person walking will pause in mid stride and then seem to run two steps; birds flying by will stop in mid flap, then rapidly catch up. But this happens on the IP cam as often as any of the USB Webcams.

Other times, the video may freeze a second and suddenly jump ahead to catch up, without the intervening frames being captured. Even the recorded video shows this type of freeze-and-jump. But, again this happens with the IP cam just as often.

BTW, Logitec is the only brand I have found that will run more than one USB Webcam (of any model) simultaneously. Two of the same model of Logitec did not used to work, but neither did multiple models way back when I was first setting things up. It is only in the last 2 or 3 years that I have been able to get multiple models of Logitec Webcams to work simultaneously. The other brands (regardless of models of one brand) still get confused as to which cam is which if I try more than one at a time (the 2 thumbnail images may show either the intended camera or the other one and they both will randomly change to the other image) and eventually cause a BSoD and spontaneous reboot. And this is true with any software accessing the cameras, so I assume it is a USB software driver problem (not giving a different name to each camera that is installed).

Although you may not have other external USB devices plugged in, you may have other things running on an internal USB port. HardDisks and CD/DVD's often are USB as well as any multi-media readers (SD cards, etc.) So you may have some other device that is overloading the system buss.

I also have found that I cannot plug in 4 USB cameras on the same Hub controller... the 1st 3 plugged in will work fine, no matter which sockets they are plugged into, but the 4th will just not be found. Unplug any of the 3 working ones and then the 4th one will magically be found and work. For my 5 USB Webcams, I have to be sure to pick at least 2 of them to run off of a separate Hub controller, so I have my wireless USB Mouse and Keyboard in the 4th of one Hub... the problem is figuring out which sockets on the back or front of the computer box are connected to the same Hub controller and which are on some other Hub, and there is no guarantee that adjacent sockets are on the same Hub or that sockets on the front and back are on different Hubs! (Screwy!) Once I figured out a configuration that worked, I labeled the cables and make sure I plug them back into the same sockets if I have to disassemble things for maintenance.

So, given all that, have you tried different USB sockets on the computer for your camera?

[millenios]

Ok very interesting, I am now totally confused. I have tried various USB ports.. In the past I was running a different motherboard/processor (ASUS - AMD FX8350 Black Edition) still the same problem.

The server CPU usage wise is almost asleep most of the time (clocked down to 1.6Ghz at 5% etc.)& I am running just the one camera. I also have a couple of C270 webcams great webcam but again same result.

I will have another look to see if I have missed something

Thanks

[Semper Vaporo]

Are you able to alter the cam's Frames Per Second setting?

Sighthound does not have a way to set the frame rate (that I know of) so I use a separate program named "AMCAP" to get to the driver configuration utilities for the cameras. AMCAP is a free program that Microsoft gave away with some of the software development 'kits' years ago. It was intended as an example and was picked up by many programmers and "enhanced" in various ways and made available as Freeware. I use it mainly to turn off "Autofocus" on the Microsoft LifeCam so I don't get false alerts when the camera decides to adjust the focal length.

The version I have is from "Noël Danjou" version 9.2 build 132.2. I do not remember exactly where I downloaded it from, but I did a web search and found, "http://noeld.com/". It seems to be minimal in size and capabilities, but works to use the menu, "Options/Video Capture PIN" to access the driver utility for the selected camera. It cannot access a camera if it is already in use, so I have to turn off a camera in SH in order to use AMCAP to do any changes to the setup of that camera.

[millenios]

Been trying to get an improvement without luck, I can't find anyway to change the framerate
the cam is rated at 30FPS at 1080p I can't get above 5 it's like sighthound sets the rate.

I have tried more USB ports, motherboard is http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_V_GENE/

I have a PCI SATA card & a dual port intel nic on the motherboard but nothing else

I'm running a server OS which is very clean no additional software.

I just ran a test using a Logitec C615 on another PC and got 16 fps at 1080p using the basic windows 8.1 cam app.

Will have to try something else as low res makes the cam almost pointless high res gives me 5 fps of blured video I can't understand why this is so complicated :0(

[Semper Vaporo]

To add some turbidity to the waters... I had never really looked at the raw video in the Archive folders. I had assumed that the saved video would be at the setting I made for each camera. But, I just checked them... oh dear.

I don't seem to have any effect on the FPS of the USB Webcams. Regardless of my settings for the USB Webcams the saved video seems to vary in FPS depending on the brightness of the scene! I get 7 FPS if the scene is very dark and up to 10 FPS if the scene is bright. I only spot-checked a few videos in each folder for this month, but it seemed to be consistent that way.

I do seem to have some effect with the IP cam. I had it at 30 FPS last month and changed it to 10 FPS at the beginning of this month. I only have a few videos from prior to the change and they are all in bright sunlight and were saved at 30 FPS. Recent videos of bright scenes are at 9 or 10 FPS and dark scenes are at 7 FPS. Again, I only checked a few videos in each of several folders and it was consistently 7 for dark scenes and 9 or 10 for bright scenes.

I have got to go study some more of this. Hopefully the programmers will chime in here and explain what they think the program is supposed to be doing.