Management topics for getting the most out of the software.
RUNNING AS A SERVICE
The software offers the very powerful feature of running as a service on your PC. This
means a couple of important things—when you close the main window, the software
continues to run in the background and the software will automatically restart in the event of a
PC, OS, or software crash or restart.
Enable the service on the Startup page in Settings. There are considerations and
implications of using this feature however. Windows installs the service as running under a
user account called “local service.” Very often however this account does not have adequate
system or administrative privileges, and you should adjust the service to run under your
OWN Windows account. Once the service is installed, enter “services” in the Windows
search bar to open the Windows Service Manager.
Locate the Blue Iris service on the list and right-click this to edit its properties. On the
LogOn tab, use the Browse button and then enter your Windows login user name. Then
use the Check Names button to verify it’s the correct name and to automatically add the
required PC or domain name. Click OK and then enter the password a couple of times, OK
again. Finally you can right-click the Blue Iris service once again to either start or re-start it.
If the user and password were entered correctly, Windows will not complain, and the
software will start in the background.
Running the software again now opens a console window. This second instance of the
software does not actually interact with any cameras etc., it merely interacts with the
service. If you open the Windows Task Manager you will see two processes:
The console shows under Apps, but the service shows under Background processes. The
console generally uses negligible system resources as the heavy lifting is down by the service
process. It may also be useful to use this task manager view to track software resource
consumption over time to identify possible stability issues.
Service Considerations
When configuring the software—the many Test options for email servers, FTP servers and
action set functions all run in the console process. A true test only occurs when one of these
functions is accessed by the service. In general, the service will post any access issues to the
Messages page in Status.
If you are using a NAS or other remote storage device, you should use a username and
password on that device that is identical to your service login. This will allow the service
seamless access to the device.
SECURITY SOFTWARE EXEMPTIONS
The importance of this step cannot be overemphasized. There are four categories of security
software to address:
Firewall. These stand between software and use of the network or Internet. Blue Iris
requires network access to pull video from network IP cameras. Blue Iris also uses an
occasional connection to the Blue Iris Software website to check for software updates,
license activation, and changing WAN address if this is configured on the About page in
Settings.
Antivirus. These monitor files or folders for changes, looking for threats. These may
interfere by locking files which Blue Iris is actively modifying or attempting to delete.
For smooth and efficient software operation, you should exempt the database and clips storage
folders. Blue Iris never creates or uses executable code in these folders.
Application and process scanning. These monitor actively running software and every byte of
information sent or received for suspicious activity. These are by-far the most intrusive and
can greatly affect software performance. For proper efficient software operation it is highly
recommended that you exempt the BlueIris.exe executable (BlueIrisAdmin.exe is not relevant
here) from this type of scanning. In the past, this type of “security” software has been
responsible for otherwise unexplained memory leaks and broken camera streams. These
software like to “cache” network communication, and in the case of a camera video stream,
this can be gigabytes of information each day, often overwhelming memory or disc resources
with endless “temp” files.
Registry cleaners. Problems here are two-fold. Sometimes these like to “back out” changes,
which mean that your Blue Iris settings may be completely rolled-back or un-done. Also as
was notoriously the case with Kaspersky, a shadow copy of each registry change was
maintained within the Blue Iris registry key—soon leading to gigabytes used for the registry
and making settings backup painful if possible at all. If it is not possible to exempt specific
software or registry keys, it is recommended not to use such software at all.
All of these software will use CPU time and other system resources and should be added or
used thoughtfully.
WINDOWS ADMINISTRATOR ACCESS
Blue Iris is security software, and as such requires Windows Administrator access to the PC.
All settings are also stored in the Windows system registry under a location only accessible
by a PC administrator. It is possible to configure the software to allow access by non
administrators in a couple of ways.
First, when running as a service, you can un-check the default option on the Startup page in
Settings to Require run-as Administrator. You must also:
• Configure a user/password on the Users page in Settings. The user will be prompted for
this when running the software. Although you may select Admin access for this account,
the user will only truly have Admin access if they are a Windows system administrator.
• Provide a desktop icon link to BlueIris.exe instead of BlueIrisAdmin.exe
Instead, you may alter the access rights on the registry key used by Blue Iris to include non
administrators. The software checks writability to this key when determining if
Administrator access is allowed. Open REGEDIT and locate the key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris
You may edit the permissions on this key to provide full control to the Everyone user or to a
specific user or group.
You must still run BlueIris.exe instead of BlueIrisAdmin.exe to avoid the Windows UAC
authentication prompt.
CPU MANAGEMENT
It’s common to struggle to find balance between software demand and CPU capability. If
you find your system is sluggish, you may be asking too much of the CPU. If the Windows
Task Manager shows consistently high CPU usage (at or near 100%) for extended periods of
time, this should be addressed to maintain system stability. It is advisable to leave some
“head room” here as well, perhaps shooting for an average CPU utilization over time of no
more than 60-75%.
In order to understand how to maximize your CPU performance with Blue Iris, you must
understand where CPU demand originates.
Decoding
By default, all video received from each camera is decoded. This means the bytes received are
used to reconstruct an image or video frame for display or further analysis. This may be
performed in software or in hardware if you have a compatible Intel chip or Nvidia graphics
card. Please see Advanced video topics in the Cameras chapter for details. When this is
performed by software, it is preferable that the video was encoded as simply as possible to
save CPU cycles when decoding. See your camera’s internal web-based settings to manage
this—you want to select H.264 “main” profile without any “high” or “+” or “smart” modes
enabled—all of these are designed to save bandwidth at the expense of CPU.
It’s also possible to instruct the software to not decode each and every video frame. This is
done with the limit decoding option on the Video page in camera settings. Please see
discussion of that topic in the Cameras chapter for proper use of this feature—a minimum
rate of key frames in the video stream is required.
Just as software decoding has intrinsic limits, so to does hardware decoding. If you begin to
see frames/second throughput by your cameras begin to decline from expected values over
time, this may indicate the hardware decoding is saturated and you should remove one of
more cameras from hardware decoding.
Encoding
By default, Blue Iris uses software to re-encode each video frame that’s written to disc. This
refers to conversion of each image into a compressed set of bytes, and this can be much more
CPU-intensive than video decoding as the software works to create the smallest set of bytes
possible for each image in a series of images. Fortunately there are two technologies which
will greatly reduce the CPU’s role in this process:
Direct-to-disc recording. Video is already received from the camera in an encoded format—why
not just use this for recording as well? Please see the various pros and cons for using this
under the Video file format and compression topic in the Recording and Clips chapter. For
example, as with limit decoding, there is also an optimal key-frame rate for use of this feature.
Hardware encoding. Some Nvidia hardware may also be leveraged for video encoding. Please
see the same matrix in the Advanced video topics in the Cameras chapter for details. Hardware
encoding is enabled on the various Video encoder settings pages provided the Format page from
the Record page in camera settings and elsewhere. One obvious “con” with this technology
is that it often sets up a “pipeline” of video for encoding, which translates to a delay in
getting video out of the encoder, which translates to initial “blackness” in playback.
Drawing to the screen
The more that is drawn to the screen directly translates to more CPU time used. Whenever
possible, keep the console minimized or completely closed if running as as service. There
are also options to control the rate and quality of drawing to the screen. Limit live preview
rate is found on the Cameras page and Scaling is found on the Other page in settings.
These adjustments do NOT affect the quality of video that is recorded or viewed remotely.
Drawing onto the video
By default the software draws the date and time to each frame, which will use typically a
nominal amount of CPU time. If this has been made more complex, possibly adding
shading or transparency or graphic images, the CPU usage may ramp up, potentially
saturating the thread. You can identify this situation when the frames/second throughput
for the camera begins to decline from its expected value as you increase overlay complexity.
For ultimate CPU performance, you can completely eliminate video overlays via an option
on the Video page in camera settings. Note that when in demonstration mode, a banner is
drawn to each video frame to this effect, which may contribute to initial CPU utilization
before license activation. If you counter-intuitively see CPU usage go UP when the software
is licensed, this may indicate a higher frame throughput when the overlay is removed.
Writing to the hard drive
With properly efficient hardware, this is not always a concern, but it does have the capability
to severely slow things down. You should always use a local, fast drive for the database and
New folders to prevent OS lag as these locations are accessed frequency. These folders
should also specifically be exempted from antivirus software which may be constantly
scanning them for changes. Finally, a failing drive often first manifests itself by causing
excessive CPU time for operations, as the OS struggles to find areas on the media without
errors. Significant fragmentation may also be a concern as well, causing the drive to work
overtime accessing locations across the media for a single file. If you suspect an issue with a
recording volume there are many Windows utilities for testing and optimizing these.
Use of a high-speed drive will also help if your system is recording from many cameras
simultaneously. For example, a high-speed SSD drive or 7,000-10,000 RPM hard drive will
offer performance gains over a standard 5,000 RPM drive.
Moving memory
Not surprisingly, CPU time is consumed with many basic memory move operations, and
these can be significant with video streaming and playback software. A video image with
1920×1080 resolution in 32-bit RGB format occupies 8MB of memory for example and
copying or moving this around memory is not trivial when it is done with frequency. The
easiest way to combat this is with more CPU cycles—a faster CPU. However there are other
efficiencies gained by newer CPU technology. The overall QuickSync score given to chips on
the ark.intel.com page also impacts the efficiency of the chip allocating and moving large
blocks of memory.
Video analysis
By default, Blue Iris analyzes 1-2 frames per second of video from each camera to look for
motion. The algorithms employed are fairly simple and not in general CPU-intensive.
However, when motion is detected, the rate of analysis goes up to at least 8 frames per
second in order to more accurately follow objects. If you do have a number of cameras with
a considerable amount of activity, this may begin to contribute (still in a small way) to the
overall CPU demand by the software. There are a couple of ways to mitigate this:
•Do not use the “high-def” setting on the Motion detector page. This uses 4x the number
of pixels as input to the algorithms. Also select to use the “simple” instead of Gaussian
algorithm.
•Consider using camera-based motion detection if offered by your camera. This does
require that the camera supports and is configured to use ONVIF GetEvents via
PullPointSubscription and that the software understand the type of events the camera is
sending (this is not standardized). You can view what the camera sends in response to
motion or other triggers using the Events page in the ODM (ONVIF device manager)
software.
PC and Windows considerations
Many PCs, especially laptops, offer power-saving modes which have the effect of lowering
overall system performance. You may manage these settings via the system BIOS typically, a
special key combination used as your PC starts up. You will want to favor performance over
battery or power consumption for most video software applications.
Many PCs also employ something called thermal management, where the CPU is intentionally
handicapped if the temperature is such that it might cause hardware failure. While in
general it seems like a good idea to protect your hardware in this way, it is wise to check for
adequate PC and CPU ventilation in order to prevent these “features” from activating and
slowing down your system.
Not all device drivers are of equal quality. Your SSD device may have impressive stats, but
you may need to run a performance test on the device to determine exactly how fast it’s able
to read and write given the OS and its drivers.
You will want to disable CPU and disc-intensive OS features such as file indexing via the
Windows Settings page.
How to measure and compare relative CPU utilization
If you have a CPU utilization issue, the first thing to do is to determine a baseline. With Blue
Iris not running you want to open Windows Task Manager and see 0% used by the system
most of the time. Various things like Windows updates and file indexing may use some
transient CPU cycles. However there may be other even less-efficient services installed for
the various other hardware and software you may have installed on the PC. This is a good
time to audit what’s installed and to analyze the amount of CPU each might potentially
consume.
Now with Blue Iris running with all cameras disabled, you again should be at or near 0% CPU
utilization. There may be Blue Iris features such as the web server or file management still
operating, as well as occasional screen updates to draw the status icons, etc., but these
should consume negligible CPU at this point.
Now with the Shield icon RED, you may enable one camera and then minimize the window to
evaluate the amount of CPU simply to stream and decode that single camera. You can try
this with each camera in-turn, or with groups of cameras. It may be possible to identify
cameras with inefficient encoding/decoding in this way.
Finally you may enable other software features such as recording by setting the shield icon
to green, with one or more cameras enabled for further analysis.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that the software will attempt to do all that you ask of it until there are
just no more CPU cycles to consume, and at that point, something must give. Ultimately the
best way to handle a CPU time shortage may be to either (1) process fewer MP/s
(megapixels/second, a function of both FPS and frame size) or (2) get a faster CPU and/or
one with better graphics capabilities if possible.
If you write to support about a CPU issue, please always include an image of your Cameras
page in Status. This will give an overview of the FPS, kbps and MP/s consumed by each
camera and in total for the system.
STATUS MESSAGES, LOGS AND ALERTS
The Messages page in Status is where you will find warnings, errors, and other
communication from the software that does not otherwise appear in any type of popup
message box.
If there are errors or warnings on this list, a matching status icon will appear in the
software’s status bar at the lower-right of the main window.
For a more permanent record of what’s added to this list, you may use the Log to file
option. By default, a new log file is created each month to prevent it from growing too large.
For your convenience a View log button is provided. These files are not otherwise managed
and will eventually use considerable disc space. Please be sure to prune this folder on
occasion as required.
Use the Status alerts button to configure periodic status messages via email, push, or
otherwise.
You may wish to receive periodic messages simply as a “health” notice. Typically however
you are interested in receiving messages only when there are new items of interest added to
the Messages page in Status, and you may choose which types are of interest.
You may select the rate at which these may be sent, along with which the active profiles.
Actions
The types of messages used to communicate these status alerts are configured with an
action set. Please see the Alerts and Actions chapter for details on tis configuration.
Typically you will want set all of the options here to vary the email priority, Replace email
body and Replace push/SMS text with recent status messages.
BACKUPS
Software Settings
Options to Export and Import software settings may be found on the About page in
Settings. The complete software settings reside in a .REG registry keys file and may also be
found via REGEDIT at the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris
If you select the Auto export option, you may select a folder location for these files. The
software maintains a rolling set of three files always from three different days. These are
updated only when the software is restarted. Restarting the software multiple times on a
single day results only in the replacement of just one of the backup files.
It’s also possible to manually Export/Import individual camera settings via buttons on the
General page in camera settings
Recorded Video
Using the Backup settings on the Clips page in settings, you may choose an FTP service to
be used to upload marked clips. Clips may be automatically marked for backup by using
settings on the Record page in camera settings.
Some users prefer to synchronize one or more of their recording folders with a cloud service
and this is certainly possible. Management of this type of backup is beyond the scope of
Blue Iris support however.
LICENSING, SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE
The software is licensed per-PC (or VM). You may re-install and move the license to new
hardware up to 10 times before it must be manually reset by an email to support. A license
includes basic support and maintenance which means access to email software support and
same-version updates for one year from first activation.
Please register your software. This is done simply by adding your name and email to the
About page in Settings. This information is never shared with others, but may be used to
assist with the look-up your license key if you have misplaced it. Registration details here
override any purchase records. Registration of your IP address is optional, but it helps
when using the remote client apps to look-up the (possibly changing) address using only a
portion of your license key.
For continued access to software maintenance (all updates, including free major-version
upgrades as well), there is an optional annual support and maintenance program. For details
please visit:
http://blueirissoftware.com/support/
Although continuous Internet access is not required, the software either must be connected
to the Internet occasionally to check for updates and licensing, or the license must be re
entered at least once each year using offline methods as the support and maintenance date
expires.
The current state of your license’s support and maintenance may be found on the About
page in Settings. If expiring soon, please use the Upgrade/Renew button to either
purchase a new plan, or to enter the support and maintenance key that you will receive via
email each year.
It’s possible to also manually check for software updates, or automatically install them at a
particular time of the day. Please do not attempt to download or install updates when the
software license is not covered by a support and maintenance plan.
When writing for support, you must include basic software and license details. For your
convenience you will find an Email support button on the About page in Settings. This
button will copy important information to the Windows clipboard. In order to make use of
this information, you must them open an email to send to support@blueirissoftware.com.
Please make the subject descriptive in order to prevent our mail server from combing it with
others of the same subject. In the BODY of the message, use the Windows PASTE command
(control-V) to insert your support information at the beginning of your message.
Please take advantage of our user-user support channels as well, as often you will find others
with similar hardware, conditions, or questions, who will offer assistance as well. The
official forum may be found at the address:
https://blueirissoftware.com/forum/
And there’s even a Blue Iris Facebook page. Please note that the developers may not actively
monitor these pages.
HTTP INTERFACE
In addition to Digital I/O and MQTT services, Blue Iris also offers significant opportunity to
interact with and to manage the software through a web server interface.
HTML Macros
Blue Iris pre-processes all files ending in .htm before they are served. This is useful if you’re
using a dynamic IP address as your server name. Blue Iris will substitute your server name
wherever appears. Other available macros include the following:
Direct image and video requests
There are a number of methods for retrieving images and video from the Blue Iris web
server for use on mobile devices, converting a USB camera into a web camera, or for any
other purpose. Here are the paths to these methods:
/image/{cam-short-name}?q=50&s=80. A single JPEG image from a specific camera or group,
with optional quality (q) and scale (s) parameters. Quality is a percentage from 1-100, and
scale may be any number >0.
/image/{cam-short-name}?h=100. You may also specify a specific height (h) or width (w)
instead of scale.
/mjpg/{cam-short-name}/video.mjpg. An M-JPEG stream. This stream is compatible with Blue
Iris’s “MJPEG stream request.”
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.h264. Pull a raw H.264 stream (MIME type video/H264). This
stream will play in a tool like VLC, and may be used in future versions of the ActiveX
control.
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.ts. Pull an MPEG-2 transport stream (MIME type video/MP2T).
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.m or .m3u8. Pull a virtual M3U8 file (MIME type application/
vnd.apple.mpegurl). This will play in QuickTime, iPad and the iPhone using the Apple HLS
(HTTP Live Streaming) format.
/audio/{cam-short-name}/temp.wav. Pull a raw audio stream (MIME type audio/x-wav).
/video/{cam-short-name}. Used by client apps to pull an H.264-encoded video stream with
proprietary formatting.
/file/clips/{filename}&mode=jpeg&speed=100. An M-JPEG stream of a clip from your New clips
folder. You may include additional subdirectory names in the filename. The speed
parameter is optional, a percentage of normal playback speed.
/thumbs/{filename}. A thumbnail image for a specific file. You may use a database record
number (@record) in place of the filename.
/alerts/{filename}. An alert image. You may use a database record number (@record) in place
of the filename. HTTP parameter &fulljpeg will return the high-definition version of the
image if it was saved to disc.
Optional parameters for many of the above:
&w= width, use with or without height
&h= height, use with or without width
&s= scale 1-100 in place of width and/or height
&q= quality 1-100
&fps= frames/second
&kbps= kilobits per second
&cache=1 include cache-control: no-cache in the reply
&connection=close do not re-use this connection
Admin commands
/admin?profile=x&lock=y. Set the active profile to x. Use x=-1 to toggle the lock status, or
set the lock=y, 0=run, 1=temp, 2=hold
/admin?schedule=1 or 0 or schedule name. x=0 or 1 to disable/enable Options/Schedule, or a
name to set the current schedule
/admin?signal=x Changes the shield icon state and returns the current state. x=0 for red,
x=1 for green, x=2 for yellow. This requires admin authentication.
/admin?output=x&msec=y or &force=true Set DIO output x=0-7 on for y msec, or force on
indefinitely
/admin?input=x Manually sets the state of the global DIO input bits
/admin?macro=x&text={text} Set macro number x=1-99 to value {text}
/admin?console={group name} Select the specified group for display on the console, “index” is
All cameras.
/admin?db=rebuild, compact, or maintain Initiates the specified database operation.
/admin?log=message&level=x Adds message to the log with severity level x (0: info, 1: warn,
2: error)
/admin?camera=x&trigger Trigger camera or group x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&manrec=1 or 0 Start or stop manual recording on camera or group x (short
name)
/admin?camera=x&escape Equivalent to using Esc key on camera window to exit full screen
or other temporary modes.
/admin?camera=x&fullscreen=1 or 0
/admin?camera=x&priority=x 1: temporarily move camera to top-left position, 0: return to
normal position.
/admin?camera=x&select Select camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&snapshot Snapshot on camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&reset Reset camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&reboot Reboot camera x (short name) (as supported)
/admin?camera=x&ptzcycle=1 or 0 Enable or disable PTZ preset cycle on camera x
/admin?camera=x&pause=x Send pause command to camera x (short name), x=-2 to 10
matching right-click Pause menu
/admin?camera=x&enable=1 or 0 Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&motion=1 or 0 Enable or disable motion detection on camera x (short
name)
/admin?camera=x&hide=1 or 0 Hide or show camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&mdelay=x Delay motion detection on camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&webcast=1 or 0 Enable or disable webcasting on camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&preset=n Goto PTZ preset n on camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&ptz=n PTZ command n on camera x (short name). n=0,1… for
left,right,up,down,center,zoom+,zoom-
/admin?camera=x&pause=n Pause camera x (short name). n=-2,-1,0,1,2… for toggle,infinite,
0,+30s,+5min,+30m,+1h,+2h,+3h,+5h,+10h,+24h,+15m
/admin?camera=x&schedule=1 or 0 Enable or disable schedule on camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&profile=n Force profile n on camera x (short name)
Camera commands
/cam/{cam-short-name}/pos=x Performs a PTZ command on the specified camera, where x=
0=left, 1=right, 2=up, 3=down, 4=home, 5=zoom in, 6=zoom out
/cam/{cam-short-name}/pos=100 Causes a snapshot image to be captured from the specified
camera.
/cam/{cam-short-name}/preset=x Moves the camera to PTZ preset position x
JSON INTERFACE
The JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) interface is used by the client apps as well as the UI3
browser interface.
For a description of JSON, see http://www.json.org/. It’s simply a block of text which is
sent by HTTP-POST to the Blue Iris web server page /json. Blue Iris will respond with a
JSON formatted response (Content-Type: application/json).
Each JSON object sent to Blue Iris must have a cmd value, for example, “cmd”:”login”.
Additional values will depend upon the type of command sent.
login
Here’s an example command and response conversation for authentication:
{“cmd”:”login”}
Blue Iris will respond with a “result” value of “fail’ and a “session” value.
{“result”:”fail”,”session”:”182c8a04f7d4ab042ff8e4a2″}
Respond with this session value combined with a userid and password MD5 hash encoded
as follows:
If a correct response is received from the client, Blue Iris will respond:
If result is “false” then a data value “reason” will be returned.
More commands
alertlist
get a list of alert images
the following information is returned in an array, and for each entry:
camconfig
get (and optionally set) the state of many camera properties:
replies with the current state of these settings.
camlist
returns a list of cameras on the system ordered by group. Cameras not belonging to any
group are shown beneath the “all cameras” group. Disabled cameras are placed at the end of
the list.
An array of objects is returned in data (note the [] surrounding a JSON array), each
describing a camera or a camera group. For each of these objects, the following values are
defined:
camset
camera window manipulation, added recently for Remote Management
cliplist
get a list of clips from the database
the following information is returned in an array, and for each entry:
Clipstats
return information about a specific database record
the following information is returned:
console
manipulate the layout of the PC software
delalert
removes the specified alert from the database
delclip
deletes the specified clip
devices
returns an array of mobile devices
Each device entry in the array contains:
geofence
set the current status of the connected mobile device
log
returns an array of status messages
Each log entry in the array contains:
logout
closes the current user session
moveclip
move a clip to another managed folder
ptz
operate a camera’s PTZ functionality
status
get (and optionally set) the state of the shield, active global profile as well as the schedule’s
hold/run state and other system vitals
replies with
sysconfig
get and set system configuration settings—admin access required
replies with
trigger
trigger the selected camera
update
adjust database entry
userconfig
update a specific user’s settings
The current state of these settings is returned.
users
returns an array of all users
Each user entry in the array contains:
DDE INTERFACE
A technology that is largely deprecated, yet a part of Blue Iris. A DDE service name BlueIris
is created to listen for commands:
TROUBLESHOOTING AND FAQ
Pinpointing a source of instability can be frustrating for sure—the most basic of strategies is
to isolate a problem by narrowing the focus. If things were working fine yesterday, you may
also ask yourself “what changed?”
An issue may be coincidental with a software update. If you suspect the update, you can
always try “rolling back” to an older version if possible. Please check the Updates page on
the blueirissoftware.com website for the availability of previous releases.
An issue may be coincidental with Windows or other security software updates. If other
measures fail, you can always try reverting these to older versions as well. Also double
check your security software exemptions as discussed in a topic toward the beginning of this
chapter. It’s possible one of these has come “undone” as the result of a software update.
An issue may be related to a recent settings change. If you are creating automatic settings
backups as configured on the About page in settings, you may try reverting to one of these if
you are able to get to that page without a crash.
All settings for Blue Iris are stored in a registry key. Enter REGEDIT into the Windows
search box to open the registry editor. Search for:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris
Deleting or renaming this key will allow you to test a startup without any cameras and with
other default settings. It’s also possible to rename out particular sub-keys, for example
Cameras. To disable individual cameras, open the camera’s key and change the enabled value
to 0.
If the service is crashing, it may be necessary startup without the service in order to find the
issue. Do this by first settings the service to a “manual” startup state in the Windows
Service Manager (search for services). Then in the Options sub-key in REGEDIT, set the
service value to 0.
For an application crash, this is logged to the Windows Event Viewer (search for event
viewer).
Locate the most recent crash event under Windows Logs, Application which shows Faulting
application name BlueIris.exe in the General box. Copy and paste the information shown
in blue in the image above into your support email—please do not send .evtx files as your
email may be read on a non-Windows PC.
Please note that a Windows “blue screen” error or system “hang” where the mouse cursor is
stuck may not be caused by application software directly, but may be due to a faulty device
driver, OS component, even a virus etc. These should be logged to the Windows Event
Viewer as well and should identify the particular device driver causing the issue.
Use Windows Task Manager (search for task) to monitor CPU and RAM usage by the
BlueIris.exe process. If CPU is at or near 100% for extended periods, or RAM used by the
application appears to be growing over time without “leveling out” this could be the cause
of the instability or crashing. Please see topics earlier in this chapter for CPU management
techniques and security software exemptions (security software, along with faulty device
drivers are leading causes of memory leaks).
For efficient service when writing to support, please send your license key along with any
information learned through your troubleshooting efforts. Please also send an individual
camera settings export or the full settings export as may be required to attempt to replicate
an issue.
FAQ
Can I add more than 64 cameras?
The software was designed for 64 cameras. The best way to handle a requirement for more
than this is to split the load among multiple PCs and then to link them using the new
Remote Management features.
What type of system or CPU do I need for X cameras?
First, the number of cameras, although a consideration, is not the most important factor—
rather it’s the overall MP/s (megapixels per second) that your system is handing. The two
factors which contribute to MP/s are the frame size (the camera’s resolution) and the
number of frames per second. Lowering either of these will directly lower the CPU demand.
The software will actually run a large number of cameras on a fairly modest system if you
put thought into this and other CPU management—there’s an entire section in this chapter
devoted just to this topic.
Is camera X compatible with Blue Iris?
Most network IP cameras on the market today will be compatible using standard methods or
protocols such as RTSP, RTMP, ONVIF, MJPEG, or just regular JPEGs. However, there are
many models (especially DVRs) still using proprietary authentication and streaming—please
check with the manufacturer specifications for availability of one of the standard protocols.
Ring is a prime example of a camera that is not compatible, as that company purposely does
not play well with others—they want you all to themselves.
If you can send a WAN address with the required ports forwarded to the camera, we can
evaluate it for compatibility and advise on the best settings.
For a USB or PC card device, check manufacturer specifications for standard Windows
DirectShow drivers. Too often manufacturers of these devices choose to implement
proprietary drivers, requiring that you use their software exclusively.
How much storage space do I need?
Most network IP cameras will have a setting for bandwidth or kbps (kilobits per second) or
Mbps (megabits per second). If you are recording direct-to-disc, which is almost always the
case with larger systems, you may simply multiply this number out by the amount of time
for which you want to save video. Unlike a storage byte, a network byte actually has 10 bits
so this simplifies the calculation:
will give you the number of MB per day for a 2048 kbps camera stream, 17280 MB, or about
17 Gigabytes (GB). However, by default, Blue Iris only records video when cameras are
triggered, so this greatly reduces the amount of storage necessary.
Will you ever create a version for Mac or Linux?
We have chosen to strongly focus on one OS rather than diluting development effort.
However, the Parallels virtual machine for Mac supports Blue Iris well—use a second
monitor just for Blue Iris or run within a window right on your Mac desktop.
How can I stop my camera addresses from changing when the power goes out?
Once you have your cameras working, you can force them to continue to use specific
addresses indefinitely by turning off DHCP in their settings. You can either use a range of
addresses which the router will not re-use, or you can reserve the addresses in the router’s
settings to prevent them from being given to other devices.
Why am I getting an email every hour that’s coming from my system?
These may be status alerts—check your settings on the Messages page in Status with the
Status Alerts button.
I don’t see my videos on the clips list, where did they go?
The default storage is only 30GB and with many cameras recording often it’s possible to
quickly overrun this. Please see the Recording chapter to make adjustments.
If the files are physically on the drive but not appearing on the list, repair the database by
selecting Database/Repair from the right-click menu in the clips list.
Another thing to consider is that Alert images and Clips are often confused. Clips are the files
—alerts are just images captured at the time of trigger. You may be looking at the wrong
list. Check this and the other clip list filter options at the top of the clips list.
Why aren’t my files being moved to storage and the New folder is overflowing?
Most likely, you are running as a service, but under the Local Service user, and that user has
insufficient rights. Please see the related topic at the beginning of this chapter. Also, you
may need to use a UNC name (like \server\share) for your NAS rather than a drive letter.
I lost my license key, can you tell me what it is?
If you purchased from Blue Iris directly, we should be able to look this up by email. If you
purchased from a reseller, we only have a record of the sale if you registered your name and
email on the About page in Settings. Otherwise, you will need to inquire with the reseller
for the key.
Why doesn’t the profile selection “stick” on a schedule page?
The profile selection box is not a setting—it only exists to allow you to select the profile you
want to draw onto the schedule. It is the schedule that determines the active profile, and
only one profile is ever active at a time. Please see the chapter on Shield, Schedule and
Profiles.
Why doesn’t the FPS setting “stick” on the Video page in camera settings?
The max FPS box is not a setting for network IP cameras. It merely reflects the maximum
rate which has been observed from the camera and may be used internally to size a receive
buffer. You must control the FPS and kbps that your camera is sending by adjusting this in
the camera’s own web browser based settings.
Why can’t I login remotely using a browser or client app?
Please see the lengthly discussion on this topic in the Remote Access chapter. If you are
unable to configure your security software and router(s) port forwarding for remote access,
there is a service called NGROK which allows access in almost any networking situation.