Drop in frame rate when camera is being recorded.
I have 4 cameras set up, 3 of which are cheap Tenvis 720p cameras from eBay, all 4 work great although for some reason the Tenvis ones work much better using a Foscam profile than a Tenvis one.
I have noticed however that as soon as the camera starts being recorded (according to a schedule), 2 of the Tenvis camera frame-rates go from 20fps to 10fps, despite all 3 having exactly the same settings in preferences. When the camera recording schedule ends they go back to being 20fps.
I have checked over and over, reinstalled them etc but cannot find a reason for this - any possible ideas?
I have noticed however that as soon as the camera starts being recorded (according to a schedule), 2 of the Tenvis camera frame-rates go from 20fps to 10fps, despite all 3 having exactly the same settings in preferences. When the camera recording schedule ends they go back to being 20fps.
I have checked over and over, reinstalled them etc but cannot find a reason for this - any possible ideas?
Comments
Very odd...
If network packets are being lost or throttled, that could drop the received frame rate, but you're probably also notice dropouts and green screens.
Is the frame rate you are reporting from the SS camera info window or from playback of the recorded files?
The setting to look for, to check that SecuritySpy isn't re-encoding the video streams (and therefore using more CPU time while recording) is called "Recompress video data" and you'll find it under Preferences -> Cameras -> Device. If this option is not checked then there should be very little increased CPU while recording, and what you are describing should not be happening. So could you please double-check this setting for the affected cameras?
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 19.52.14_zps93yy5dxj.png
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 19.52.25_zpsarykjrbe.png
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 19.47.54_zpsuclecnvj.png
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 19.49.01_zps90dydyhr.png
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 19.50.14_zpsjb3appmc.png
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 19.50.23_zpsgf3uikkf.png
All is great when not recording:
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 20.04.19_zps9pfjpumh.png
but when it records…
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag293/karljeffery1/Screen Shot 2017-08-22 at 20.26.58_zpsiiljeh24.png
VLC shows the frame-rate as being just under 10fps when playing back.
Processor and memory usage are both minimal.
Network is showing minimal usage, but i am able to stream HD movies from the Mac to my Apple TV with no issues so have plenty of bandwidth, plus the frame rate only drops when being recorded regardless of what else I am using the computer for.
Very odd - its not a massive issue to me but it would be nice to know what is happening!
It never occurred to me that it could be the camera dropping the fps when going into night mode, not sure even why it would do that as it only happens with two out of the 3! Still, at least doesn't seem to be an SS problem so thanks for all the replies and sorry for sending you off on a wild goose chase!
FWIW: If I had to guess, a lower frame rate in a low-light condition might be seen in many cameras - depending on how they deal with exposure, aperture size, IR lights, etc... Generally speaking with any electronic photography / video, the lower the lighting condition, the longer the sensor needs to be exposed "per frame" or "per exposure". If each exposure is longer, you end up with fewer frames per second.
As @xmx says, many cameras will increase their exposure time in order to compensate for low light levels. This, in turn, will reduce the camera's frame rate.
However this isn't really desirable: while it gives a superficially better-looking image, and allows camera manufacturers to claim better low-light sensitivity, there will be severe motion blur for any moving object in the frame, which will render any moving object (i.e. the thing you most want to capture) very unclear.
Many (better) camera manufacturers offer a setting to limit the minimum exposure time, to avoid this problem (a good setting for this is around 1/30 seconds minimum). The shorter the exposure time the more noise in the image at night, but the less motion blur there will be - so there is a tradeoff here.
Perhaps my have to look at upgrading...
TLDR: If you increase the noise in a stream, you may need to increase your data rate so all the visual static/grain/noise doesn't become blurry itself when the stream is compressed.
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