Choppy video playback in ASP on new PC

[swbrains]

Hi,

I purchased a new PC and installed ASP on it. My previous PC was slower. The new one is a Ryzen 7 7735HS with Radeon 680 graphics. When I run a YouTube video test at 4K or 2K video with 60 FPS, it runs perfectly, losing only about 40 frames out of 3000+. My network has not changed and my new PC is connected via ethernet cable (the same cable as was used for the old PC).

On this new PC, I installed the latest ASP download version 2.003.0000001.0 dated 04-11-2023 (I even re-downloaded and reinstalled today just to be sure). The live video playback is noticeably choppy, like it's missing frames, even with only one camera being displayed at a time. On my previous PC, it worked great, even showing all 6 cameras at once. Nothing else has changed on the network, and two other laptops using wifi connections are able to run ASP with no lag, although they are running the same version of the software, but with a date of 11-30-2020 on the About page.

The NVR is an NV4108E-A2.

When I download a recorded video from the NVR and play it back outside ASP (Windows TV/Movie Viewer app), it plays back properly and smoothly, so I know it's recording with full frames per second and no lag. It's choppy however if I view a recorded section of video inside ASP using the Playback page, and also when I view live video within ASP on the Live View page.

I'm wondering if there are any settings in the new installation of ASP that I might need to change to help with this issue?

Thanks!

[Revo2Maxx]

How is your NVR connected to your ASP? Is it P2P or Over IP?

I just looked at my new version of ASP on a 2+ year old and a 8 year old i7 machine and both of them work with ASP without what your asking about. Now if you are talking about running ASP in 4k mode? Not sure I run mine in 1080P

I did make a video using ASP while having Bi running and my recording software and even with all that there was no lag or choppy playback or Live view issues that were out of my normal little things that happens every now and again with what I think or have thought was caused by Rule1 of that channel.

I would make a video of the issues that you have. I might be easier to see what is going on over trying to figure it out from a Thread post.

I know you said things work fine with older 2020 ASP there still many different things that could be going on.

1 last thing. I would double check that your computer isn't running updates or doing things in the background. If it is Downloading Updates this can make things not work so well. If running in P2P mode in ASP, I would reboot your Router and NVR. IF you have not reboot your computer in a while even a reboot of the computer could solve some issues like this. Again don't know how long you keep your computer online. Some of mine only reboot when updates require it too or I have an issue like you mention so I reboot computer to see if it clears it. This current computer has only been running for 3 days since the last reboot.

https://youtu.be/XyLTALtJNaM

[swbrains]

Thanks for your reply. In the original installation on the new PC, I had downloaded the current version from the Amcrest site a couple of days ago and installed it. Then I took a backup of the saved configuration settings from the old PC that I had made earlier that day (before swapping PCs). I restored that backup into the new ASP installation on the new PC. It did seem to get the proper NVR and camera settings as everything was working (except for the choppy video). I even tried opening the configuration window and re-saving the settings just in case maybe the import left something out, but it didn't make a difference.

So I uninstalled ASP from the new PC and installed the slightly older version (save version number but earlier build date) that is currently on my other two PCs (that run ASP fine), imported the same backed-up config file take from that version on my old PC, but the issue still occurred.

Finally, I uninstalled the older version ASP from the new PC and re-installed it from the newest version download EXE that I downloaded a few days ago for the new PC and had originally installed and was having the video issue. But instead of importing the backup configuration, I tried setting up the NVR in ASP manually this time by entering the IP address and credentials. Viola! The live video looks smooth -- just like it did before!

So perhaps there was some issue with restoring the backup, since it didn't seem to work when restored on the new version or even the old version it was saved from. Seems odd, but re-entering the NVR info manually into a fresh ASP installation certainly worked where importing the config, even on the same version it was saved from, seemed to result in the choppy video issue. Strange, but I'm glad it's working properly now.

[swbrains]

Looks like I spoke too soon. It's still somewhat choppy on the new PC. I tried installing the latest version on my laptop and it was still smooth on live feed, even over wifi. I switched the new PC to WiFi but it made no difference. The video drivers are the latest for this device and I can view full screen 4k 60fps video over YouTube smoothly. So while the problem does seem to be local to this new Pc, it also appears to be local to only this app and only in love mode. Recorded playback seems fine. Just to ensure no other configuration differences, I compared all settings on ASP between the laptop and the new PC and all were identical.

Do you know what video code is used for live feed in ASP? Perhaps it's some other driver or codec software I need to update?

[Revo2Maxx]

Really don't know. If I have a choppy feed on my systems and I have from time to time. I would go look to see if it was running h.265 and if it was I would change it to h.264h if it offered it and the issue would be gone. So I don't know I know that normally things can be cleaner in ASP then it would be over say one of my NVR's and that can play a part. plus things can be going on at the time you have choppy feeds. Like DL of a Software update on the computer or take alittle while ago while I was looking at a feed in Blue Iris when I tried to get back to my Live view the system stalled at the moment because it was in the middle of a high CPU usage moment where it was decoding a license plate on another channel of BI. I looked down at the data and it said my CPU was at 100% once the info on the other channel ended things went back to normal. So really when it comes to software there is a lot between that can be going on. I didn't have that issue in Bi when I was using my GPU to help. I have since removed that because while it is a 2070 super on this PC it just wasn't enough power for what I wanted Blue Iris to do. Plus I have ASP running in the background and 3 or 4 cameras open in a browser window so the PC was working along with 10 to 20 other pages just chilling in Chrome. So yeah there can be a lot going on. but I would look and if the camera is using H.265 change it to a H.264 format and see if that helps..

[swbrains]

Thanks! I tried changing the cameras to H264, but it was the same. And they used to work fine on the other PC at H265 in ASP, so it definitely seems like something specific to this PC. I am able to get perfect playback on my laptops at the same time I'm viewing choppy playback on the desktop, so the network isn't slow. I also checked and the PC is not doing updates at the time (actually ASP is choppy on the PC at all times), and the PC's CPU load is minimal, under 10% according to Task Manager and the CPU monitor in ASP. Memory usage is also very low (the PC has 32GB RAM).

Anyway, I decided to try loading SmartPSS, the Dahua version of ASP and it runs live view much more smoothly. The lastest SmartPSS version is one from 2020 (the same as the previous date of ASP I had installed originally on the other laptops and later retried on the new PC). So apparently there are some internal differences. I thought it might just be the new clean installation of SmartPSS, but I also did uninstall ASP and then reinstalled it and entered my NVR specs manually in my last test, so that should be apples-to-apples in terms of the configuration/settings in both apps.

So for now I'll use SmartPSS and keep an eye on it to see if it ever develops the issue in the future.

[Revo2Maxx]

Well something else that I would look at then. I would maybe try to change out the Connection you have from your PC to your Switch or Router and see if maybe the cable you have might be damaged. I could be a Kink or just over time maybe the ends are not working as they once did.. Just an idea. I know you said SmartPSS is working just some ideas. I know that maybe loading pages would or could be an issue as well. But not always seeing the way the HTTP of things work compared to software that is constant stream to the computer. Again just an idea.

Glad you found something to seems to work for now. be safe.

[swbrains]

Thanks -- I actually had switched the PC to wifi as a test since the laptops are both on wifi and they both run smoothly. But the same issue persisted, so that probably eliminates the hardwire connection as the cause. Also, I can stream 60fps 4K video over YouTube smoothly over the wired connection -- and that even includes the internet as well as the local network as possible bottlenecs, so the network connection to the PC seems stable and capable otherwise.

[Pogo]

I'd be exploring the Radeon settings for anything that may offer a solution. Comparing 4K 60fps YouTube video to what's coming from the 4108 is about as apples to oranges as you can get. Dumb the graphics down to the NVR (if not auto-detected) and see what happens. If it smooths out you'll at least know where to look for additional options.

[swbrains]

I guess the point I was trying to make was that the ability for the network to transmit, and the PC to visually process, the *amount* of data coming in for a 60fps 4K video would indicate that the network and PC should be able to process that a lesser *amount* of data coming from the NVR. If this is a true statement, then the difference is likely in the *type* of data. I was simply talking about eliminating *throughput* as an issue in this case, which I don't think is the problem.

I don't see a place in the NVR setup to reduce the video resolution, assuming that's what you mean by "dumbing down the graphics on the NVR." I did lower the resolution of one of the cameras in the camera's own configuration settings from 4K down to 1080P, but the video is still choppy. At the same time, SmartPSS is able to view the 4K camera video on the same machine smoothly, which indicates to me that the video hardware and driver is capable of processing and displaying the camera video at that resolution without any lag, and that there is some difference in the way the two applications (SmartPSS and ASP) handle of the data coming from the NVR.