HELP! 100% CPU on i5-7th gen w/ 4x Reolink. Tried EVERY fix.

[meg.jarvis]

Hi everyone,

I am a brand new Blue Iris user and I am at my wit's end with a persistent 100% CPU issue. I would be so grateful for any help.

Full disclosure: I've been trying to troubleshoot with Gemini so this post is written by Gemini, summarizing the things we have tried.

My setup:- Server: HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Tower, Intel Core i5-7th Gen (HD 630 Graphics), 16GB RAM, Win 11 Pro.- Cameras: 4x Reolink E1 Pro (Wi-Fi).- Blue Iris Version: 5.9.9.73

Problem: The BlueIris.exe process is stuck at 100% CPU with 4 cameras enabled. If I disable cameras one by one, the CPU load drops, which tells me the issue is with video decoding.

Here is everything I have already tried:- Hardware Acceleration: I have tried setting global AND per-camera HW Accel to 'Intel' and 'DirectX VA2'. I have rebooted the server and restarted the service cleanly after each change. Nothing has any effect on the CPU usage.- Drivers: Device Manager confirms the display adapter is 'Intel HD Graphics 630' and the drivers are installed.- Triggers: All Motion/AI triggers are completely disabled on all cameras.- Recording: All cameras are set to Continuous and Direct-to-Disk.- Substreams: This is the weird part. My interface does not have a "Sub stream" section in Camera Settings > Video. I DO have a checkbox for 'Limit decoding unless required', and I have checked it for all cameras. This also had no effect on the CPU.

I have tried a pure software mode (HW Accel OFF + 'Limit decoding' ON) and it is still at 100% CPU.

I am out of options. What could possibly be causing both the hardware and software decoders to max out the CPU on this hardware with these settings? Is there a known bug or a deeper conflict I'm missing?

I've attached screenshots of my main Settings > Cameras tab and one camera's Video tab.

Thank you so much for any advice.

 

[meg.jarvis]

Okay I think I figured it out myself. I found this guide about substreams:

Sub Stream Guide

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ipcamtalk.com

Changing to direct-to-disk solved the problem. Gah!

A good reminder that AI/Gemini does not know all. ‍

 

[looney2ns]

Spend time reading/studying the blue iris help.

 

[bp2008]

Yup, getting sub streams to work properly is the #1 biggest thing for keeping CPU usage under control, and Direct-to-disk is part of that!

Before sub streams were available, we had to resort to tricks like lowering the frame rates of cameras and using hardware accelerated decoding (which has always been a bit buggy in Blue Iris). Now, you can test with and without hardware accelerated decoding (choose the "Intel" option) and see which one gives you the best CPU usage. Just keep in mind, in rare cases hardware acceleration can cause other problems like video corruption that only affects live view but not your recordings, and in the past on older video drivers it was well known to cause a memory leak. So if you have problems with hardware acceleration enabled, try turning it off.

The full optimization guide written by me is here:

Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage

Blue Iris uses a lot of CPU time. In most Blue Iris installations, your CPU is the limiting factor which determines how many cameras you can have. As such, it is extremely important to optimize your configuration to ensure you can get the most out of your system while consuming the least...

ipcamtalk.com

There are a lot of tips in there!