Subscriber Discussion

Xprotect Enterpirse 10.1 - Live Video Freezing

BE
Brian Elias
•Nov 30, 2016

I'm using XProtect 10.1 Enterprise on a small camera installation (3 Axis P33, 1 Axis P32, 1 Axis Q30 PTZ).  Ever since upgrading the hardware on a few client stations from older Core 2 Duos to new i5's (that support Intel QuickSync), I'm seeing occurrences of live video freezing on the monitoring screen.

When this happens, the video freezes until the program restarts - and it's only 1 video feed.  The "frozen" image remains indefinitely with no error messages, which is quite disconcerting.  A few times, the only way it's been noticed is when night time comes and one camera is still showing bright sun.

I suspect this is related to hardware acceleration with QuickSync, however one of the selling points of the new hardware was that it significantly reduced CPU usage (which it does).  So, it's a little tough for me to simply turn it off.

Has anyone else encountered this?  Any suggestions?

 

Thanks.

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Josh Hendricks
•Nov 30, 2016
Milestone Systems

Hi Brian,

You mention this is with Enterprise 10.1 - are you using the matching Smart Client version or the most recent version which is Smart Client 10.2 (full build number for x64 version is 10.2.6734.1)?

If you're already testing with the 10.2 version of Smart Client, I would recommend opening a new technical support case with us as our system shows you last reported this at the end of May where a temporary workaround to use the ActiveX based rendering engine was recommended until the 10.1 release which obviously didn't solve the problem for you.

If you're still running Smart Client 10.1, I recommend upgrading it to the 10.2 release which included some additional DirectX engine related improvements and then get in touch with our support team to help you enable logging and provide you instructions on how to capture a memory dump of the client in case the problem persists on 10.2.

You may also want to verify the system drivers, especially the graphics drivers (for both Intel and the external graphics card if you're using one) are up to date.

We definitely hate to see you dealing with issues like this for months at a time so get in touch with our support team ASAP. If you feel like you're getting stuck, let them know Josh Hendricks had commented on this issue on IPVM and our frontline team can check in with me for next steps if they get stuck.

Cheers,

Josh

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BE
Brian Elias
•Nov 30, 2016

Hi Josh,

Thanks quick and detailed answer - very much appreciated.

I did contact Milestone support a few months ago on this, and they did some troubleshooting with me however at that time the best solution was to simply fall back to the DirectX engine, which unfortunately meant that the hardware decode (QuickSync) benefit was lost.

I am using SmartClient 10.1a, so upgrading sounds like a good place to start. I did check the Milestone website prior to posting this for an upgrade, and I didn't see 10.2 available for download (see screenshot below). Can you point me in the right direction?

Also FYI, the machine that this (just) happened on has only the onboard Intel graphics and it's using the latest Dell video driver (it's a recent Optiplex). I do have it running on a machine with an NVidia Quadro + onboard Intel, and I have not witnessed the same issue.

I'll upgrade to 10.2 once I hear back from you, and contact support if the issue persists.

Thanks again.

- Brian

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Josh Hendricks
•Dec 01, 2016
Milestone Systems
In reply to Brian Elias

Hi Brian,

Jared posted the link below but here it is again: Smart Client 2016 R3 (10.2a)

With regard to the difference in the two systems you tested, we would definitely expect better performance from the system with the dedicated video card for rendering while the Intel chip is used purely for decoding.

Whenever possible, we highly recommend having a dedicated video card for physically connecting your displays as the memory bus to the system RAM is shared between the Intel GPU and CPU, so minimizing the traffic on that bus to just decoding will yield better results when it comes to performance measurement.

That said, the video should not be freezing regardless of whether you are running second video card so we want to get to the bottom of that.

Cheers,

Josh

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Jared Tarter
•Nov 30, 2016
Milestone Systems

Hi Brian,

Here is the download link for Smart Client 2016 R3 x64:

Smart Client 2016 R3 x64

Thanks,
Jared

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
•Dec 01, 2016

Have you tried turn off hard acceleration and is it really fix this issue ?
If yes, you could download process explorer and find out GPU usage on smartclient

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Mike Dotson
•Dec 13, 2016
Formerly of Seneca • IPVMU Certified

Using the GPUZ tool will also show the Qsync in action.

Also be sure to validate that your streams are coming into the Client machine.

For those who dont know how to check for Qsync on the Smart Client...

Open the Client Options.... advanced... and set the “Video diagnostic overlay” option to Level 2.

The info will be in the upper left of each tile.

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