Question about the FPS counter in camera view

8urt0

Sorry if this is in the docs I couldn’t find it but in the live camera view on SS server in the top left the the right of the camera name is a FPS counter what I do not understand is why there are 2 numbers and what does it mean for example 1 camera shows 15/12 ... the 12 fluctuates between 12 and 13 and I know in my camera I set the feed to 15 so what exactly is this 12 / 13....

Ben

In the General Preferences, click the "Customise" button next to the "Show camera information" setting in order to see which items are being displayed here.

The first frame rate value is the rate at which video frames are arriving from the camera; the second value is the rate at which the frames are being displayed to that specific video window you are looking at. Frames are given to the GPU to display, which is then done asynchronously (i.e. some time later, independently of SecuritySpy's other tasks). If a new frame comes in before the previous frame has been displayed, the new frame will not be queued for display so as not to overload the GPU, hence the second value can be a bit lower than the first value.

If the display frame rate is just a bit lower than the incoming frame rate (as in your case) this is nothing to worry about and won't be noticeable. If the display rate is much lower, then it indicates that the GPU can't keep up with displaying frames, which may result in jerky live video.

8urt0

Ben thanks for the detailed answer.

CVH

Also as another note, the frame off my cameras change at night, due to the shutter changing.

mlevin77

Question: the second number (display frame rate) - it's automatically maxed out at what the GPU can handle, or this is a setting somewhere (might it be set lower than my computer can actually do)?

8urt0

If I understand it correctly then yes it is maxed out to the setting you have your camera set to. You will know if it is maxed out beyond what your GPU can handle if you see this second number much lower than the first number.

I see no way to limit the FPS in SS you would need to do this from your camera's admin interface.

Ben

^ this is correct. SecuritySpy will display live video to video windows as fast as possible*. If the second number is significantly lower than expected, this indicates that the GPU can't keep up with displaying frames as fast as they are coming in.

* "as fast as possible" means as fast as the frames are coming in from the camera, unless you have enabled the option to "Display cameras at half frame rate in video windows" under Preferences > General in order to reduce resource usage, in which case only every other frame coming in from the camera will attempt to be displayed.

Note that if the second number is only slightly lower than expected, this doesn't indicate that the GPU is maxed out necessarily. SecuritySpy doesn't buffer frames for display to the screen, as this would use resources unnecessarily (because it generally doesn't really matter if a frame or two is dropped from the live video display), so it's normal for a few frames to get dropped here and there even if the GPU isn't maxed out (e.g. if a new frame comes in just a few milliseconds after the previous one due to uneven data transfer over the network, the second frame will be dropped for the live video display because the first frame won't have completed drawing yet).