Hardware vs Software

keness
keness
in SecuritySpy

I'm going to have three dedicated SecuritySpy computers set up, two base model M1 mini's, and one 2018 mini.

The cameras shouldn't stress any of them, because the 2018 will only have a couple 4k cameras with no re-encoding. The others will have a couple more each, but they're M1's, so four to six 4k cameras shouldn't be a problem, either.

My question... Is there any benefit to having all the cameras on HW decode, or SW decode, or mix them between the two?

Thanks!

Comments

  • Ben
    Ben

    It sounds like these Macs are more than capable for the systems you are planning. Ideally, you want to use hardware decoding for all cameras, as this will result in the lowest CPU usage and power consumption (because this processing is then carried out off the CPU, in hardware modules that are dedicated for this purpose). Only if you experience decoder overload warnings should you consider reducing frame rates and/or switching cameras to software decoding, though it sounds like you probably won't run into this problem unless you expand these systems significantly.

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