Vitamin D Video Reference Guide

Performance issues: warning icons in the Monitor view

If your network or computer have performance issues, you will see this icon under the video pane of one or your cameras:

This icon can mean one of two things, depending on what message is displayed when you click it.

Warning icon - clicking displays "slow video processing was detected"

It takes a lot of processing power to analyze video in real time. If you have a relatively powerful machine, such as a dual core 2GHz processor, you should be able to run three cameras comfortably while using the computer for other applications, or run four cameras while unattended. Note that the number of GHz alone does not represent real performance. If your computer is running slower than you expect, you can check how heavily the CPU is being used.

Another symptom of this problem is if you see an error icon that, when you click it, displays a warning about slow video processing.

slow processing alert

On Windows
- Press control-alt-delete to display the task manager. (On Vista you will be shown a screen of options first, one of which is the Task Manager).
- Click the Performance tab. You will see a graph on the top left that says "CPU Usage." If this is near or at 100%, your processor is running near maximum.

On a Macintosh

Go to Applications
Open the Utilities folder
Double-click the Activity Monitor icon.
On the bottom you will see a series of percentages and a chart. If the % Idle number approaches 0, then your processor is running near maximum.

You should see more than one process running for Vitamin D Video:

"Vitamin D Video" - 1 (if the main application, with the Search and Monitor views, is running)
"Vitamin D Agent" - 4 plus 1 per camera (e.g. 5 if you have 1 camera running). In terms of using the CPU, only the agents representing cameras should be using the CPU much, unless you are on a very low-end machine. In addition, one of the 4 other agents will be using some CPU. The rest should usually be low, unless emails are being sent or Vitamin D Video is doing some periodic background disk cleaning. In addition, if you are watching the Monitor view, the CPU for "Vitamin D Video" will be moderately high. For example, on a Dell Pentium 4 (a mid-range, near low end machine) with one camera running, and if there is no disk cleaning or email happening, you would expect to see one agent at about 50% CPU and one at 10%. All of this depends on how fast your machine is – low end machines will see more apparent activity.
Note: if you close the Vitamin D Video application window while the cameras are running, the Vitamin D Agents will stay active.

If your processor is running near maximum, some potential causes are:

How many cameras are running. Click here for details on how many cameras your computer should be able to support. If you are running multiple cameras, and if you have an extra computer, you might consider separating the cameras. Another tip is that if you have a camera that you don't need to run when you are present, you could use the rule scheduling feature. For example, maybe you don't need to monitor your front door when you are home, so you could schedule the camera to be on only during work hours. Or simply turn off the camera when you want to use your computer.
Resolution at which you are saving video. The default resolution for saving video is QVGA (320 x 240). Saving at the highest resolution (1280 x 1024) requires processing seventeen times the number of pixels. This places a much heavier load on your computer.
Activity in the scene being recorded. The more motion in a video, the more processing is required to analyze what is going on. A camera pointed outside at a busy street will required considerably more processing than an indoor camera in a room with no people, or an empty backyard or parking lot. Note that very dark scenes can generate video image artifacts and noise that make them equivalent in complexity to "busy" scenes.
Virus scanners. These applications can be set for "active scan," i.e., check whenever files are modified. Vitamin D Video constantly analyzes, organizes and stores camera footage on your computer. As a result, the combination can slow down your computer processing quite a bit. If you suspect this is the cause, most virus scanners let you schedule your virus scans to run at times when you are not using your computer.
Other applications. If possible, shut down any applications or windows that you are not using.
- Sometimes automated virus scan applications can take a lot of processing power. If possible, try to schedule these applications at times when your camera is not running or when you are less likely to detect events of interest.
- Some applications run themselves when you turn on your computer without telling you. Try quitting all applications and seeing how much processing power is being used. Look in your system tray or the Processes tab of your Task Manager to see if there are applications running that you don't need. You can uninstall them or disable them at startup by doing the following:
  - On Windows, click the Start button and Type msconfig in the Search Box and hit Enter. (If you are using XP, go to run and type msconfig). This displays the System Configuration Window. Click the Startup tab and uncheck all the programs that you don’t want to run every time you use your PC.
  - On Mac OS, go to System Preferences > Accounts. Click an account and then click the Login items tab. Click an application and then click the minus icon at the bottom of the screen to remove it from the list of startup applications.
Vitamin D Video processes that did not shut down properly. There can be cases where the cameras are running but the application doesn't think that they are. In fact, in some error cases there may be multiple instances of the cameras running, which will use considerable processing power. You can use the Task Manager on Windows, or the Activity Monitor on a Mac, to validate this and shut down these processes if necessary. See the section below "General tips when bad things happen" for details.
Compression formats. Advanced tip, for network cameras only: different compression standards may have greater processing requirements. Specifically, the MPEG4 is more computer-intensive than MJPEG (although what you are getting in return is smaller video files). To change from an MJPEG to an MPEG4 standard, take the following steps;
- Go to the Monitor view by clicking the monitor icon at the top left of the screen.
- Right-click the camera you wish to change, and select Edit Camera....
- Click Next to get to the Camera screen where connected cameras are displayed.
- Click Next to get to the screen where your cameras settings appear.
- Click the Camera type drop-down menu. See if there is a version that contains "MPEG4." For example, if you have an Axis camera, you will see one option called "Axis (other MPEG-4." Note that not all camera models have this option.
Running too many rules per camera (e.g., look for person standing on a region). If you have created rules that you only use for Saved searches, you can save processing time by turning off the recording and notification options in the Response block of the Rule Editor.

Warning icon - clicking displays "A low frame rate was detected on othis camera"

You may have noticed that the video motion is not smooth, and seems to get stuck on frames in a jerky motion. Or you may have seen an alert icon in the Monitor view, that when clicked displayed a warning saying "a low frame rate was detected on this camera."

fps alert

"Frame rate" is a video term that refers to how many frames are displayed every second. Vitamin D Video processes at 10 frames per second in order to minimize processing and bandwidth requirements. A frame rate lower than 10 frames per second will send less information, and less accurate motion, to Vitamin D Video. At low frame rates some objects may not even be detected at all. It is therefore important to try to address this problem if you notice it. A low frame can be caused by:

Slow network connectivity. If your wireless network signal is weak, then it may not be able to send enough data to support 10 FPS. This could be temporary (there may be a lot of data being sent on your network), or it could be because your camera is in a spot that does not receive a strong Wi-Fi signal. If possible, try to move your routers and/or cameras for better reception, or even consider adding another device like a repeater to boost your network signal. Also sometimes having an older Wi-Fi computer can slow down your network (in technical terms, an 802.11b machine on the network will bring all the 802.11g devices down to the 802.11b speed).
Cameras sometimes adjust to very dark scenes by lowering the frame rate in order to maximize light entering the camera. Additional light at night can help this.
If your resolution is set higher than VGA (640 x 480), then your computer may be having difficulty processing all the information. Dropping to a lower resolution may help.
A problem with the camera itself could generate a low frame rate. Please refer to your camera's documentation if you suspect this is the problem.
"Too many clients of the same camera" refers to a situation where you have multiple computers accessing the same camera, which is not a typical configuration. If so, the network may not be able to handle the data's distribution to multiple computers.
Your computer's processor is overtaxed. If you are running too many cameras, too many rules on the same PC, or too many other applications while you are trying to record, the frame rate may drop to compensate. For tips in this area, see "My computer has slowed down and become sluggish."
ADVANCED TIP. If you want to check the frame rate, you export the clip and open the file in QuickTime. To export a clip, select it in the Search view results list and choose "Export clip..." from the Tools menu. Open the video clip in QuickTime and select Show Movie Inspector from the Window menu. You will see a setting called "Movie FPS," which stands for "frames per second.")