Bt878_2chip_16channels expected performance

[vlad2005]

Hi!
What is expected performance (in term of fps) for this type of card?
Currently, i don't know if is an problem related to driver but with all channels active i have 0,38fps wich is pretty low.
Is not an problem from PC because load is about 0,11.
Specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz
Ram: DDR2@667MHz
Camera settings: 384x288, BGR24, 24bit color
On windows with same card i get better fps.
Is this normal, or need to make some tweeking?
What is yours opinion?

[linuxsense]

How many cams are you running on it? 8 cams per chip is pretty taxing, I have always preferred one or two cams per chip. I would expect 8 cams per chip to run at about 2-3 fps.

What is your output of

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grep bttv /var/log/kern.log

?

Can you also do a

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sudo lshw >> hw.txt

and paste the info from the created file (hw.txt) from the section that looks something like:

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*-multimedia:0
                   description: Multimedia video controller
                   product: Bt878 Video Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: 8
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:08.0
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: driver=bttv latency=64 maxlatency=40 mingnt=16
                   resources: irq:17 memory:f6ffe000-f6ffefff
              *-multimedia:1 UNCLAIMED
                   description: Multimedia controller
                   product: Bt878 Audio Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: 8.1
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:08.1
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=255 mingnt=4
                   resources: memory:f6fff000-f6ffffff
              *-multimedia:2
                   description: Multimedia video controller
                   product: Bt878 Video Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: 9
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:09.0
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: driver=bttv latency=64 maxlatency=40 mingnt=16
                   resources: irq:18 memory:f6ffc000-f6ffcfff
              *-multimedia:3 UNCLAIMED
                   description: Multimedia controller
                   product: Bt878 Audio Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: 9.1
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:09.1
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=255 mingnt=4
                   resources: memory:f6ffd000-f6ffdfff
              *-multimedia:4
                   description: Multimedia video controller
                   product: Bt878 Video Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: a
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:0a.0
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: driver=bttv latency=64 maxlatency=40 mingnt=16
                   resources: irq:19 memory:f6ffa000-f6ffafff
              *-multimedia:5 UNCLAIMED
                   description: Multimedia controller
                   product: Bt878 Audio Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: a.1
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:0a.1
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=255 mingnt=4
                   resources: memory:f6ffb000-f6ffbfff
              *-multimedia:6
                   description: Multimedia video controller
                   product: Bt878 Video Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: b
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:0b.0
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: driver=bttv latency=64 maxlatency=40 mingnt=16
                   resources: irq:16 memory:f6ff8000-f6ff8fff
              *-multimedia:7 UNCLAIMED
                   description: Multimedia controller
                   product: Bt878 Audio Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: b.1
                   bus info: pci@0000:08:0b.1
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: latency=64 maxlatency=255 mingnt=4
                   resources: memory:f6ff9000-f6ff9fff

Or just stick the entire hw.txt on dropbox or similar and leave the link to it here.

[vlad2005]

I stopped zoneminder and reload bttv module to have something fresh in logs.
Output from dmesg:

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[16591.585245] bttv: driver version 0.9.19 loaded
[16591.585250] bttv: using 16 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
[16591.585291] bttv: Bt8xx card found (0)
[16591.585306] bttv: 0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:12:0c.0, irq: 22, latency: 132, mmio: 0xd0000000
[16591.585318] bttv: 0: using: MATRIX Vision Sigma-SQ [card=125,insmod option]
[16591.585431] bttv: 0: tuner absent
[16591.585469] bttv: 0: Setting PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 (needs up to 100ms)
[16591.600046] bttv: PLL set ok
[16591.600118] bttv: 0: registered device video0
[16591.600776] bttv: 0: registered device vbi0
[16591.606331] bttv: Bt8xx card found (1)
[16591.606348] bttv: 1: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:12:0d.0, irq: 23, latency: 132, mmio: 0xd0002000
[16591.606362] bttv: 1: using: MATRIX Vision Sigma-SQ [card=125,insmod option]
[16591.606480] bttv: 1: tuner absent
[16591.606522] bttv: 1: Setting PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 (needs up to 100ms)
[16591.620038] bttv: PLL set ok
[16591.620100] bttv: 1: registered device video1
[16591.620143] bttv: 1: registered device vbi1

from lshw

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*-multimedia:0
                   description: Multimedia video controller
                   product: Bt878 Video Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: c
                   bus info: pci@0000:12:0c.0
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: driver=bttv latency=132 maxlatency=40 mingnt=16
                   resources: irq:22 memory:d0000000-d0000fff
              *-multimedia:1 UNCLAIMED
                   description: Multimedia controller
                   product: Bt878 Audio Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: c.1
                   bus info: pci@0000:12:0c.1
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: latency=33 maxlatency=255 mingnt=4
                   resources: memory:d0001000-d0001fff
              *-multimedia:2
                   description: Multimedia video controller
                   product: Bt878 Video Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: d
                   bus info: pci@0000:12:0d.0
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: driver=bttv latency=132 maxlatency=40 mingnt=16
                   resources: irq:23 memory:d0002000-d0002fff
              *-multimedia:3 UNCLAIMED
                   description: Multimedia controller
                   product: Bt878 Audio Capture
                   vendor: Brooktree Corporation
                   physical id: d.1
                   bus info: pci@0000:12:0d.1
                   version: 11
                   width: 32 bits
                   clock: 33MHz
                   capabilities: vpd pm bus_master cap_list
                   configuration: latency=33 maxlatency=255 mingnt=4
                   resources: memory:d0003000-d0003fff

kern.log don't show anything relevant after restart zoneminder. Last lines are from module load after 10 min. from zoneminder start.

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cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmall -> 167772160
cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax -> 2147483648

Server load is about 0,14 after 10 min. with few alerts. Fps not set for each camera.
Card is not recognized by linux so i use card type 125 (wich has 16 channels) and gpiomask.
In zm log, only error in this 10 minutes are this: Frame send time 18334 msec too slow, throttling maxfps to 6.67
ZM is installed from repository, on XUbuntu 14.04. Jpeg-turbo is installed.

[linuxsense]

It looks pretty typical. You simply wont get good performance from 8 cams per capture chip. You might get better results if you set each cam to a low fps like 2 to see if that works OK. I have a similar card that has one chip per chan and it can run each cam at 20+ fps with no problem but I have also used cards that had a single capture chip and 4 inputs...5 fps was about the max with that one. If you are getting inconsistent performance and/or corrupt images you might want to check the temp of the capture chips. These cards can often benefit from adding a decent heat-sink or a heat-sink and fan to each capture chip...they can get hot.

[vlad2005]

Thanks!
I have set camera to 2fps but same result. With one camera per chip i get 25fps. But with 8 ..... . Anyway, i don't know is that simple, but 25fps/8 i expect at least 2 fps.
Actual value about 0,37fps are damn slowly.
I will check temperature but until now i don't have corrupt image.

[vlad2005]

And another simple math: 16channels(CIF) x 0,37fps = 5,76fps total (or 3,2fps/chip) wich is very very low.
I make more tests. For example with single camera on video0 and video1 i got 25fps for each of them so 25fps/chip.
When add second cam then i get 1,62fps for each cam so 3,2fps/chip.
Maybe is something related to driver, wich in my case is "borrowed" by loading bttv module with card type 125.

[vlad2005]

I found problem. Option CAPTURES_PER_FRAME slowdown fps. In my settings i put 8 because i have 8 channels/chip. I change that to 1 but i have problems with frame interlacing sau for each monitor i put interlacing: V4L:progressive wich work best.
Now all monitors work at about 3,56fps (CIF) so i have about 60fps in total. This is ok for two chip card.
If i try to put limit on fps for each monitor then i see same image on all monitors connected to same device.
I leave this option (maximum fps and alarm maximum fps) unset.
Another thing is that with progresive interlaced method, somethime, image split with horizontal blackline. This appear in any stage (idle, alarm, ...) I attach some images to see how look.
I'll see if the network traffic produce this problem, i have only 800kb upload on server.

[linuxsense]

Yea, that would do it.

You shouldn't get good results using 'progressive' as the de-interlacing settings...at least I never have. You have V4L2 installed and not V4L, correct? If so try 'four field motion adaptive - medium'.

Also, I have found that with analog capture cards its often best to reboot the server after you make changes, they don't always behave well if you don't.