[Support]: Understanding system stats and FFMPEG

[danielbayley80]

Describe the problem you are having

I'm migrating from BlueIris to Frigate. Everything is up and running, there are just a few things I want to tweak performance wise and I'm not fully understanding the settings.

I'm looking at the system stats (example below). What I don't understand is why FFMPEG is running, in particular at 5 FPS.

When I hover over FFMPEG I see this ....

ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel warning -threads 2 -hwaccel_flags allow_profile_mismatch -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -hwaccel_output_format vaapi -user_agent FFmpeg Frigate/0.13.2-6476f8a -avoid_negative_ts make_zero -fflags +genpts+discardcorrupt -rtsp_transport tcp -timeout 5000000 -use_wallclock_as_timestamps 1 -i rtsp://:@192.168.99.100/Streaming/Channels/102 -r 5 -vf fps=5,scale_vaapi=w=640:h=480:format=nv12,hwdownload,format=nv12,format=yuv420p -threads 2 -f rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p pipe:

Does this mean FFMPEG is constantly producing a 640x480 output?
I tried disabling everything (detect, birdseye, record), but still its running.

It seems to be running for the detect role even though detect itself is disabled.
Can I stop it unless its needed some how?

Version

0.13.2-6476f8a

Frigate config file

database:
  path: /config/frigate.db
   
mqtt:
  enabled: False

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args: preset-vaapi

# Optional: Record configuration
# NOTE: Can be overridden at the camera level
record:
  enabled: False
  expire_interval: 60
  retain:
    days: 1
    mode: all

detect:
  enabled: False

birdseye:
  enabled: False
  mode: continuous





cameras:
  Front4K:
    webui_url: "https://192.168.99.100/doc/page/login.asp"
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://*****:****@192.168.99.100/Streaming/Channels/101
          roles:
            - record
        - path: rtsp://*****:*****@192.168.99.100/Streaming/Channels/102
          roles:
            - detect

Relevant log output

2024-06-04 12:22:26.762120471  [INFO] Preparing Frigate...
2024-06-04 12:22:26.887614905  [INFO] Starting Frigate...
2024-06-04 12:22:29.323605999  [2024-06-04 12:22:29] frigate.app                    INFO    : Starting Frigate (0.13.2-6476f8a)
2024-06-04 12:22:48.196316081  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] peewee_migrate.logs            INFO    : Starting migrations
2024-06-04 12:22:48.210696475  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] peewee_migrate.logs            INFO    : There is nothing to migrate
2024-06-04 12:22:48.219371138  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Recording process started: 291
2024-06-04 12:22:48.226017868  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : go2rtc process pid: 138
2024-06-04 12:22:48.261862756  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Output process started: 303
2024-06-04 12:22:48.284404885  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] detector.cpu                   INFO    : Starting detection process: 301
2024-06-04 12:22:48.284410856  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Camera processor started for FrontNight: 306
2024-06-04 12:22:48.284726364  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.detectors              WARNING : CPU detectors are not recommended and should only be used for testing or for trial purposes.
2024-06-04 12:22:48.291510679  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Camera processor started for Front4K: 308
2024-06-04 12:22:48.308874821  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Camera processor started for Doorbell: 309
2024-06-04 12:22:48.314514314  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Camera processor started for Side: 311
2024-06-04 12:22:48.330536002  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Camera processor started for Garden: 315
2024-06-04 12:22:48.350101789  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Camera processor started for Lounge: 316
2024-06-04 12:22:48.356896747  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Capture process started for FrontNight: 318
2024-06-04 12:22:48.363939138  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Capture process started for Front4K: 319
2024-06-04 12:22:48.370319746  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Capture process started for Doorbell: 321
2024-06-04 12:22:48.379151626  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Capture process started for Side: 323
2024-06-04 12:22:48.391555185  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Capture process started for Garden: 327
2024-06-04 12:22:48.400748230  [2024-06-04 12:22:48] frigate.app                    INFO    : Capture process started for Lounge: 332

FFprobe output from your camera

[{"return_code":0,"stderr":"","stdout":{"programs":[],"streams":[{"avg_frame_rate":"10/1","codec_long_name":"H.264/AVC/MPEG-4AVC/MPEG-4part10","display_aspect_ratio":"16:9","height":2160,"width":3840}]}},{"return_code":0,"stderr":"","stdout":{"programs":[],"streams":[{"avg_frame_rate":"12/1","codec_long_name":"H.264/AVC/MPEG-4AVC/MPEG-4part10","display_aspect_ratio":"16:9","height":480,"width":640}]}}]

Frigate stats

No response

Operating system

Proxmox

Install method

Docker Compose

Coral version

Other

Network connection

Wired

Camera make and model

Hikvision

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[NickM-27]

there is no way to disable the decoding of the stream. It is used for things like motion detection, camera images in the UI, etc.

[danielbayley80]

thanks. I just worked out what is going on. even if you disable detect, motion detection is still running.

The reason I need this is I have multiple cameras covering an area, but they record continuously and I only really need one with motion and object detection so I'm eating CPU cycles pointlessly.

Adding a substream reduces the CPU cycles, and reducing this to a low value helps. Also passing it a dead URL seems to work too (assuming its still recording the main stream), but I lose UI images that depend on the substream.

there is a change request which I think resolves this : #9893 which looks like it has been merged and will go in the next release.

[NickM-27]

I think you might be misunderstanding that PR, that is just for backend changes. The feature request for not having decoding occur when not needed is open but not planned for the next release

[danielbayley80]

thanks for clarifying, I saw it somewhere on a thread, i thought thats was the PR but not to worry as it's in the pipeline.

I also noticed that if you don't specify a sub-stream ffmpeg will pick up the main stream even if you don't assign a role other than record. I guess that would be okay if it was temporary for UI purposes. but as ffmpeg is running all the time right now its not ideal, but easily remedied with a substream.

I'm already getting much more efficiency than with blueiris, so if I can disable motion so mpeg isnt running on cameras that don't need it unless the UI is open I could be saving quite a lot compared to blueiris on power. No windows bloat for a start.

It's not quite like for like yet but looking good.