Beware - ManyCam processes H.264 RTSP camera streams incorrectly

1

It has been a couple of years since I first started using ManyCam with (6) IP cameras as my video sources. The video from the cameras have been ‘herky jerky’ - sometimes really bad and sometimes not too bad. I have asked ManyCam support on many occasions to look into this problem but have had no feedback other than they will look into it at some point into the future.

This is a serious issue. If you are using ManyCam with IP cameras, please be beware. There is a problem with the way ManyCam is processing these video streams.

To prove the point, I passed the same RTSP stream that was going into ManyCam into the open source app VLC and had VLC convert the RTSP stream to an NDI stream. Then I did a side by side comparison in ManyCam of the RTSP stream next to the NDI stream.

The RTSP stream was ‘herky jerky’. The NDI stream was perfect.

I have provided ManyCam with all of their requested logs and dumps and plenty of test videos demonstrating the problem, but have gotten no solution.

Take a look at this video. This problem is a serious issue if you plan on using ManyCam with an IP camera.

2

@DonaldG
Thank you for feedback, but I have another question. What is the value of buffering time

image

?

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The buffering time is 1000 ms.

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What do you think, @Ragnar ?

Will ManyCam be able to put any resources into investigating this problem or is getting IP cameras to work properly too low on the priority list?

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@Ragnar - Any response?

6

@Ragnar Still no response?

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@Ragnar - I’m concerned that ManyCam support seems to have disappeared. You have a product that processes RTSP cameras badly and NDI cameras inefficiently. Yet there is no indication that anyone is looking into this. Am I missing something? If you are still there, please respond. Much appreciated - from someone who has invested heavily in the success of ManyCam…

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@DonaldG I’ll forward your request to management. A few questions thouth:

  1. Does it lag when you run single IP-Camera (not 6)?
  2. Does it lag when you switch to Software mode in Settings:
    image
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@Ragnar as has been documented, the lag isn’t the issue but the choppy video is. I just want to be clear on my unscientific terminology.

The choppiness shows up randomly whether I have one camera or six connected and whether I have one preset or thirty defined. I am using an NVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super to handle the load but can do an experiment using software processing instead of the hardware. I am using the latest Studio driver in the GPU.

Are you suspicious of the GPU? Do you know if VLC uses the GPU because it processes the RTSP stream flawlessly, as you can see from my videos?

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@DonaldG

Are you suspicious of the GPU? Do you know if VLC uses the GPU because it processes the RTSP stream flawlessly, as you can see from my videos?

The flow for IP-Camera is: Network → Decoding → Rendering and I’m trying to realize which part introduces choppiness.

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I will switch off the use of the GPU in ManyCam as you recommended and get back to you on Friday. Thanks.

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@Ragnar I disabled hardware acceleration on our streaming computer:

  • Dell G5 gaming desktop
  • Intel Core i7 10th gen
  • NVidia GeForce GTX 1660 super
  • 16 GB RAM

The balance of the load on the CPU/GPU didn’t change significantly (both at about 30%) but the herky jerky movement on all 6 IP cameras across 30 presets disappeared. The clarity of the cameras also improved significantly. The audio delays through ManyCam dropped by .5 seconds.

I am very pleased that our church services are now very high quality, yet curious as to why enabling hardware acceleration in ManyCam caused such a problem?

Please consider changing ManyCam in a way that keeps other users from struggling with this issue as I have done for the past 2 years.

Thank you!

Don

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@Ragnar - any progress on figuring out why disabling hardware acceleration improves ManyCam performance in every way? Here is the video from yesterday’s church service. Pretty incredible!

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@DonaldG
Well, CPU <-> GPU bandwidth is a limited resource and when you have a lot of video sources it may be exhausted.

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@Ragnar I had the same problem with 1 preset and 1 camera displayed in that preset. Turning off hardware acceleration was the only solution, leading me to believe that ManyCam is doing something wrong with the way it is using the NVidia GPU. Are you aware of anyone else having issues with hardware acceleration?