[Config Support]: Reolink delay & (Reolink E1) camera specific config

[albotroz]

Describe the problem you are having

After some time of testing my cameras within Frigate, I noticed that my Reolink camera reaches a delay of 20(!) seconds after about one day.
This is noticeable in the Frigate Addon, HassOS Frigate Card and Hass-Android-App etc.
Everything else worked so well and now I'm back to playing with the configs just because of this.

This is what the config for the Reolink camera looked like.
HD stream (without sound - I don't want sound in records because of Law-Stuff in my country) records events. SD stream for livestream and I added a button within Frigate Card to switch between HD and SD livestream with sound in the HAOS dashboard/frigate card.

No problems at all. Until the delay after one day of working.

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args: preset-rpi-64-h264

rtmp:
  enabled: false

go2rtc:
  streams:
    front:
      - rtsp://NAME:PW@192.168.xxx.xxx:554/h264Preview_01_main
      - "ffmpeg:front#audio=opus"
    front_sub:
      - rtsp://NAME:PW@192.168.xxx.xxx:554/h264Preview_01_sub
      - "ffmpeg:front_sub#audio=opus"

#  webrtc:
#    candidates:
#      - 192.168.xxx.xx:8555
#      - stun:8555

cameras:
  front:
    ffmpeg:
      output_args:
        record: preset-record-generic
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/front # RTSP Stream High Res
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - record
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/front_sub # RTPS Stream Low Res
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - detect

I then changed it as in the docs. https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/camera_specific/#reolink-cameras
So far I haven't noticed any delay.
However, this means that the sound in the live stream sounds laggy and there are no more recordings for events.
Yes, next time I will get the cameras that Frigate recommended in the docs.

This is how I changed it:

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args: preset-rpi-64-h264

rtmp:
  enabled: false

go2rtc:
  streams:
    front:
      - "ffmpeg:http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_main.bcs&user=NAME&password=PW#video=copy#audio=copy#audio=opus"
    front_sub:
      - "ffmpeg:http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_sub.bcs&user=NAME&password=PW"

#  webrtc:
#    candidates:
#      - 192.168.xxx.xx:8555
#      - stun:8555

cameras:
  front:
    ffmpeg:
#      output_args:
#        record: preset-record-generic
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/front?video=copy&audio=acc # RTSP Stream High Res
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - record
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/front_sub?video=copy # RTPS Stream Low Res
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - detect

How should I interpret the FFmpeg parameters?
Are the streams taken from the camera with video=copy and audio=copy without transcoding or how?
What if only audio=opus is set? Then it is also taken without transcoding and transcoded within Raspberry to opus?
I want to understand the purpose of the FFmpeg parameters and not just to solve my problems.
And if I adopt the setting of Frigate-Reolink-Doc, then it causes a CPU utilization of almost 100% and temperature rises to 90 degrees + when watching the livestream.

Version

0.12.1

Frigate config file

.

Relevant log output

.

Frigate stats

No response

Operating system

HassOS

Install method

HassOS Addon

Coral version

USB

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[NickM-27]

what is the cpu usage when using the recommended config? This is one of the reasons that using rtsp with reolink is not recommended.

[albotroz]

what is the cpu usage when using the recommended config? This is one of the reasons that using rtsp with reolink is not recommended.

If I open HomeAssistant Dashboard with my both Sub-Livestreams from Reolink and Non-Reolink Cams:
Recommended config: 80-100 CPU Usage (laptop partially freezes), after few minutes 100 degrees
My config config: max 40 CPU Usage, max 85 degrees

[NickM-27]

Ah I see, using _sub instead of _ext, that is fine as long as you are using http and not rtsp in the go2rtc section. Regardless, given that the delay occurs in each place it is viewed that means the delay is likely coming from the camera where the stream timestamps fall behind real time. I had an issue similar with a reolink e1 zoom back when I had it, updating to a beta firmware from reolink seemed to fix the issue

[albotroz]

Since watching the livestream was impossible due to the CPU load, I reverted to my config. So the one with rtsp. This has worked excellently so far, although it is not recommended according to Frigate Docs. Only Delay was a problem. Theoretically, I would have to restart HASS/Frigate every day to reset the delay. Recording was not noticeable with the Frigate Recommended Reolink config.
When I then reverted to my config, Frigate still did not make any recordings with the Reolink. Blueprints notifications also stopped coming.

Basically, it no longer works with Reolink and I now have to revert back to Reolink internal recording and Reolink's push notifications. Don't know what happened between Reolink and Frigate.

[NickM-27]

try this config

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args: preset-rpi-64-h264

cameras:
  front:
    ffmpeg:
      input_args: preset-http-reolink
      inputs:
        - path: http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_main.bcs&user=NAME&password=PW
          roles:
            - record
        - path: http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_sub.bcs&user=NAME&password=PW
          roles:
            - detect

[albotroz]

Thanks Nick. I had already global ffmpeg arg top of my frigate.yaml.

ffmpeg:
  hwaccel_args: preset-rpi-64-h264

I have now run for a day with your setting.
So far it works. Live, recordings etc. With an open livestream, the load remains acceptable. For the first time no errors and ffmpeg crashes in Frigate Logs for hours.

Thank you for your help and work again.

At the same time I cleaned up my config and changed the settings of the config to the order of the config of Frigate-doc.
However, I had to add "video=copy" to the substream of the Reolink under go2rtc because without it I had no video in substream within HASS Frigate-Cards (go2rtc).

Yesterday I also read the following pages to understand the meaning and purpose of the ffmpeg arguments.
But this is more difficult to understand when to use which ffmpeg arguments.
https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/ffmpeg_presets
https://docs.frigate.video/guides/configuring_go2rtc
https://github.com/AlexxIT/go2rtc/tree/v1.2.0#codecs-madness
https://github.com/AlexxIT/go2rtc/tree/v1.2.0#source-ffmpeg
https://github.com/AlexxIT/go2rtc/wiki/Hardware-acceleration

Do you see any need to optimize my config regarding ffmpeg arguments?

mqtt:
  enabled: True
  host: 192.168.xxx.xx
  port: 1883
  user: NAME
  password: MYPW

detectors:
  coral:
    type: edgetpu
    device: usb

database:
  path: /config/frigate.db

#logger:
#  default: debug
#  logs:

birdseye:
  enabled: False
  restream: False
  width: 1280
  height: 720
  quality: 15
  mode: continuous

ffmpeg:
#  global_args: -hide_banner -loglevel info
  hwaccel_args: preset-rpi-64-h264

record:
  enabled: True
  expire_interval: 60
  events:
    pre_capture: 5
    post_capture: 5
    retain:
      default: 10
      mode: motion

snapshots:
  enabled: True
  clean_copy: True
  retain:
    default: 5

rtmp:
  enabled: False

go2rtc:
  streams:
    front:
      - "ffmpeg:http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_main.bcs&user=NAME&password=MYPW#video=copy"
    front_sub:
      - "ffmpeg:http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_sub.bcs&user=NAME&password=MYPW#video=copy"
    hof:
      - rtsp://NAME:MYPW@192.168.xxx.xx:554/11
    hof_sub:
      - rtsp://NAME:MYPW@192.168.xxx.xx:554/12

  webrtc:
    candidates:
      - 192.168.xxx.xx:8555
      - stun:8555

timestamp_style:
  position: "tl"
  format: "%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S"
  color:
    red: 255
    green: 140
    blue: 0
  thickness: 2

#####################################################
# Camera Front - REOLINK
#####################################################

cameras:
  front:
    enabled: True
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        # Stream Low Res
        - path: http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_sub.bcs&user=NAME&password=MYPW
          roles:
            - detect
        # Stream High Res
        - path: http://192.168.xxx.xxx/flv?port=1935&app=bcs&stream=channel0_main.bcs&user=NAME&password=MYPW
          roles:
            - record
      input_args: preset-http-reolink

    detect:
      width: 640
      height: 360
      fps: 10
      enabled: True

    objects:
      track:
        - person
      filters:
        person:
          threshold: 0.6
        dog:
          threshold: 0.6


    live:
      stream_name: front_sub
      height: 360
      quality: 8

#####################################################
# Camera Hof - NON REOLINK
#####################################################

  hof:
    enabled: True
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        # Stream Low Res
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/hof_sub
          roles:
            - detect
        # Stream High Res
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/hof
          roles:
            - record
      input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
      output_args:
        record: preset-record-generic

    detect:
      width: 640
      height: 352
      fps: 5
      enabled: True

    objects:
      track:
        - person
      filters:
        person:
          threshold: 0.7


    live:
      stream_name: hof_sub
      height: 352
      quality: 8

#####################################################
ui:
  live_mode: webrtc
  timezone: Europe/Berlin
  use_experimental: False
  time_format: 24hour
  date_style: full
  time_style: medium
  strftime_fmt: "%d/%m/%Y %H:%M"

[NickM-27]

Looks fine to me on a quick glance

[NickM-27]

Feel free to create a new issue if something else comes up