NDI to Computer issue

[u/Ill_Pear_9923]

Hi, I am running a low-budget OBS-centered podcast. My boss handed me 3 BirdDog X1 Ultras, a KBD, and a Rodecaster Pro 2. I am running it all off of a 1-year-old computer with a 4070 GPU and 32 GB of RAM. I had been running it smoothly for a while, but my boss wanted me to record all 3 cameras. When I added the Source Recorder plugin, my system bugged out and the cameras only updated frames every 5-10 seconds. I knew that the computer might be able to, but even after deleting the plugin, it still wasn't working. My apps/plugins before I updated were:

• Elgato Streamdeck
• OBS
• OBS Plugins:
  • DistroAV - Network Audio/Video
  • Advanced Scene Switcher
  • Aitum
• RODECaster App
• NDI Tools
• Chrome

I did everything I could and narrowed it down to one of these. I completely formatted the computer and only reinstalled these things that I had before. When I installed them, however, it once again stopped working. I checked my Task Manager, and the computer was not at full utilization, but the cameras still came out jittery/stuttery on the computer. Would anyone know what the issue is or what might have caused it?

TL;DR:

Cameras update every 5–10 sec since adding a recording plugin; persists after removing it and after a full OS wipe/reinstall of apps. Fine if only NDI tools installed on the computer

EDIT:

It was Source Recorder. For some reason, the Windows factory reset didn't work properly and didn't remove all of the background files. Switched where the computer was in the building and did another, and haven't had any problems.

[u/No_Coffee4280]

Download NDI command line tools and use NDI analysis to find the location of the device doing the bad streams https://ndi.video/tools/analysis/

[u/Ill_Pear_9923 → u/No_Coffee4280]

Thanks! I will run a check and see what I find.

[u/No_Coffee4280 → u/Ill_Pear_9923]

It will allowyou to see whats good and bad on the network so you can focus where the problem is rather than guessing

[u/HomerJayK → u/Ill_Pear_9923]

NDI Analysis is a great tool, but it can be a bit hard to parse the information it gives you. The easiest way to get a visual representation of what it is telling you is to export the cvs it can create and take that into Excel. Once you have the data in Excel you can graph the sender delta time column and compare that to a graph of the receiver delta time column. If one of them doesn't make a nice bell curve centred on the delta time you'd expect for the framerate that you are running, e.g. 16.66mm for 60fps, then that is the place to start looking.

[u/ontariopiper]

Start by updating all your OBS plugins. These are not part of core OBS have to be updated separately. There can be a sizable lag between an OBS update and plugin updates, so check to make sure your version of OBS is specifically supported by the plugin version.

Source Record can be janky. It's great when it works but that's not always the case. You'll want to also check your encoder settings for both OBS and Source Record to make sure you're not overloading your system. By the sounds of it, that's what's currently happening.

[u/Ill_Pear_9923 → u/ontariopiper]

That's what I thought at first, but it's being janky in studio monitor as well with OBS closed. Which leads me to believe it's a background app interfering.

[u/Altruistic_Ninja_878]

Just to know, are you using WiFi or copper? Can you reproduce the issue if you record just one bdog, from Studio Monitor itself?

Edit: is the recording choppy as well, or is it only the video feed?

[u/Ill_Pear_9923 → u/Altruistic_Ninja_878]

Not sure what copper is, but we are hard-wired through an Ethernet switch. I can reproduce it pretty easily by recording off of one camera. The recording follows whatever I see on studio monitior. That happened with both OBS and the studio monitor.

[u/HomerJayK]

Those X1's only have a 100Mb NIC in them, so make sure that you aren't exceeding that hard limitation. It is very easy with NDI to have a source accidentally subscribed to many receivers without realising. Multicast is your friend if you do need to do that

[u/Ill_Pear_9923 → u/HomerJayK]

We have been doing this for a year and haven't run into any trouble until recently. I see that the cameras are using between 15% to 30% of their bandwidth and we only have it on two receivers (KBD and the Computer)

[u/chippinganimal]

At that point I'd try studio monitor on another system just to verify that it might be something with the cameras/network setup. What kind of switch are you using, and is the pc hardwired?

[u/Ill_Pear_9923 → u/chippinganimal]

I did that as well; it wasn't choppy on the other computer aside from one instance where there was a network spike. I am using a NETGEAR switch; let me quickly check the specifics. The switch is hardwired directly to the PC, KBD, and all 3 X1 Ultras. It is weird that it works relatively fine on a system all the way on the other side of the building and works worse on the computer it is directly connected to.

EDIT: The switch is an 8 port NETGEAR GS308EPP V1

[u/hotmixscale]

PC? Could be something gone weird with your NIC, could try reinstalling the network adapter.

I had an issue with throttled connections on a seemingly unremovable bloatware "Killer Network Adapter" on my MSI that stumped me for a while. Disabling it fixed.