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Lower frames rate if not attached to Monitor

edited December 2013 in SecuritySpy
Hi, I am a long time user of Security spy I would say since Version 1.6, I also (long time ago) asked Ben to go towards RTSP and other amenities that are now part of SS 3.2.1 . Therefore I am a proud user of this very nice piece of SW!

I normally know how to address many aspects of the sw, but this one is weird, at least to me.

If I do not attach a monitor to my Macmini, the frame rates I read on each camera decreases very sharply, if I reconnect my Monitor to the Macmini the frame rates I obtain from each camera on SS gets boosted to turbo+ , nearly 25 frames on each camera (16 cameras - 10 640x480 and 6 1Megapixel). Even if I turn off the Monitor leaving it attached I get the performances degradation.

Since I use the Macmini as server I normally do not use it with the monitor attached but I use Remote desktop to access the Macmini. I noticed that even if I start "Splashtop" client from my ipad to my Macmini I get the Performance Boost effect.

In general all of the response gets better.

Any suggestions, hints?

Thanks in advance,

Frank

Comments

  • I understood the cause, but I have not found a solution yet.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4155369?start=30&tstart=0
  • Hi Frank, this is a strange one, we have had this reported before, but haven't been able to reproduce it with any of our test machines here. The solution we have come up with is to close all of SecuritySpy's windows before you disconnect the screen or terminate the Screen Sharing (Remote Desktop / VNC) session. I believe this will resolve the problem. I'll do some more digging myself to see if there's anything I can do in SecuritySpy to mitigate this too.

    Hope this helps.
  • It has to do with the GPU activation, the MiniMac without the monitor attached does not activate the GPU, therefore all the HW acceleration is lost, the Macmini is at 30% of throttle, as soon as you connect the Display "boom" the GPU gets activated and you get full throttle and, because SS accesses the GPU capabilities in a very heavy way, the speed gets boosted big way. I circumnavigated the prob creating a Dummy VGA dongle as specified in many sites around the net. I would recommend whoever is encountering this problem to go for this solution.

    My 2 cents,

    Frank
  • Hi Frank, yes I do believe you are correct. I have looked into this and there doesn't seem to be a way I can fix this in SecuritySpy: even if there are no monitors attached and Screen Sharing is not in use, the system still reports to SecuritySpy that there is a monitor available. There doesn't seem to be a way to determine if there are no monitors and no Screen Sharing active, and that SecuritySpy should not do any video display to the screen (which must be what is causing the slowdown here).

    If there is no monitor, it seems that the driver software for the video hardware is not loaded by the system and therefore there is no hardware acceleration. This seems to be a major oversight by Apple when they designed this, and I hope it will be fixed in future system updates. In the meantime, as Frank says, I think the best solution is to build a dummy monitor dongle that tricks the system into thinking there is a real monitor attached. Anyone not comfortable building this themselves can buy one cheaply online.

    Alternatively, take care to close all of SecuritySpy's windows when terminating the Screen Sharing session when using a headless Mac.
  • is there a quick command-line test for the loading of the video drivers?
  • I just set up a new Mac Mini with OS X Server as a headless server this week.

    (And enjoyed the convenience of doing the initial set up WITHOUT ever connecting a display: locate the Mac Mini in the Shared Computer list of the Finder Sidebar and choose "Share Screen." In the authentication window, leave the user name blank and use the Mac Mini Server's hardware serial number as password, you're in. Not sure but I think this only works on Mac Mini with OS X Server installed.)

    Even without a display I seem to be seeing great frame rates thru screen sharing.

    But for those instances when you need a dummy dongle, check out this one.

    It plugs into HDMI, provides greater resolution choices and keeps the Thunderbolt port available for more useful connections. I haven't tried it yet but it looks promising.
  • Hi ConvenInteg, this is great info, many thanks for posting!
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