System Optimiser

The System optimiser allows you to tune elements of your system configuration and iCatcher Console configuration to help improve performance or the usability of your system. The System Optimiser can be accessed by right clicking on the Local Console in the tree view and selecting System Optimiser.

The main wizard has three main actions as follows:

• 'Optimise for higher frame rate' will speed up the video feeds and turn off load balancing. It will also disable various system settings that affect the performance of recording and playback of images.
• 'Optimise for lower CPU usage' will slow down the video feeds and turn on load balancing. It will also apply the same system changes as above.
• 'Fail safe/default options' will set all feeds back to the default update rate and re-enable the system changes mentioned above.

If you want more control over which optimisations are applied, you can select 'custom performance options' and make changes on the next page.

The details on the specific optimisations are as follows:

1. Adjust frame rate of the feeds
   This will increase the frame rate when set to 'Optimise for higher frame rate' and decrease it when set to 'Optimise for CPU'.
   When set to Default, feeds will be set back to a 200ms update rate.
2. Load balancing
   Load balancing causes the feed to slow down when it has no motion to allow other feeds with motion to run faster.
   
3. Disable 8.3 format filenames
   This prevents the Windows NTFS file system driver from creating 8.3 format filenames for recorded image files, which helps performance on busy cameras.
4. Disable 'last access time' updates
   This prevents the Windows NTFS file system driver from updating the 'last accessed time' information on image files, which improves performance when playing back images.
5. Disable the Windows Indexing Service
   The Windows Indexing Service will look at every image file recorded, and store information about it to allow locating them in Windows to be completed quicker.
   Disabling this service will improve performance while recording images.

Options 1 and 2 adjust the feed configuration in Console, whereas 3, 4, and 5 make changes to the registry and services configuration on the computer itself which will require a reboot to apply.

Please note that if you are running Windows Vista or newer then, at the end of the wizard, it may prompt you for elevation so it can make some of these changes.