Technical Notice
Cause of No Resource displayed on live view of Alibi NVRs with loss of sub streams from Alibi IP
cameras
Version 1.1.0
After installing an Alibi NVR with Alibi IP cameras, you may encounter the live view screen to
show No Resources instead of video streams.
No Resources indicates that you have somehow exceeded the processing capabilities of the
NVR and to ensure recording still takes place, live video is not shown. The possible causes for
this are listed below:
1. Outdated firmware
2. You have exceeded the decoding capability of the NVR for live view by having too many
IP cameras attached that cannot produce a sub stream.
3. You have added too many cameras via Plug and Play or via One Touch Addition before
making adjusts to ensure you are below bandwidth limitations. Other symptoms of this
reason are that Alibi cameras will indicate they cannot use a sub stream and the main
stream is not properly registering in the NVR menu for accurate resolution options.
To avoid this situation:
1. Ensure that the NVR is on the most recent firmware available. Below are the most
current released to date (4.26.16).
ALI-NVR5116P/ALI-NVR5132P: V3.3.4 Build 160427
To ensure full compatibility, a FACTORY DEFAULT will be required after the update. To
perform the update, go to Menu\Maintenance\Default and choose the full Factory
Reset. Once the update and default have been performed, you may move on to the
next step.
2. Calculate the required bandwidth for all cameras before adding them to the NVR. The
table below shows the default bandwidth requirements for Alibi IP cameras:
Resolution
1080p
3MP
4MP
6MP
Main Stream (Mbps)
4.096
5.461
6.144
8.192
Sub Stream (Mbps)
1.024
1.024
1.024
1.024
Total Bit Rate (Mbps)
5.120
6.485
7.168
9.216
Match the total against the bandwidth limits of the NVR being used to determine if changes
need to be made to the cameras as you are adding them to the NVR:
Resolution
ALI-NVR3104P
ALI-NVR3108P
ALI-NVR5116P
ALI-NVR5132P
ALI-NVR7132R
ALI-NVR7164R
Incoming Bandwidth Limit (Mbps)
40
80
100
200
320 (RAID OFF) / 200 (RAID ON)
320 (RAID OFF) / 200 (RAID ON)
3. If the total bit rate of all cameras exceeds the limit of the NVR to be used, you must
make adjustments before adding all cameras to avoid the No Resource issue. Plug in
cameras one at a time and adjust the following to free resources:
a. Main Stream or Sub Stream resolution
b. Frame rate
c. Bit Rates
Adjustments to bit rates will directly correspond with adjustments to frame rate and/or
resolution settings of the cameras. The NVRs will give you a suggested bit rate range
depending on the settings. For 4MP Alibi cameras, 15fps with a bit rate of 4096 Kbps is
recommended if you are using more than 14 cameras on an ALI-NVR5116P or 25
cameras on the ALI-NVR5132P.
4. Once adjustments have been made, begin to add additional cameras while keeping an
eye on the total idle bandwidth remaining from the Camera page in the NVR:
This number will continue to decrease as you add cameras to the NVR. Once it reaches 0, no
more cameras can be added until you free up bandwidth resources by adjusting other cameras.
If you have already plugged in all cameras without making adjustments and are experiencing
the No Resources error after the proper firmware update, you must determine what cameras
were added after the NVRs bandwidth limit was exceeded. To do this, enter the Record menu
from the NVR and go to Parameters. Start from the highest channel input (4, 8, 16, 32) and
work backwards by looking at the Sub Stream resolution options.
If you click on the Alibi camera channel and it states Not Supported for a sub stream, the
channels must be deleted temporarily or unplugged from the built in PoE switch. You will also
see that the Main Streams will not give full resolution options as a secondary confirmation of
the issue.
Once deleted/unplugged, you must make adjustments to other cameras to free up bandwidth.
Once done, add the camera back to the system. If a sub stream still does not appear to be
supported from the Alibi camera, a factory reset must be performed on the IP camera itself.