Subscriber Discussion

Live View Vs Recording Settings

U
Undisclosed #1
Jun 16, 2016

If we have a system consists of IP cameras which will be used in multicast mode for viewing and recording kindly advise the applicability to apply the following settings and the impact on storage and picture quality.

  • Live view:

First stream from PTZ will be used for live view on operator consoles and video wall, operators will be able to display the live stream on their monitors and Video walls at full HD 1080p 25FPS.

  • Recording:

Second stream from each camera will be used for recording. Recording streams are configured at 480p 25 FPS.

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Jun 16, 2016
IPVM

You could certainly do this, technically. What's driving you to record at so much lower resolution than live video?

U
Undisclosed #1
Jun 16, 2016

what will be the impact on video quality when recording at this lower resolution "480p 25 FPS"? and what is recommended from best practice point of view?

JH
John Honovich
Jun 16, 2016
IPVM

Video quality is going to be sharply reduced going from 1080p live to 480p recording. The pixel density will drop by 60%+ and the total resolution / pixel count will go down 80%.

In practical terms, if the pixel density live was 50ppf, recorded would be under 20, and the image quality would drop like so:

Because of that, really best to keep resolution at full 1080p. Better off dropping frame rate if you are trying to conserve storage (say 10fps would not be much of a risk). Related: Average Frame Rate Video Surveillance 2016

(1)
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Jun 16, 2016

In my experience, people will drop the resolution for the live view stream, but use the full resolution for the recorded stream.

Think about while you are watching many cameras on screen at once on a split screen view. You won't be able to see the full resolution of each camera. If you blink, you miss something. You want to be able to go to playback to see what happened, etc., and have the resolution to zoom in. Usually you zoom in digitally for playback, but not on live view.

Thus, high resolution for recorded, and lower resolution for live.

This also helps to mitigate CPU load on viewing PC.

As John stated, if you need to conserve storage, lowering the frame rate for recorded video is the first line of defense before lowering the resolution.

(1)
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