Frequently Asked Question
Recording Settings Explained
Last Updated 7 years ago
Different Recording Settings may result in different quality/recording period.
You can tweak the recording settings on your DVR to achieve the result that you want.
There's a few different settings that you can consider. Depending on models, some settings may be different/unavailable in certain models.
1. Stream Type
Sub Stream - Use purely for streaming live video, normally when there's insufficient bandwidth to stream high resolution images smoothly.
Main Stream - Use to Stream Clearer Video, and the default setting for Recording.
Event Stream - Use to Record when event such as motion, line crossing, etc are triggered.
Normally, the setting is such that bitrate/resolution/quality is Event > Main > Sub Stream
2. Bitrate Type
Constant - Uses constant bitrate (size require every sec). This setting allow for easy estimation of recording period, but also result in unnecessary large files as the max size will be use for recording/streaming even when it's not required.
Variable - Use variable bitrate with the setting as the Maximum. This settings allows for the system to use less storage when the video allows for, saving storage space and allow for longer recording period. However, it makes estimation of recording period hard as storage size used for recording may differ depending on movement and composition of the images.
3. Frame Rate
Full Frame - Record at Live - Smooth Video.
Anything lesser will result in more choppy video.
4. Max Bitrate
Maximum size per sec the system can use for recording/streaming the video. The larger the number, the better the quality of the recorded/streaming video, but the lesser time the video can be stored using the same size storage.
5. Resolution
Size of the recording video.
For Main Stream/Event Stream, we'll recommend the maximum resolution the camera can support.
There's no hard and fast rule when it comes to the "best settings".
You may wish to experiment with the settings to find out what suits your environment the best.
You can tweak the recording settings on your DVR to achieve the result that you want.
There's a few different settings that you can consider. Depending on models, some settings may be different/unavailable in certain models.
1. Stream Type
Sub Stream - Use purely for streaming live video, normally when there's insufficient bandwidth to stream high resolution images smoothly.
Main Stream - Use to Stream Clearer Video, and the default setting for Recording.
Event Stream - Use to Record when event such as motion, line crossing, etc are triggered.
Normally, the setting is such that bitrate/resolution/quality is Event > Main > Sub Stream
2. Bitrate Type
Constant - Uses constant bitrate (size require every sec). This setting allow for easy estimation of recording period, but also result in unnecessary large files as the max size will be use for recording/streaming even when it's not required.
Variable - Use variable bitrate with the setting as the Maximum. This settings allows for the system to use less storage when the video allows for, saving storage space and allow for longer recording period. However, it makes estimation of recording period hard as storage size used for recording may differ depending on movement and composition of the images.
3. Frame Rate
Full Frame - Record at Live - Smooth Video.
Anything lesser will result in more choppy video.
4. Max Bitrate
Maximum size per sec the system can use for recording/streaming the video. The larger the number, the better the quality of the recorded/streaming video, but the lesser time the video can be stored using the same size storage.
5. Resolution
Size of the recording video.
For Main Stream/Event Stream, we'll recommend the maximum resolution the camera can support.
There's no hard and fast rule when it comes to the "best settings".
You may wish to experiment with the settings to find out what suits your environment the best.