Thursday, May 31, 2018

What is the changing number on the bottom left caption line of the video?

Question: What is the changing number on the bottom left caption line of the video?

This number is the number of video kilobytes per second streaming onto the web from the camera. A good smooth video stream is usually under 1500.  With bright sun and small choppy waves, this number greatly increases and tends to bog the camera down. This number is constantly changing with the changing lighting conditions and the scene. That is why you will see this number usually increase as a boat approached and fills the screen.

There are many setting within the camera that I can use to control this number and every one is a compromise of image quality and streaming smoothness.  So, my job is to keep playing with the settings to find a compromise that works for that time of day and time of year. Some days will be better than others and often the issue is not with your device.

The second # is the frame rate, this also can be throttled to improve smoothness or quality.

Hope this helps you understand why this venture is like a dog chasing his tail -- never seems to catch it.