Zoom transcodes live video from camera

[PaulvH]

Dear friends,

 

We use a high-quality HD video security camera to capture the stage speakers in our congregation. However, if we compare the image quality of the recorded HD video with that of what 'zoom' makes of it, it seems to have lost quite some resolution. Sometimes, it even looks like SD-quality video. Now, it's likely that zoom "transcodes' and compresses the incoming video  to guarantee smooth thumbnail playback. That said though we certainly would like zoom to keep the quality of the stage recording (which is spotlighted the whole meeting). We checked all video settings to maintain HD-quality video. Does anyone have an idea on how to maintain best video quality without loss of resolution?

 

Thanks,

--Paul

[GWings]

Zoom has the ability to enable HD video (which should be set on the device which is broadcasting). More information can be found here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002595343-Enhancing-your-video-in-Zoom

 

However, I'm pretty sure Zoom will still compress the video feed (just a little bit less, if you enable HD video) in order to decrease the load on their servers. And I doubt there's anything more you can do to change that...

[PaulvH]

It seems indeed that Zoom is purposely transcodes live video down to SD-quality when there are 3 or more participants joining the meeting. However, according to this zoom.support article:  https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207347086-Using-Group-HD-video

the "Group HD" can be enabled to serve paid licenses (Pro and higher) to make sure the Speaker View is maintained at 720P for meetings with 3 or more participants, which should be good enough for the stage view in the hall. What I read there is that when the "zoom host" (paid license) has Group HD enabled and the Media host on the client side selects "Enable HD" then I expect zoom to transcode full HD down to 720P HD rather than SD quality. I'm going to give this a test.

 

[Pabo]

You will to activate the Group HD in the Zoom online settings if it is a paid subscription.

 

A Pro account will give you 720p, whereas Business and Enterprise accounts will give you 1080p.

 

Remember too, you will need to make sure that the internet bandwidth is good too.

 

720p - minimum (D/U) 2.6Mps/1.8Mps

1080p - minimum (D/U) 3.0Mpbs/3.8Mps

[PaulvH]

Yes indeed. It will obviously use more bandwidth. It may result in some choppy video at the client side. Even more reason to test this carefully. Thanks!