Understanding Image Compression Standards in Security Cameras

Vũ Khôi

Author at Wotech Electronics Blog

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A security camera cannot deliver high performance if you genuinely can't see what is happening in the area where it's installed — so it would be a real shame if you happened to install cameras that produce poor-quality images or fail to record good-quality footage.

What Is an Image Compression Standard in Security Cameras?

There are many image compression standards in the world today, and later standards bring ever-better compression technology. In other words, the amount of data — put another way, the size of the video file after compression — is reduced far more than with earlier standards, while quality is actually better.

The common camera image compression standards today include MJPEG, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, H.265, and in particular the newest standard technology, H.265+.

MJPEG compression standard

One of the oldest video standards still in use today. MJPEG is now only found in cheap, low-quality devices — poor image quality, resource-hungry processing, large storage requirements, and prone to causing line errors.

MPEG-2 compression standard

A compression standard within the MPEG family used to encode a video stream combined with audio information. It is a data encoding method that allows video to be stored and transmitted over the current system and bandwidth.

MPEG-4 compression standard

A format officially designed by ISO/IEC in October 1998 and established as an international image compression standard in 2000.

H.264 compression standard

An open compression standard officially published in 2003 — currently the most advanced and efficient compression technology standard available. It is gradually becoming the de facto compression standard of the video surveillance security industry. Compressing and transmitting information with H.264 cuts bandwidth and stored data file size by up to 50% compared with today's conventional compression, and by more than 80% compared with Motion JPEG compression.

H.265 compression standard

The full name of the H.265 standard is HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). With camera manufacturers' requirement to reduce the size of recorded surveillance video while preserving quality, R&D engineers researched and applied this new compression standard to the security surveillance camera field.

H.265+ compression standard

The H.265+ image compression standard is the newest encoding technology in the video surveillance field, allowing direct transmission of video signals up to 33.2MP (8K UHD) while still keeping bandwidth consumption within allowable limits. The H.265+ compression standard reduces bandwidth and stored data file size by up to 90% compared with H.264.

A Closer Look at the H.265+ Compression Standard

As noted above, H.265+ is the newest compression standard. Compared with earlier image compression standards, with H.265+ you will no longer be disappointed by the recorded footage from your cameras.

The H.265+ compression standard compresses data up to 90% more efficiently than H.264, saving bandwidth and supporting better signal transmission while maintaining image quality.

With the H.265+ compression standard, every image is recorded clearly and accurately, making monitoring and observation easier over longer periods.

KBVISION camera lines featuring H.265+ image compression technology

Reference product lines: IP cameras in the CAi, D, DAi, and E series, and 5-in-1 recorders in the H1 and TH1 series.

We hope the information KBVISION has brought you helps you better understand image compression standards in security cameras.

See also: Applying Smart PIR Sensor Technology in KBVISION Cameras

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