Blurry Video
As with buffering problems, a blurry stream could be a problem from either the sender (the instructor streaming), or the watcher (the customer viewing).
To understand what could be causing a blurry video, let's focus on two settings: Resolution and Bitrate.
Resolution refers to the number of pixels on the screen; a smaller resolution means less pixels. Video resolution is a measure of the width by the height of a video. For example, 1024x720 means 1024 pixels wide and 720 pixels tall. Generally, a higher resolution means higher quality. But this does not mean this is the optimal quality. When the viewers have slower connections, lagging and buffering can occur more frequently.
Bitrate refers to the amount of data that is stored in each frame of the video. The higher the bitrate, the more information that can be stored per frame of the video, hence a "clearer" picture.
Lowering and raising these settings together is because if you have a high resolution but a low bitrate, you will have a very blurry image; there are more pixels that need to be stored in each frame of the video.
Blurry Video Causes
- High Resolution with Low Bitrate
- High Bitrate with Slow Internet Connection
- Dirt / Smudges / Fingerprints on Camera Lens (seriously, we've seen it a few times!)
Tips for Improvement
- Clean your camera lenses regularly
- Review the Resolution & Bitrate article
- Review the Buffering article
- Incremental Resolution & Bitrate testing
- Start at the lowest setting of 1000 Bitrate with 640x480 Resolution
- Increase to 1500 Bitrate with 640x480 Resolution
- Increase to 1500 Bitrate with 960x540 Resolution
- Increase to 2000 Bitrate with 960x540 Resolution
- ...and so on, finding the sweet spot between no buffering and the highest quality video
- Set Frame Rate to 30 fps
- Set Adaptative Bitrate Streaming Mode
- If it is set to Hybrid, try setting it to Off
- If it is set to Off, try setting it to Hybrid
- If you have a very slow upload speed (and that is your only option), try Ladder Ascend