What Resolution Should I Use for My Home Camera

A home camera has proven to be a worthy investment for people caring about home security. It allows you to watch your home live from anywhere in the world via your smartphone. It can record activities for you to playback at any time. However, these settings may also make it tricky to set up, such as determining video resolution.

You’re probably faced with multiple choices of home camera resolution, 480P, 720P, 1080P, to name a few. You may also have seen advertisements publicizing Full HD, Ultra HD, and similar HD resolutions. Does that mean the higher resolution, the better?

Not exactly. Higher resolution does mean better video quality, but it also requires a faster internet connection and a larger file size. Please see the following charts:

*The following resolutions are currently supported by TP-Link cameras.

Top considerations when choosing the home camera resolution

1. Internet Speed

Higher resolution requires more Wi-Fi bandwidth. If your Wi-Fi network does not have that much bandwidth, you can choose a moderate level of resolution. This may also be the case if you have too many devices competing for bandwidth.

2. How Your Video Is Saved

Higher resolution videos also take up more space. A 256 Gb microSD card can store up to 512 hours (21 days) of footage for 3MP resolution. That same 256 Gb microSD card can store up to 768 hours (32 days) for 1080P resolution. If the recorded videos o your home camera are stored locally on an SD card, you don’t want a small number of videos to take too much space. This is also the case for cloud storage with limited space. Some services offer unlimited cloud storage – if that is the case, there is no need to worry about it.

3. Requirements on Your Phone

The higher resolution makes higher demands on the decoding ability and performance of your phone. It may also cause your mobile device to overheat. Try lowering the resolution if you experience video stuttering or other problems when watching home camera live video or playback.

Tapo home cameras offer various choices catering to your different needs. Whatever you want, there is always one for you. Check Tapo Home Camera to pick your preference.