Editing Futotemporarywikipage (section)

==== 2.8 Change Video Codec to H.264 ====

When it comes to video encoding, I’d use H.264 over H.265. '''Frigate''' &amp; web browsers can be fussy playing back H.265, and the quality bump is not something I notice enough to be worth the aggravation. Given this is a beginner’s guide, the safe choice is to use the codec that is less likely to cause aggravation.

'''Frigate''' is going to have two streams – one that detects when something is going on (a dog, a cat, a car, a human, etc.), and another that does the recording. If we have a high-quality stream doing all of the detection work, our system is going to be killing itself all the time unnecessarily. We don’t need 12k Blackmagic Ursa quality video to tell whether we’re looking at a car’s license plate or a plastic bag in the wind. We do need good quality to record, though.

We’re going to set up one high-quality stream for recording, and another lower-quality stream for monitoring what’s going on. This way, we get high-quality video for playback, without unnecessarily blowing up the resource consumption on our computer.

* While logged into the camera interface, click '''Configuration'''.
* Click '''Video/Audio''' on the left side, and select '''Stream Type''' as '''Main Stream (Normal)'''. This is the feed we will be recording.
** For '''Main Stream (Normal)''', set '''Video Encoding''' to '''H.264'''.
** Set '''Video Quality''' to '''Highest'''.
** '''Resolution''' and '''Frame Rate''' are up to you – I like the highest resolution that gets me at least 20 frames per second. Lower than this and it starts to turn into a slideshow.
* Now, select '''Stream Type''' and click onto the 2nd stream listed.
* Set a very low '''Resolution''', something in the 600x300-ish range.
* Set the '''Video Quality''' to medium.

<span id="finding-the-url-where-we-access-the-cameras-stream"></span>