Sometimes drivers briefly park across the bottom of our drive and walk onto our property, our motion cameras capture footage of the side of the vehicle and the driver walking around, but not the vehicle license plate. For this reason I mounted another cam in the front hedge looking lengthways, I can't use motion detection because the passing traffic would trigger it constantly, so I went to the 'post' tab, set to 'post jpeg to folder' every 30 seconds, Quality 100%, Size 640x480, which is the max available on that camera. The problem is that when vehicles park there now, I can read the license plate looking at the real-time video footage, but when I look at the stored still images the definition is poorer and the license plate is not legible. I've ordered a higher definition camera to try to fix it, but I still wonder why the stored still images are inferior and if I can change any settings to fix this.
'Photo stills' not as clear as video stream
- Thread starter bricklayer1807
- Start date
Instead of the Post tab, try using the 'JPEG snapshot each' on the Record tab
Thanks for the suggestion, I tried that but the images are exactly the same. I'm assuming that the conversion of video image to jpeg file for the stills results in loss of definition.
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Thanks for the info but I think you misunderstood my original post. I'm not looking for software to digitize license plates that appear on my cameras, my post was about the poor image quality on recorded stills which prevents me from reading the license plate number myself direct from the image when necessary.
sebastiantombs
Known around here
A 640x480 jpeg is not high resolution. Change the camera. Keep in mind when you view the live video you're seeing multiple frames of information every second which can make it seem "clearer".
It may be possible to log into cam's webGUI to determine if there are "better" still images available but the camera make and model might help.
Generally, if the cam is old enough to provide at best VGA images then it's unlikely better stills are available.
Perhaps the new "higher definition" cam will provide a solution, but since you did not know about the LPR thread I hope your selection will suit your application.
Generally, if the cam is old enough to provide at best VGA images then it's unlikely better stills are available.
Perhaps the new "higher definition" cam will provide a solution, but since you did not know about the LPR thread I hope your selection will suit your application.
I agree with this. 640 x 480 was cutting edge in 1998 but not now. You can't change any camera settings to increase that? What make/model is the camera?
It's Y-cam 'white' indoor camera (although I'm using it outdoors) like this - Y-Cam White SD Wireless IP Camera W/ MicroSD Slot YCW003
That's a very low end camera. You're probably getting the best pics it can give.
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Nothing was said about software, it's all about the proper camera and setup of such camera.
Study this: Cliff Notes
Yes it's exactly that, I bought it because it has the same external case as the old 'white' camera - now it turns out that they were sold (as a cloud-only device) under a false promise of free lifetime access to the Y-cam cloud, then after a year or so they informed all their customers that they have to start paying for the service. Seems like the backlash and legal actions that followed have trashed the reputation of Y-cam so much they've almost gone bankrupt. Mine is already on its way back to the retailer for a refund.