The snapshot you posted is only 913 x 511 pixels, which is less than 6% of the resolution the camera is capable of. The native resolution of this camera is 3840 x 2160 and you need all of it to get that approximate 34 foot max range for plate capture. To get the most out of the camera, you should cut its frame rate down to 10 or 15 FPS, max out the bit rate, and use an iframe interval that is 2-4 times the frame rate (e.g. frame rate of 15, iframe interval between 30 and 60). Additionally it should help a lot to enable the "region of interest" function at max quality in the specific areas where plates will be read from, which would be roughly where I have drawn these 3 rectangles. When used in a small area like this, Region of Interest can greatly enhance fine detail from what the camera will capture without it.
If your license plate recognition software supports it, you would also want to limit the region it analyzes to the same area in order to make it run faster.
If your license plate recognition software supports it, you would also want to limit the region it analyzes to the same area in order to make it run faster.