I have them connected via LAN so the Bitrate can be very high. but i cant set it how i want. Just add it as an "advanced feature" in the menu of the app. PLS

The only thing holding back Tapo cameras from greatness is the ability to save higher bitrate videos an SD Card / H500 Hub or watch a higher bitrate stream. Compression artifacts really hurt the digital zoom and night vision capabilities of Tapo camera.

  @Solla-topee 

These "tips" are utterly irrelevant to this problem. It doesn't matter how much you tinker with these settings, it's the stream compression which is the problem because it's ridiculously over-compressed, as can be seen by comparing the (uncompressed) video on the app with the (over-compressed) rtsp stream on a computer. The so-called "quality" setting is nothing of the sort, it's merely a resolution setting; it doesn't matter what resolution (even the lowest) is used, compression artefacts severely limit the usefulness of the stream.

 

I certainly won't be buying another tp-link device in the future after this experience.

 

[Edit]: I've just been doing some digging around using onvif-util and I see that the maximum bitrate for the 1920x1080 stream is a miserable 2048. By comparison, the old camera I intended to replace with my TC65, despite only having a 640x480 stream, has a bitrate of nearly 1000. A clear indication of how horrendously this camera compresses its stream.

  @Kaizoku 

I have to repeat what everyone is saying.  The pixelation and high compression makes my Tapo cameras unfit for purpose.  I am unimpressed that TP Link don't acknowledge this issue after 3 years of complaints. Reposting the dumb FAQ is insulting.

 

There is no point in having 2K resolution if the imagery is ruined by compression artefacts.  Clearly 2K requires a compression setting optimised for the amount of data in the 2K image. That won't be the same as in a 720 image.  I would rather TP Link give us advanced settings to allow us to use a lower compression setting for the circumstances of the camera location, and the option for constant bit rate for those fast moving objects where the VBR reacts so poorly that pixellation occurs.  I would also like option to set frame rate and shutter speed - so we can optimise the images depending on scenes.

 

These TAPO cameras are fine for still scenes but woefully inadequate for real-world moving imagery.

 

Has anypne suggestions for alternative makes that do not compress so bluntly?