‎Quality of Outdoor Camera | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
larrycanton's profile

Tuesday, January 4th, 2022 12:05 AM

Quality of Outdoor Camera

Is there a better way to position camera's for the quality they provide? 

Currently have 2 of the new camera's that are supposed to provide 1080p video.

We had some Amazon Packages stolen from our front door.

Our outdoor camera caught everything but unfortunately you can't make out the license plate number. 

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

3 years ago

Hi larrycanton,

Our cameras use variable bitrate, to prioritize faster transmission. That is, the connection isn't super strong, the video quality might be decreased to make sure that the video is sent as fast as possible (think of it like how Youtube videos default to lower resolutions when your cell signal is poor).

There are ta couple of factors that can improve video quality. The biggest is the quality of the connection. You'll want to try and reduce both physical and wireless interference between your camera and your WiFi router. Of course, the closer the camera is to the router, the easier it will be for the signal to get where it needs to go.

1 Message

I am trying to find if I am the only one having the same problem but looks like may be the problem with camaraa cause I also have the same problem, plate numbers can not be seen if I zoom the video! Is there a way to get better quality videos cause there is no point to have camaras if we can not get plate numbers it closer faces!!

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@yolysbarbosaa​ If the Outdoor Camera has a weaker connection to your network, that can result in a lower video quality. I would recommend moving the router a little closer to the Outdoor Camera to see if that helps improve its connection and video quality. 

We also have an in-app Connection Check tool that runs a scan on your cameras' internet connection and provides additional steps on how to strengthen it. If you visit this article in our Help Center, we go through the steps of using the Connection Check tool and explain what your results mean.

729 Messages

3 years ago

@davey_d 

Assuming best case scenario (daylight, blazing fast low latency wifi and internet, etc.) what is the realistic max distance at which the SimpliSafe cameras can provide video with a legible license plate? Now what is that distance in the dark?

The verbiage used at https://support.simplisafe.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407853364749-Wireless-Outdoor-Security-Camera-Overview suggests the maximum distance may be 15 feet:

"The camera can zoom in up to 8x to focus on important details like license plates and faces from up to 15 feet away."

The product information page at https://simplisafe.com/outdoor-security-camera has similar verbiage:

"Plus, you can even zoom in 8x to see important details like faces and license plates from 15 feet away."

If I'm reading this incorrectly, please explain. You should probably also have the website information updated.

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