Best audio codec in Hikvision for quality
Setting up the audio codec output in the Hikvision DS-2CD2442FWD-IW web interface gives a number of options including:
G722.1
G711.alaw
G711.ulaw
MP2L2
G726
Can anyone recommend which are compatible with SS and provide the highest quality?
Cheers, Andy
G722.1
G711.alaw
G711.ulaw
MP2L2
G726
Can anyone recommend which are compatible with SS and provide the highest quality?
Cheers, Andy
Comments
The best format to use here is G.711.ulaw.
The other formats are either lower quality, or not supported by SecuritySpy and/or macOS.
It's a pity that the camera doesn't seem to support AAC format like most other IP cameras, as this is much higher quality. However, G.711 is adequate for most purposes.
Thanks,
Robert
I looked for ages but couldn't find any in the compact cube shape I need for a "room corner" camera.
I'm currently looking to sideload an aac encoder into the Hikvision firmware, but its not really a production answer for commercial installs.
Thanks,
Robert
G711 etc were created back in the early 70's where bandwidth was extremely limited; these days things have moved on substantially, its a shame that camera vendors are still living in the past...
SecuritySpy produces either MOV files or MP4 files - the latter is a subset of the former, with stricter rules about what codecs can be used (basically H.264 and AAC only). Some playback/editing software is able to use either format, but some (most notably web browsers) can only natively play back MP4 files.
So if the incoming audio is any format other than AAC, you might want to get SecuritySpy to recode this to AAC, so that you get MP4 files that can be more reliably played back in web browsers (and other software as noted by Andy above).
There's not much point in us supporting unusual formats such as MP2L2, because if SecuritySpy were to record this to movie files, there isn't any software that would be able to play back the audio track!
AAC is clearly the best choice of audio format for IP cameras, I wish more cameras would support it. The reason that many manufacturers avoid AAC could be due to the licensing requirements that affect anyone developing a product that does AAC encoding. It's a shame.
Thanks,
R
To get SecuritySpy to convert this to AAC, you should enable the "Recompress audio data" option under Preferences -> Cameras -> Device, and set AAC as the audio format under Preferences -> Compression.