Troubleshooting Poor Video Quality on Hik-Connect
A security camera system is only as good as the image it produces. If your Hik-Connect feed is blurry, pixelated, lagging, or constantly switching to a low-resolution "fluent" mode, it can be difficult to see important details. This poor quality is almost always a symptom of a bandwidth bottleneck between your camera system and your viewing device.
This guide will help you understand the causes of poor video quality and provide clear steps to diagnose and improve the stream from your Hikvision cameras.
## Main Stream vs. Substream: The Core Concept
To understand video quality, you must first know that Hikvision systems use two distinct video feeds (or "streams") for each camera:
- Main Stream: This is the high-resolution, high-bitrate, full-quality stream. It is designed for recording directly to your Network Video Recorder (NVR) or DVR. It provides the best possible detail but requires a lot of bandwidth.
- Substream: This is a secondary, lower-resolution, low-bitrate stream. It is specifically designed for remote viewing on phones or computers where internet bandwidth may be limited.
When you view your cameras remotely via the Hik-Connect app, it will attempt to show you the Main Stream, but if the connection is not strong enough, it will automatically switch to the smoother, lower-quality Substream.
## Step 1: Identify the Bandwidth Bottleneck
The problem is almost always insufficient upload speed. Your home or business internet's download speed is likely very fast, but the upload speed—the rate at which you can send data from your network—is what matters for remote camera viewing.
- Run a Speed Test: On a computer connected to the same network as your NVR/DVR, go to a website like Speedtest.net and run a test. Pay close attention to the UPLOAD SPEED.
- Calculate Your Needs: A single high-resolution camera's Main Stream can require 4-8 Mbps of upload speed. If you have multiple cameras, this number multiplies. If your upload speed is less than what your cameras are trying to push, you will experience poor quality.
## Step 2: Optimise Your Remote Viewing Experience
Instead of trying to force a high-quality stream over a slow connection, the best approach is to optimise the settings for remote viewing.
### Manually Select the Substream
The easiest fix is to tell the Hik-Connect app to show the Substream by default.
- Open the Hik-Connect app and go to the live view for your cameras.
- On the live view screen, you will see an icon that may say "HD," "Hi-Res," or "Clear."
- Tap this icon. It should give you an option to switch to "SD," "Basic," or "Fluent."
- Selecting this lower-quality option will switch the feed to the Substream. The video will be less detailed, but it should be significantly smoother and more stable.
## Step 3: Adjust Camera Stream Settings (Advanced)
If you need higher quality than the default Substream provides, you can manually adjust the camera's stream settings. This is done through the NVR/DVR's web interface or a computer running the iVMS-4200 software.
- Log in to your NVR/DVR's configuration menu.
- Navigate to Camera Management or a similar video/audio settings area.
- Select the camera you want to adjust and go to its Video Settings.
- You will see separate settings for the Main Stream and Substream. For the Main Stream, you can try the following:
- Lower the Bitrate: This is the most effective change. The bitrate (measured in Kbps) determines how much data the video uses. Lowering it will reduce quality but also decrease bandwidth requirements.
- Lower the Resolution: Change the resolution from its maximum (e.g., 4K or 5MP) down to something like 1080p.
- Lower the Frame Rate (FPS): Reducing the frames per second from 25/30 to 15/20 can also save a significant amount of bandwidth.
Important: Making these changes to the Main Stream will also affect the quality of your recordings. A better approach for many is to slightly increase the resolution and bitrate of the Substream to find a happy medium for remote viewing.
By understanding the relationship between stream types and bandwidth, you can make informed adjustments to your Hikvision system, ensuring a reliable and clear picture through the Hik-Connect app, even on a limited internet connection.