Nortronics

Since the acceptance of IP video, terms like MPEG4, H.264, 4CIF, D1, MJPEG, QCIF, CIF, DVD quality HD, Mega-pixel & MJPEG have been thrown around as statements of image quality.

Unfortunately these terms have absolutely no relation to actual image quality. In fact in most IP product specifications there is no true measure of the final image quality. We used to measure the quality of a camera in lines of resolution. In current terms 540 lines in colour is a reasonable resolution out the back of the camera. But when we record this to a DVR or IP solution, we don’t mention the number of lines anymore. We refer to the resolution in CIF, 2CIF, 4CIF, D1 or some other High-Definition or mega-pixel resolution.