When does it matter?
When you are setting up a new camera and want to instantly check a camera position on a video
When you need to watch what is happening in near real-time
Why there is latency at all
The latency for H264 cameras is mostly because of the design of the HLS protocol that these cameras use. Delays of around 40 seconds are unfortunately a feature of this protocol.
There are also other factors that influence the latency that are valid for all types of cameras. But these are usually only a matter of seconds:
Video stream settings (such as keyframe interval, video quality...)
Internet connection quality
Viewer device
Does it make sense to enable low latency streaming for MJPEG cameras?
No, unlike HLS, MJPEG protocol is not delayed by its design and enabling low latency streaming will not influence other factors (internet connection quality, camera settings...). Therefore we can say that MJPEG cameras are providing low latency streaming by default.
What you will get once Low Latency Streaming is enabled
On selected devices and browsers (see below):
⚡️Minimum delay between reality and video playback – only 2 seconds on average
🏎Faster loading of the camera stream
📉Lower CPU load
👉Supported devices and browsers
Enabling low latency streaming has impact only in our web application - for the sake of clarity: if you are signed-in to my.angelcam.com. That means that although you enable it, this option will have no impact on latency in our mobile application and our broadcasting service.
The feature works only for selected browsers, in general we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Edge. Using low latency streaming in other browsers can result in an inability to play the stream.
How to enable low latency streaming
Go to My cameras
Click on the camera to which you would like to enable low latency streaming. Then click "Manage camera" (see screenshot below)
Go to tab "Low-latency streaming"
And that's it!
Ready to give it a try? Let us know how it's going.
😇 We are here to help
Just say hello@angelcam.com or check out Angelcam Community to connect with other users sharing their own experiences and insight into various security topics.