New Firmware for TrackMix PoE reduced video quality?

[Reolink Cam_813700743893181]

Hello and good day members of the ReoLink community. I wonder if perhaps anyone else has noticed a drop in video quality with the latest firmware update to their TrackMix PoE cameras? I have been in contact with ReoLink support regarding an issue I'm having with the desktop clients, in which not all four feeds of my two camera system appear, but appear fine in the mobile app. Unfortunately they have not been of much help. It was only by accident, watching a YouTube video, that I learned the built in auto/manual check for firmware updates feature doesn't work, and that you have to do it manually by downloading it from their website. So as a result my firmware was over a year behind, on both my NVR and my two cameras. Okay, I have since successfully updated the NVR and the camera's firmware, having double checked what revision and firmware I should be using, and noticed a bit of a drop in video quality, particularly when the camera is in motion. It's very pixelated, until it stops tracking. This was not the case with the old firmware. Has a codec been changed or something? I have both cameras set to the highest bitrate/frame rate available. The only setting that confuses me (even after researching it) is the i-frame interval. Can somebody please explain to a complete moron (me) what that means, and what it should be set at? I want the absolute highest quality stream/recording. I'm not concerned about file size, I have a 12TB surveillance rated hard drive, for two cameras. I should also mention I am using the latest desktop client. Would greatly appreciate any insight from fellow users, as unfortunately ReoLink phone support reps are essentially just script readers.

[joseph_1979]

@reolink-cam_813700743893181 Most network surveillance camera streams are made up of I-frames and P-frames, I-frames are full image captures that record everything the camera is seeing and P-frames are the frames between the I-frames where only the elements of the image that are changing are refreshed.

To explain this with an example, if you had an empty corridor and someone walked down it the I-frame would capture the entire image and then the following P-frames would only capture the elements of the image that are changing, which in this case would be the person walking.

The idea behind this is that it is another way to compress the bitrate of the camera stream because instead of capturing 25 full-resolution images every second you are capturing one full image every 50 frames (e.g. 2 seconds) and then all the frames in between only capture what changes in the image and thus are much smaller files/use less bitrate.

Reducing the I-frame interval (25 frames, 10 frames, etc...) will obviously increase the bitrate/bandwidth used by the camera and is only really recommended if you are installing the camera in a very busy scene where having the full image refresh more regularly can improve image detail. Increasing the I-frame interval (75 frames, 100 frames, etc...) will decrease the bandwidth used and is only really recommended when covering scenes with little to no activity as you will see a drop in image quality and maybe even distortion to any movement that happens between the I-frames.

Now as regards the new fw, ensure you have the latest one cited in the Download center. I have the WIFI trackmix and the first fw released included ONVIF but at the expense of lower resolution at clear mode. In fact the colours appeared washed out. We have requested to restore max bit rate and fps and the definition is merely the say as the old fw. There are some issues on the new fw. Do a search on Trackmix fw and you shall find a thread on this.