Recording quality varies - any way to ensure it's high quality?

[PatrickW]

Hi,

We use Zoom in our church and record our services.

On a Sunday, we almost never have any problems, and the resulting video is 1920 x 1080; however, whenever I record a wedding or funeral, the resulting file always seems to be awful (640 x 360?).

The differences seem to be:

Sunday services: more people on Zoom, an additional laptop being used in church to handle the PowerPoint which is also connected to Zoom (though no idea why this would have an effect).

Other services: few people on Zoom, no additional laptop.

Other potential issues: we are using mobile broadband in church, but it seems too much of a coincidence that we have poor broadband on those 'Other services' days.

Any ideas what could be causing the problem?

Thanks in advance,

Patrick

[ExpertswhoJohn]

hi @PatrickW 

Are you sure your account records are in HD? - It is more likely to be 720p
If somebody joins with an iPhone or tablet, that can reduce the quality again.

To see what is going on at any time, from your Zoom app, choose the settings and then statistics.
From the video tab, you will see what resolution is being used.
All the best

john

[PatrickW]

Hi, and huge apologies for the delayed response!

It may be that I'm doing something wrong, but for the poor recording quality files, all I get is one file which includes 'avo_640x360' in the filename. For our bigger services, I get three files:

1. Date&time_Recording_as_1920x1080.mp4
2. Date&time_Recording_avo_640x360.mp4
3. Date&time_Recording_1920x1080.mp4

I have no need for the first two, so delete them and use the last file.

Is there a way to force three recording qualities for ALL recordings?

Many thanks,

Patrick

 

 

[PatrickW]

Hi @ExpertswhoJohn - just wondering if my reply had made sense?!

Patrick

[ExpertswhoJohn]

There are many recording outpus depedent on what you want to see. you can choose for local recordings or cloud, or use two machines to get both types.

Nothing of this had any change on how zoom records your original content.

A screen share is usually recorded in the screen size it is sharing.
In meetings, a highlighted person will usually be recorded at 720p unless you have a business account or corporate account and requested support for an update to 1080p HD.  If an iPad or phone is in the meeting, they can only get 720p and therefore, zoom will reduce it to all for 720p, as it can only provide one stream for all.
People in group views will be recorded at 360p

The screen sizes you see in the list you give are because you have layouts like the shared screen with the speaker added to the side. They will not change whether you are HD "approved" or not. But you may see some quality changes. if you look at those different videos you will see they have different layouts.
I would think there were devices at the funeral that could only support 260p and so zoom had to reduce the quality for all.

To go into full detail would take a 30-minute or longer video.

You have two choices: to select one of the predefined outputs, from which there are so many choices now, or to take a selection of outputs and then use them to edit your own version. For my customers, I often use the latter.

If you are concerned with audio problems because people speak over each other, you can select to have separate audio files for each speaker (up to 50 I think), but this can only be selected as a local recording option. Again I like this to save me from people talking over or not muted and ruining my speakers' audio.

Choose the formats you want in either your local settings for a local recording or on the website and meeting creation page.

[PatrickW]

That's strange - was sure I'd replied to your post, so apologies!

Given that we use the same laptop for each of our services, and the only differences are a) using another laptop to share a PowerPoint and b) the number of people joining Zoom and in church, I'm going to try an experiment before one of our Thursday services (also low numbers, and no PowerPoint:

1. start recording
2. share a 'Welcome' PowerPoint slide
3. stop sharing before the service starts
4. check the recording to see what the quality is like

Patrick

[Ray_Harwood]

Hi, @PatrickW.  Sounds like you’ve gotten some advice which might be helpful. 

Here’s another thought: It sounds like you’re “just recording” the wedding, with only yourself or two machines involved, and primarily using a camera feed to record. Even if you are set up with HD, I’ve found it often requires at least 3 attendees to get the resolution you want. I’m not sure of the specific details, but there is some special handling if there is only one or two people in the meeting. Try having a third person (Host plus 2 attendees) on the Meeting. 

Also, try both Cloud and Local recordings; I think there is fine difference between them, and most often the Cloud Recording is higher quality.

If possible, please share a screen shot of your Cloud and Local recording settings. 

[PatrickW]

@Ray_Harwood,

"Even if you are set up with HD, I’ve found it often requires at least 3 attendees to get the resolution you want"

Many thanks for the suggestion - I hadn't considered that! I'm not sure why, given that I can't spotlight someone until there are 3+ in the meeting.

I'll also try that - thanks again.

Unfortunately, I won't get a chance to check the recording settings for a week: the laptop is safely locked away in the church, and I'm heading off to Scotland for the week!

Patrick

[PatrickW · Accepted solution]

Hi folks,

FYI, in our case it's all about the second laptop!

Two Sundays ago - when we usually run a PowerPoint from laptop two which is connected to Zoom - we instead used the Picture-in-Picture functionality of the Atem Pro we use in church. That fixed my biggest complaint about Zoom recordings, where the PPT slide takes up 95% of the screen, and the person talking is a tiny rectangle in the top right of the screen.

However, the recording quality was awful - it was 640x360.

So, last Sunday I connected the PPT laptop to Zoom and shared a slide, we then pressed Record on our 'Zoom' laptop and I then stopped sharing the PPT and left the Zoom meeting.

The recording I downloaded was back to normal, i.e. 1920x1080.

I can't explain why, and it's a messy thing for us to have to do each week, but hopefully if anyone else is having the same issues, this could be a solution.

Patrick