Large Meeting Recordings Sometimes Drop to 640×360—How to Prevent This?

[MITMike]

My friend and I both use Zoom Workplace Pro, running version 6.5.9 (61929). I regularly record meetings (2–10 participants) either locally on my Mac Mini or to the cloud, and the recordings are always high resolution—typically around 1750×1336, and sometimes as high as 2560×1400.

My friend records a larger meeting every few months (40–80 participants). Most of the time his recordings are also decent quality, but on two occasions the resolution dropped all the way down to 640×360.

Internet bandwidth doesn’t appear to be the issue: my connection can dip as low as 100 Mbps down / 10 Mbps up (sometimes up to 600/20), while his is consistently strong at 600+ down and 300+ up. The one difference is that he sometimes joins/records via the web client instead of the desktop app.

Question:
What steps should my friend take to ensure his large-meeting recordings are consistently high resolution? Should he avoid the web client and always use the app, or are there other settings/factors that affect recording resolution with larger groups?

[storyhub · Accepted solution]

Start the recording using a graphic in screen share mode that is 1280x720 before starting the recording. Make sure that at least one or more participants are viewing full screen. Note that any one participant using a low res device can shift the resolution as well.

If this works please click accept as a solution.

[MITMike]

So any one person out of 80 or so in the meeting could trigger a low resolution recording?  And we can't prevent that or even identify which user triggered the problem?  

Any suggestions on how we can test this to confirm?  If I were to use my iPhone in a test meeting is that resolution low enough to trigger the low resolution recording?  

[storyhub]

You can monitor statistics for the meetings video or screen share to see the actual resolution sent and received. Starting the recording using a graphic in screen share mode without video optimization that is 1280x720 before starting the recording will cause the recording to lock to 720P. Without video optimization the resolution sent will use the displays resolution. So if the display is 4K and internet bandwidth permits the resolution would be 4K which explains why you have seen as high as 2560×1400. However, the recording resolution may be something else depending upon other factors - typically with video optimization it will be 720P if started as mentioned. Under most conditions the record resolution will be 360P. Unless you are viewing the video on a large screen most people will not see the visual difference. All this resolution changing is because of streaming video to various devices at the same time - 360P is the best choice for talking heads without screen sharing. Screen sharing will alter the record resolution. Webinars and events can also alter the recording resolution (watch Zoomptopia 2025). WiFi can also change recording resolution to the cloud because of multiple encoding/decoding that comes with using WiFi. Finally, never use the web app - always use the client on an ethernet connected desktop with an NVIDIA GPU (which also provides multiple displays) that is designed for gaming or video editing for best hosting results.