IP Camera Resolution & Image Quality Calculator
Calculate megapixels, storage requirements, bandwidth consumption, and image quality metrics for IP cameras based on resolution, frame rate, compression, and retention settings.
Formulas Used
Megapixels:
MP = (Width × Height) ÷ 1,000,000
Raw Uncompressed Bitrate (bps):
Raw Bitrate = Width × Height × FPS × Bit Depth × 3 (RGB channels)
Compressed Bitrate (bps):
Compressed Bitrate = Raw Bitrate × Codec Ratio × Quality Factor
Codec Ratios: H.265 = 0.15, H.264 = 0.30, MJPEG = 0.50, Uncompressed = 1.00
Compression Ratio:
Compression Ratio = 1 ÷ (Codec Ratio × Quality Factor)
Single Frame Size (bytes):
Frame Size = (Width × Height × Bit Depth × 3 ÷ 8) × Codec Ratio × Quality
Storage per Camera per Day (bytes):
Active Seconds = 24 × 3600 × (Motion% ÷ 100)
Storage = (Compressed Bitrate ÷ 8) × Active Seconds
Total Storage (bytes):
Total Storage = Storage per Camera per Day × Number of Cameras × Retention Days
Recommended NVR Storage:
Recommended = Total Storage × 1.20 (20% overhead for filesystem, indexing, redundancy)
Assumptions & References
- Color cameras use 3 channels (RGB); monochrome cameras would use 1 channel (not modeled here).
- H.264 compression ratio (~30% of raw) is based on ITU-T H.264 standard typical performance at medium quality; H.265 achieves ~50% better compression than H.264 per HEVC specification (ITU-T H.265).
- MJPEG is treated as per-frame JPEG compression at approximately 50% of raw data.
- Bit depth of 8 bits per channel is standard for most IP cameras; 10-bit and 12-bit are used in HDR and professional systems.
- Motion/active recording percentage models the fraction of the 24-hour day during which the camera is actively recording (e.g., motion detection, scheduled recording).
- A 20% storage overhead is added to account for filesystem metadata, index files, and NVR software overhead — consistent with industry NVR sizing guidelines (Milestone, Genetec, Axis).
- Network bandwidth figures assume constant bitrate (CBR) encoding; variable bitrate (VBR) may reduce actual bandwidth by 20–40% in low-motion scenes.
- Storage calculations use SI units (1 GB = 10⁹ bytes, 1 TB = 10¹² bytes) consistent with hard drive manufacturer specifications.
- References: ONVIF Profile S specification; IPVM Camera Calculator methodology; IEC 80000-13 for digital storage units.