July 11, 2017

Current video stream latency and a way to reduce it

by Oleg Dzhimiev

Fig.1 Live stream latency testing

Recently we had an inquiry whether our cameras are capable of streaming low latency video. The short answer is yes, the camera’s average output latency for 1080p at 30 fps is ~16 ms. It is possible to reduce it to almost 0.5 ms with a few changes to the driver.

However the total latency of the system, from capturing to displaying, includes delays caused by network, pc, software and display.

In the results of the experiment (similar to this one) these delays contribute the most (around 40-50 ms) to the stream latency – at least, for the given equipment.

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