Security Camera Resolution Explained

An important specification of any security camera is its resolution. If you don’t have the correct resolution for your type of security needs, you may end up with unclear and blurry images.

The size and quality of your video are determined by the camera’s lines of resolution. Television lines (or TVL) are typically used to reference to analog video quality while pixels are used to refer to digital resolution (IP Cameras). TVL specifies the amount of vertical lines (= Horizontal Resolution) that are able to be seen. The standard National Television System Committee (NTSC) analog video is made up of 480 interlaced horizontal lines. Theoretically horizontal resolution can be increased infinitely but hardware restrictions such as the maximum count of pixels on a chip restrict this.

Typical TVL Resolutions:
• 480 TVL: 510 x 492
• 600 TVL: 768 x 494
• 650 TVL: 811 x 508
• 700 TVL: 976 x 582

Typical IP Security Camera Resolutions:
• VGA: 640×480
• D1: 720×480 (generally shown as a subset of VGA)
• 720p: 1280×720
• 1.3 Megapixel: 1280×1024
• 1080p / 2.1 Megapixel: 1920×1080

Below is a comparing chart of all camera resolutions can be found.

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