Encoding settings
Tune Resolution Limit, GOP Mode, Codec, and Encoder Engine for the right balance of quality, smoothness, and bandwidth.
Encoding settings
PreviewMonitor lets you control how your picture is encoded before it's sent to your phone. The defaults work well, but if your Wi-Fi is busy or you want a specific trade-off between quality and smoothness, these are the dials to turn.
Open them while streaming: tap the screen, tap the gear, and look under Stream and Encoding.
Resolution Limit
Caps the resolution of the picture sent to your phone. Lower resolutions use far less bandwidth and survive a weak network better; higher resolutions look sharper but need a strong connection.
Options: Source, 2160p, 1440p, 1080p, 720p (recommended), 540p, 480p, 360p.
- Source sends the full sequence resolution with no cap.
- 720p is the recommended default — a good balance of sharpness and reliability over Wi-Fi.
- Drop to 540p or lower if the stream stutters or the loss number goes yellow or red.
GOP Mode
The GOP (Group of Pictures) mode controls how frames are compressed relative to each other. It's the main trade-off between recovery from packet loss and bandwidth efficiency.
| Mode | Shown in HUD as | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| All-Intra | Snappy | Every frame stands alone, so a lost packet can't ripple into later frames. Most resilient; uses the most bandwidth. |
| Short (Short-GOP) | Smooth | A balance — smaller than All-Intra, still recovers quickly from loss. |
| Long (Long-GOP, recommended) | Long | The most bandwidth-efficient. P-frames are small, so this is easiest on a busy network — at the cost of slower recovery if a frame is lost. |
When to use which:
- On a strong, quiet network, use All-Intra ("Snappy") for the most robust, instant-recovery picture.
- For a good all-round experience, Short ("Smooth") balances size and resilience.
- On a busy or weaker network where bandwidth is tight, Long keeps the data rate down and the stream flowing.
Codec
Choose the video codec:
- H.265 (HEVC) — better quality for the same bandwidth. The best choice on modern iPhones, which decode it efficiently.
- H.264 — the older, universally supported codec. Use it if you run into any compatibility or performance issue with H.265.
Encoder Engine
Chooses which piece of hardware encodes the video on your computer. The list is filled in by the plugin based on what your machine actually has, and the first entry is the host's recommended default.
Typical entries include Auto, a hardware encoder such as NVIDIA NVENC, and Software (CPU).
- Leave it on the recommended default unless you have a reason to change it.
- Hardware encoders (like NVENC) are fastest and lightest on your CPU.
- Software (CPU) is the fallback if a hardware encoder isn't available or misbehaves — it works anywhere but uses more processor.
All of these settings are sent live to the plugin — change one and the stream re-encodes within a moment. If you ever want to start over, Reset to Defaults at the bottom of the settings panel restores everything.