IP Surveillance cameras, also known as network cameras or megapixel cameras, are digital video cameras that transmit data over a computer network. Unlike analog CCTV cameras, IP cameras encode and compress digital video before sending it over the network.
Most IP surveillance cameras use the Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) or H.264 compression format. M-JPEG compresses individual frames, while H.264 compresses video streams over time. H.264 provides better compression than M-JPEG and is, therefore, more efficient in terms of bandwidth and storage requirements.