Forum Discussion
Turn off/on incoming video setting
Hellomichb175
I can think of two benefits, really just two sides of the same coin. One is that it would reduce your bandwidth requirement which may result in a lower cost, depending on your package with your ISP. A second benefit would be in the scenario where the audio quality is poor or cutting out for you during a video call. Turning off the incoming video then should improve the audio quality of the call.
HTH.
I don't know for sure, but I remember reading that the purpose was to reduce network congestion. So I'm guessing it totally prevents the video from being sent to you.
I can't imagine the video goes from peer-to-peer. My guess on that is that it all goes to the MS cloud and then to each user. So it would just tell the cloud services not to send video to you. Again, just my guess.
Sorry for all the guesses, but I don't think MS has been that transparent on how it all works. Plus I think they are continually changing/upgrading Teams, so some of its backend must remain in flux and dynamic.
Mark -
thanks Mark. That was my guess also but my guesses have bitten me in the butt a few times 
Thanks again for the reply and info.
Kevin.
kmattakat Totally agree. That's why I made sure to point out I was guessing. Let us all know what you think after using the feature a bit.
Mark -
did a quick test just watching the network adapter in the task manager. Teams call with 13 participants, 1 sharing desktop, 5-6 sending their video stream. Average receive B/sec appeared to be on the high end of 100-250KB/sec (1.5Mbps-2Mbps with 4Mbps-7Mbps spikes). Turning off incoming video dropped it to the lower end of that range. Didn't appear to be a real significant difference if you were only on 1-2 calls a day. Could make a difference if you had many large conf calls through out the day.
at rest Teams seems to be running around 20-30KB/sec (240Kbps)
of course this is just ball park and wasn't a very thorough test. I have a number conference calls every day so looking to setup a better test just haven't had time to get the correct apps together.
just for comparison, i had a Skype call right after the teams call. 30 participant, 1 person sharing desktop and no video streams. Skype was running around 180KB/sec to 200KB/sec (1.6Mbps) with just audio and desktop share.
