In general, this disclosure describes media stream transmission techniques for a computing device. The computing device captures a first media item and identifies a primary portion of the first media item and a secondary portion of the first media item different than the primary portion. The computing device applies a first compression algorithm to the primary portion of the first media item to generate a compressed primary portion. The computing device applies a second compression algorithm to the secondary portion of the first media item to generate a compressed secondary portion, where a data compression ratio of the second compression algorithm is greater than a data compression ratio of the first compression algorithm. The computing device transmits, to a central computing device, the compressed primary portion of the first media item and the compressed secondary portion of the first media item.