A video surveillance system has an encoder receiving a video signal from a camera and generating real-time sequenced packets for streaming to a remote monitoring location. A transmit buffer is coupled to the encoder for buffering the sequenced packets. A transmit controller transmits an original packet stream comprising the sequenced packets. The transmit controller is responsive to retransmission requests to transmit sequenced packets from the transmit buffer as a retransmission stream. A receive controller is provided at the monitoring location for receiving the original packet stream and detecting missing packets from the original packet stream to transmit corresponding retransmission requests to the transmit controller for the missing packets. A decoder is responsive to the original packet stream to generate a reproduced video signal for viewing at the monitoring location. A recorder stores recorded video responsive to the original packet stream and the retransmission stream. The retransmission stream includes sequenced packets that are received too late to be used by the decoder for live reproduction, so that the recorded video provides a higher quality reproduced video signal than the reproduced video signal viewed in real-time at the monitoring location.