A Fair Assessment?

Cameras
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1

“Got cam?”

Yeah, I have several, but I’m not very demanding of them. My best advice to anyone asking is to start slow, buy one and fiddle with it for at least a month, see how it performs and how Wyze app firmware/software updates can sometimes negatively affect the experience.

Some folks claim to have absolutely no problems and others are beset with them and get stuck in troubleshooting hell.

Speak English Tech Genius! - #14 by peepeep

If you find yourself in the former group, huzzah! If not, cut it loose or use it in some limited way that IS stable.

In the US, at appx $25 delivered with a one year warranty (and they do replace them after you’ve exhausted troubleshooting with their agents via email) one’s risk is limited. Not sure what one would cost landed elsewhere, but if it’s too high, the value perception changes, of course.

The image quality is good, 1080p, and two lesser resolutions which are fine on a small format screen, and which the app sometimes recommends you switch to if WiFi signal is weak/instable.

15 fps day, 10 fps night, so it has subject motion limitations inherent in that. Fuller specs are near the bottom of the page here:

Indoor/Outdoor, Wired Security Camera | Wyze Cam v3 – Wyze Labs, Inc.

Fair assessment?

  • Yes
  • No
0 voters
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$45.98 with taxes in Canada. I have to replace one v2 this week that was 10 months old (30 days warranty on Amazon). Will receive it monday.

Yes, since april 27 (day of iOS software update), grouping my cams in groups, caused me some issues. I had to remove my groups in the hope that the problems will be resolved in the future update.

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Cams are like an old Fashioned addiction, the dealer starts you off slow… suck’in you in…pretty soon, you’ll get like me, Mainlining one a Month… (This is you’re Brain on WYZE)…… :money_mouth_face:

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Hi, gyzmo! Have you recommended them to any compatriots? Are you still friends? :wink:

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Hey Coax!

Ahhh, I got an intimation of that in the first few months when I was trying to push them to their advertised potential.

Now that I know what’s happening around my urban multi-family neighborhood in the middle of the night, will I ever be comfortable not-knowing again? Can one ever know too much??

For me, the answer to both was “Yes”, but I certainly felt the Monster’s pull…

6

Hello @peepeep, If it is for one or two cameras, yes but if someone wants to mount a system with several cameras, I hesitate. When we are used to certain functions and they no longer function as before right after an update, it is annoying. If it is for something else from Wyze, to see all the problems on the forum, no, I do not recommend.

When you know that the problem comes from your side, it’s fun to try to find the cause but when it comes from elsewhere, it’s frustrating because there is nothing you can do about it.

An update is supposed to be used to improve a system, not to degrade its functionalities. With all the new products Wyze is trying to integrate into one application, the future will be difficult but I try remain hopeful.

I’ve been happy with my 10 cameras (7V2 and 3 Pans) for a year. Now I have been less so for a month. However, they all work but not as at the beginning. I didn’t lose everything. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Stellar comment, and the above shines extra bright for me. :star2:

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Can you explain what this issue is?

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FWIW, an observation:

People on the boards who claim “No problems, works as advertised” are asserting that condition, not documenting it, and that claim is accepted.

People who claim “OMG, help, this thing is buggy as hell,” are requested here and by support to describe, provide evidence, to document the flaw or error. And, as activity on the boards demonstrates, there is tremendous energy expended in the attempt.

Maybe some of this at play:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)#Proving_a_negative

Ergo, the tribes face-off:

  • The contempt expressed by those trouble-free for the “whiners” trouble-beset
  • The agitation and resentment of the trouble-beset for the “complacent” trouble-free

Boths tribes generally agree on just one thing: the opposing tribe is clueless.

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Hello @WyzeJasonJ,

Since de update on april 21 (2.10.62), when your cams are in groups, there is the delay before viewing your cam in HD. When you click a thumbnail, the view is in 360P with a message « please wait ». After 2-12 secongs the cam auto switch in HD. If I change the view in landscape, the view freeze frequently.

When the cam is not in group, when you click on it, the live view is directly in HD…no waiting time, no freezing etc…

First video: without groups.

Second video: With groups. The issues…

Also, with grouping, the bitrate of the playback is aroud 30% lower than not in groups. Without groupings, the bitrate are the same. The quality of the playback in groups is lower than the one without groups. I did not made a video of this issue.

Another issue is the access time for the playback. Before the update, it was around 2-3 seconds, after the update, 7-10 seconds. After that time, if you go back in the playback, it takes 4-5 seconds at each step for the first 4 back steps. After, if you go further in the same playback, no waiting time.

All those issues are probably related to each other’s.

I have those problems with my 2 iPhones 6+ and my iPad mini5(A12). My router is a linksys EA-9500 and I have a gigabyte connection. The speeds at my phones are 180Mb/s and 400Mb/s to my iPad. These issues are on ALL my cams(7v2-3pans). The videos in this reply are from my iPhone.

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EVERYTHING WAS WORKING FINE before the april 21 iOS software update.(2.10.62)

I remember, last year, after an application update, the grouping had issues. Wyze has released an update to correct that a few days later. Didn’t have issues with grouping later. There was another update after april 21 (2.10.72) but I have the same issues with groups**

To WYZE: it will be good to have the choice for the applications. One for camera only(WYZE CAM) and one for cams plus all your stuff.(WYZE THINGS). I don’t want to deal with all the issues that your new stuff brings to me.

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WOW! :open_mouth: Thank you for posting some incredibly insightful and actionable new information! (Maybe this has been discussed before, but I sure missed it…)

It took me all of a few seconds to un-group a couple of cams and verify exactly what you reported - cams are a LOT more responsive when not in groups! ( this is just testing one Android device btw, will play with the iOS ones next )

Loading time, viewing experience and especially going back through playback are all very noticeably improved! :grinning:

Just that single variable change, absolutely everything else untouched, and the entire experience is completely different.

I presume the root cause is all the mode switching that Wyze had to program in so that viewing a 4-up group would not overpower slower connections or user devices.

But still, knowing that, I can keep my critical action cams out of groups and leave the ones watching plants in groups.

Thanks again!

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Hello @sodcam,

Those issues began with update 2.10.62 for iOS. The same day, there was an update for android too, 2.10.36. It was on april 21. These updates were about:

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@rbruceporter tried to help me with these issues but without videos, it was tough for me to explain them.

Hope this help🙂

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I second that emotion! Great job, @gyzmo :+1:

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14

I certainly see your issues clearly. However I cannot replicate them even a little bit. My environment is similar to yours. iOS using 2 iPhone X’s and 6th and 7th gen iPad. I have 8 cameras currently in use. 6 are in 2 groups of 3 and 2 are singles. Oh and 1 shared camera I can view.

There is no noticeable delay in viewing cameras in or not in groups. I moved cameras out of and back into groups and checked. And in my case from clicking a camera to viewing it is about 1.5 seconds. When in a group it takes 2-3 seconds for all 3 cameras to stream. Selecting any camera from the group results in a delay of 1 to 1.5 seconds.

I have a newish Linksys router running in Access Point mode. And my up and down speeds are similar to yours.

The bit rates vary all over the map but all cameras are in HD mode. That said groups are not viewable in HD as far as I know. The group is viewed I believe in 360 but I will defer to someone from Wyze for confirmation of that.

So while I can certainly see what you are talking about in your videos, I can’t replicate it. Which would indicate to me that it is probably a combination of things. Be interesting to see what others find trying to replicate your conditions.

My app version is 2.10.72
Firmware for V2’s is a mix of 4.9.6.66 and 4.28.4.42 RTSP
iOS version is 13.5

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Never understood why the app so aggressively launches the camera views, constantly starting and restarting when you drill down from group view to individual camera view. For me something breaks in the transition roughly half the time.

A simple “start” button, so I could leave the group cameras NOT streaming until demanded, would make life so much easier.

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Saw a documentary last night about a Japanese cat who sat on a mountaintop and observed an overhanging thunderstorm in progress, then descended, described and drew what he had observed, sent it to an established academic researcher in Chicago whose work resonated with his, was offered a job, and began his long career. One obsessive dude. Persistent. Thick skinned. Stubborn. “Mr. Tornado” he came to be called. Quite the guy.

/edit

Maybe the Wyze guys don’t have the time/resource luxury to sit on that mountaintop and observe. Maybe some of these problems can’t be solved without it?

One of his career-high discoveries was that sometimes a tornado harbored mutltiple sub-tornadoes under its skirts. Someone please PM me an emoji for that image. :wink:

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This seems like a good idea.

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It is certain that my first language is not English but you speak in parable, smoking weeds or what? I often have trouble following you in your answers. Too funny lol :smile::+1:

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lol, check the edit. :slight_smile:

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Maybe the guys at Wyze are all busy developing products for sale and they don’t have the time or the skill to make them work properly.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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