I currently have Wyze Cam V3 but when I record to SD card the quality is very bad, like very compressed and pixelated with no option to increase the bitrate. I think this has been posted about before on this forum by myself and other people. I understand the need to compress the video enough to reduce bandwidth for cloud, but there should be an option to record at higher quality when recording to SD card.
I’m just wondering if any improvements have been made regarding this with the latest cameras like Wyze Cam V4, or Wyze Cam Battery Pro for example.
it’s not the streaming resolution that I’m referring to, it’s the video recorded directly to the in camera SD card (either event or continuous). Like when I pull the card out of the camera and view the mp4 files on my computer they look terrible and always have. That’s why I was wondering if there has been any improvement with the newer models.
wow, are you sure that’s wyze cam v3? this is my sample I just took, it’s a bit cloudy outside but still well lit. I walked outside with the camera attached to a USB power supply, then copied the file to my computer from the SD card. I don’t understand, why it looks like crap.
Yes, I’m very sure it was from a V3’s SD card. I can’t take a pic of the bottom of the camera; it’s attached to a window, looking out.
I just noticed this; I recorded this 12-second clip from the SD card. It came out as a 10-second clip. The person who said there were two seconds missing at the end of a recording was right.
It also rained yesterday. See the slight smudge at the center of the view?
This is from a three year old V3 looking through a double pain window, previously outdoors for two years. I have 5 older V3 cams that have been outdoors since 2020 and they look better than yours.
ok thanks for sharing, I don’t really understand what the problem is then. I bought my camera a long time ago probably 3 or 4 years close to the time after it was released. I don’t see any settings whatsoever in the android app that control bit rate or quality of recordings. I also have the latest app version and firmware version installed on the camera. Maybe I have a faulty unit this whole time.
Yeah there is definitely something wrong. If that were live view I’d say your wifi bandwidth isn’t keeping up or it is set to 360P. But SD card recordings should be at least as good if not better than live view.
On all my cams, no matter what I set the live view to, the SD card recording is always the full resolution of the camera.
I’m thinking maybe your SD card may be dying and can’t write fast enough? Have you tried a different card? Though I would think that would just result in an error and not a low res video.
If you don’t need Cam Plus Lite keep an eye on the v4s, much better cam and around black friday they seem to have really good sales (2 for $35 last year, I got a single one for $17 or so too).
Does it look like that when you watch SD card video in the app too? Just trying to rule out something related to the transfer from the card to the PC.
With you holding the Cam v3 and panning it may have everything in motion causing pixelation. Does your camera still have reduced quality while the camera is stationary recording motion?
Here is a sample of my Cam v3 looking though a double pane window. Only my dog chasing a squirrel is in motion.
I wonder if copying the video to a computer is causing additional compression. The above video was capture from my SD card within the Wyze App and saved to my iPad Pro which I uploaded to this forum.
I missed that part, the v3 was definitely the most sensitive of any I’d seen to compression artifacts, and the entire camera moving around would definitely cause that.
No it is actually less compression, when you record to the phone, your phone re-compresses the video a second time, at least it does on mine (file size actually gets larger). Copying off the SD card yields a bit better quality and sometimes less file size too. The first time I needed to give a clip to the police I remember trying both ways and the file directly off the card was noticeably (though not massively) clearer, particularly when zooming in.
If there are things moving in a static frame, like for example rain drops falling in front of the camera lens or leaves moving in trees, all the area around the movement gets heavily pixelated during the time of movement. From what I read about video compression before I was under the impression that static areas would be heavily compressed because they don’t change from frame to frame and moving parts don’t get compressed as much. Why is the reverse happening here? It kind of defeats the purpose of having a security camera in the first place if the moving subject you are trying to identify gets heavily pixelated like that.
Carrying the camera will make it really bad as you’re moving the entire frame and it has to compress all of it, which may be why it looks like that. A static frame with normal motion should be pretty clear especially during the day.
I had a v3 for a brief time and exchanged it for an OG as I found the compression artifacts at night were really bad, and as you say rain really messed with it. Not that the other cams don’t have any issue with compression, but I’ve found the OGs, v4, and Panv3s I have deal much better with it.
All these cams use very high compression, nature of the beast. I calculated it out once and the 1080P cams were at over 99.8% compression (which makes it sound worse than it is but still extremely high). The 2.5K and 4K cams are even worse as they are aiming to keep the same bitrate and file size. I wish they would add the option to have lower compression on the SD card than on the stream, but I doubt that will happen. Honestly, I would not consider these to be “security cameras”. Yes, they are nice to have, and yes, they MIGHT help identify someone/something. But if I lived in a high crime area or owned a business etc, I would invest in a true hardwired security camera system with centralized NVR.
Here is the stationary view example. It still looks like crap. There’s even still some sunlight making its way through the trees so you can tell it’s still bright enough that the quality shouldn’t be impacted this much.
Glad to hear that the newer cameras deal with the compression better, I think I might try the V4. Although I almost feel like making my own using raspberry pi
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