Dull picture in V2

Hi,

I received my order of V2 today and observed that the pictures have a dull/hazy look to them(kind of greenish in the nights). I did a side-by-side comparison with my V1 and the issue is appearing in 2 of the V2 I had ordered. I am very happy with my V1s, however, am a little worried about the V2 units I received.

 

The pictures are duller in both day time and night time.

Anyone having similar issues? I have already reached out to support for their help. Hoping that someone can address this. I have updated to the latest firmware.

 

Thanks,

My Old V1

 

My new V2(same issue in both my V2s) - You can see that it improves the night time vision, however, the picture lacks the richness of the V1

 

It looks like these photos were taken at night with night vision off? My guess is that there’s a tradeoff in the V2 to get better night vision (with night vision on) you lose some color detail in low light with night vision off. I’ve not really done a comparison with mine though.

How about in full daylight outdoors or fully lit room indoors? How does your V1 and V2 compare in those conditions?

I noticed the same dullness with my V2 camera compared to my V1 camera. I posted details in this thread.

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/v1-vs-v2-comparisons/

Thanks. Here are some additional photos.

Old V1 - This has a look of richness to the image, specifically look at the table tone

 

New V2 - Look at the lack of richness to this. This also appears to be whitish(blinds and the light through the door). The image is crisper in V1

Which is more true to real life?

Also, are both cameras in the same SD/HD mode?

Same issues here!

The V1 is closer to real life.

 

Yes, both the cameras as in HD mode. I am just hoping this is firmware issue and not a hardware issue. I raised a ticket with Support yesterday and awaiting their response and next steps.

There is new firmware just released in beta that is supposed to help the image quality. See the beta forum section.

The V2 is my first and will be my only/last WyzeCam. They made it sound like for $20, they had been able to design and build this awesome HD web camera, but in reality, it is no better than crap you get off Ebay. The video is terrible, the audio is absolutely garbage, and it is out of sync with the video, no matter what app I tried to play it back on. I guess LEGALLY, it is 1920x1080, but the bitrate at which they encode the video is terrible, and the audio sampling is worse than telephone quality. Here is the info from one of the videos I took off the sd card:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from ‘./59.mp4’:
Metadata:
major_brand : mp42
minor_version : 0
compatible_brands: mp42isom
creation_time : 2018-04-14 02:59:00
Duration: 00:00:59.72, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 790 kb/s
Stream #0:0(und): Audio: pcm_alaw (alaw / 0x77616C61), 8000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 64 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2018-04-14 02:59:00
Stream #0:1(und): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1920x1080, 808 kb/s, 15 fps, 15 tbr, 90k tbn, 30 tbc (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2018-04-14 02:59:00
encoder : JVT/AVC Coding

Google video/audio bitrates and you will see that the bitrates for HD video in 1080 should be at least 4000 kb/s for decent quality, and low quality music should be about 11025 Hz.

As long as you don’t watch the videos on anything but a phone, the video is good enough for keeping an eye on your house I guess. Again, it is right about what you would expect a $20 camera from China to be, no more, no less.

In comparison, here is the information on a video I recorded from my cell phone that is also 1920x1080 resolution:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from ‘./VID_20180413_215723.mp4’:
Metadata:
major_brand : mp42
minor_version : 0
compatible_brands: isommp42
creation_time : 2018-04-14 02:57:23
location : +32.8312-097.1047/
location-eng : +32.8312-097.1047/
Duration: 00:01:30.38, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 17099 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/bt470bg/smpte170m), 1920x1080, 16968 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 29.95 fps, 30 tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc (default)
Metadata:
rotate : 180
creation_time : 2018-04-14 02:57:23
handler_name : VideoHandle
Side data:
displaymatrix: rotation of -180.00 degrees
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 95 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2018-04-14 02:57:23
handler_name : SoundHandle

Well, after taking mine apart and looking it over, I was able to trace down its origins. As I thought, it is just a re-badged cheap Chinese camera.

 

Hi Paul,

I think everything you have said is true. However, it’s a matter of expectations. Could they have produced a bigger much more expensive camera with better performance? Of course they could. But I think they’ve done a darn good job of integrating much better software and firmware than you would otherwise find with the Xiaomi camera to make it a very useful tool at this price point. Many independent reviewers agree.

Back to the topic of the OP … I just updated the firmware on my four V2 cameras from 4.9.1.34 to 4.9.1.42 and it seems that the image is much sharper on all cameras, with better contrast and the “cloudiness” is gone. Has anyone else noticed this? What changed in the new version of the f/w?

I agree with you, it IS a matter of EXPECTATIONS, EXPECTATIONS that were set by WyzeCam. Here are some of the claims from their product page:

“Images so crisp you won’t miss a thing.”
“enhanced night vision delivers clarity up to 30 feet away even in total darkness”
“Wyze Cam v2’s new audio chip and Class-K power amplifier makes your conversations clearer than ever before”
“Capture the events of a day with beautiful time lapse videos”

The camera delivers none of these. The images aren’t crisp, (I haven’t used the night vision, but I doubt it extraordinary), any kind of audio sounds like the person is underwater and almost intelligible, and the time lapse videos are NOT beautiful.

The pictures and video on their product page that are implied to be from the camera are a joke. No way you are getting video and pictures that look that good, not even close.

They advertised this camera as a $20 camera that broke all other expectations of what a $20 camera was. I have lots of cheap Chinese $20 cameras around my house, I didn’t need another one. The only reason I ordered this one was because of the expectations that Wyze set. Normally I am a very skeptical, but this was one time I decided to take a chance and take a company at their word, and ended up disappointed to say the least.

Thanks, RickO and Milehiguy. I just upgraded. I think the cloudiness is gone and the contrast is better. However, the entire picture has a greenish hue/tinge. Pls see pictures for comparison.

I have not received any reply from Support to my ticket. I added some of the pictures in the acknowledgement email I received from them and even tried calling the support number. Will they reach us by email? Pls share your experiences.

 

Old V1 - Apr 14 2018

New V2 - Apr 14 2018

 

 

Definitely a green tint there. Luckily, I’m not getting that on any of the four V2 cameras I’ve setup so far.

EDIT: ref. @LikeWyze post over in the Beta forum, last paragraph that begins with “Known issue” …

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/v2-firmware-4-9-1-42-released-to-beta/#post-126918

Yes, I saw the “known issue” in the other forum and was hoping the newest firmware addresses that as well. I have bought 7 cameras and have tested/used only 2 which have the same heavy greenish tinge(the other 5 are gifts). My main concern at this time is these may be hardware-related since not all V2 have this issue. I am hesitating to hand over the others to my friends/family if these units have the same issue.

I am hoping Wyzecam support can get back to me at the earliest to fix this issue or start the returns process.

Hi RickO,

Would you be able to provide insights into how/when Support typically responds to specific tickets, etc?

Thanks,

 

Hi RickO,

Would you be able to provide insights into how/when Support typically responds to specific tickets, etc?

Thanks,


I’m afraid I don’t really know. I’ve seen some folks report a week or more, but I have not tried contact myself. Some other options are to try to post in the FB Core Users Group or the Beta Group if you’re in beta.

Hi Arien, yes the green tint is still there. We are still working on it. IQ work is some kind of art work. With the same hardware, tuning IQ is to balance all the settings to best preserve the original information. We also want to be cautious to not regress the improvements we just had. All we can say is that we are working hard on it. We understand the issue and this is one of our top issues for v2 for now. Thanks!