Higher bit rate / video quality

I’m not sure this is possible with existing hardware, but I’d love an option for a short burst of higher quality, or perhaps just a higher quality still photo.

I don’t know if the sensor has enough resolution or if it’s possible to compress a photo less.

The sensor resolution is what it is (1080p). I don’t know if there any plans for a 4K camera, but I would expect that would be a totally new model.

It may be possible to reduce compression even more than for HD. IDK.

@UserCustomerGwen

That’s my assumption. I figure the sensor is 1920x1080 tops (might be less and up-res’d). But if it’s more and subsamping, perhaps more data is available.

I think that this would end up having to be a new camera model. Thanks for the request! :slight_smile:

The real problem is compression artifacts, not resolution, so a mode with less compression would be great (even if only for the microSD).

Often a somewhat distant face is too smudged for identification.

When viewing a regular pattern like boards in a deck, some of the lines are clear and others at the same distance are blurred; where the blurring appears changes every couple seconds (I think as the codec sends a full “I frame”).

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The camera itself is doing max resolution possible. That is 1080.
That isn’t the problem here though, and no, it does NOT require a new camera.

Bitrate is a different animal. That is 100% software controlled, and has to do with encoding.

Right now, they are using a low bitrate so that the clips it produces are smaller, which makes sense for them, they save a bit of bandwidth & storage cost.

The problem with low bitrate is that is tends to smear/blur things if there is motion involved. For static scenes it is fine.

So, yes, it is certainly possible to have a much higher bitrate for the encoder, BUT, it costs more to Wyze.

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The cost to Wyze is why I suggested just still photos. It would be Helpful to be able to trigger the highest quality photo possible at certain times

Yeah, that is one option… the other option would be to have a required microSD card, then save the high quality clip there, and have the low quality version to AWS.

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I just created a new Roadmap topic for separate compression rates for live vs. SD card, which is a bit different than this topic (pun intended). You can vote for it here:

Bad Idea, are you willing to pay the increased price? The advantage of the Wyze Cam is the price. Be realistic.

Well yes. But aside from that, we’re talking about changing a variable somewhere in the code to compress the photo less.

We’ve seen openip.cam’s firmware enable better quality. That leads me to believe that the existing hardware is capable of doing it.

While I appreciate the fear that a $20 camera could end up being upwards of $23, I think there’s reasonable trade offs for a better product, even if it drives the cost up. Wyze has said, many times, that their business model is to have everyone use their app and that the app is the future. I’d be happy to pay $.99 for an in app purchase to enable “High Quality Photo” mode. With an optional in app purchase, they needed charge people who don’t want a feature.

Have LTE on phone and fiber network at home. Live stream not as good as expected. Looks like bit too low or too compressed. I would like to see better quality on the live feed.

“HD” or “1080p” doesn’t mean ANYTHING when compression artifacts macroblock it to the point where (quite literally) I can’t tell the difference between “HD” and “360p”. I can’t even see how you can call this an HD camera.

I get it - it’s pretty hard to live/realtime stream constantly at low-compression HD bitrates - but you could at LEAST do stuff like:

  1. When you press the “Take Picture” button - snap a good, decent, high-quality image - and save THAT.

  2. When you’re storing short videos to the web - use a lower compression/higher-quality for these clips.

  3. Offer a user option for streaming quality/bitrate??

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That would be perfect. I don’t like the low quality stream either… I have LTE on my phone and I have 300Mbps upstream from home. Why do I have mediocre video?

Please change HQ option, so it uses H.264 at maximum bitrate.

The image quality is there, but the current low-bitrate produces terrible compression artifacts.

It hurts your brand, as your competitors market ‘2k’ imagery, that looks better, only because of their use of higher-bit rates, not the resolution.