SD card recording and HD/SD/360p settings

Cameras
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1

Has anyone had success with the HD/SD/360p settings on the pre-2025 Wyze Cam OG in terms of those actually varying recorded file data rate and size?

What I’m seeing is that while the 2025 version does appear to respond to the HD/SD/360p setting producing smaller files ~9.5 MB min/~4.5 MB min/<3 MB min respectively with lower settings simply producing smaller, lower bitrate 1920X1080 files rather than actually changing the resolution, still with good quality, the older model produces SD card files that are ~9.5 MB min no matter what the setting.

So, I’m wondering if I’m missing something in the settings (which I doubt at this point) or if that’s just a difference between the versions that just is what it is.

I’m interested in this specific aspect because I’m trying to minimize SD card usage (I have a need to upload selected days of files) and who knows, the lower bitrate recording might help in other ways too if it’s actually reducing workload on encoding and writing, but unfortunately, I’m discovering that the 2025 version will not reliably record continuously to SD card, so it’s not usable.

Curious what others have found with this.

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2

I’ve figured out that it’s not that the pre-2025 doesn’t respond to the HD/SD/360p setting…what’s happening is the 360p and HD settings are producing the same size files while the 2025 version records at 3 different bit rates as they’re both supposed to do.

WYZECGS
360p = ~9.5 MB min
SD = ~4.5 MB min
HD = ~9.5 MB min

I guess I was focusing on trying to get the smallest files and missed that they both do record at the middle bit rate on SD. Being able to record at <3 MB min would be great for my use, but 4.5 MB is better than 9.5 MB, so I’m done. It’s really counter-intuitive going in that 360p view setting records the highest bit rate and HD the lowest.

3

Odd, honestly I thought the SD always recorded at full resolution no matter what you set the live view to.

4

Yes. It does always record to the card at the same “full resolution” of 1920×1080 pixels. What changes with the HD/SD/360p setting is not the resolution of the card files but the recording bit rate.

The live view quality setting is supposed to control which of three bit rates the card recording uses: “High” ~1,200 kb/sec (~9.5 MB/min files), “Medium” ~600 kb/sec (~4.5 MB/min files) and “Low” ~350 kb/sec (<3 MB/min files)

What I’m seeing is that the older version of the camera can’t actually be made to use the lowest bit rate. My mistake above was that it was always recording at the highest rate…I realized that I had missed that it does switch to the middle rate when set to SD. The unexpected (incorrect) behavior is that on the pre-2025, both HD and 360p setting produce the highest bit rate mode, when one should be high and the other low.

5

Interesting. Honestly I would never want it to record to SD at any lower than the best quality it can so I guess I’d never have noticed.

Even at the highest quality the extreme compression reduces the bitrate significantly and leaves a lot to be desired.

I wish they’d give the option to record to SD with lower compression/higher bitrate than the current max.

6

A bit of a different issue but an SD card connection.

When I see a notice about motion, I click on the indicated icon and invariably I get a message that there is no video even on the SD card.

Does anyone have a solution besides paying for PLUS?

7

Well, different users can have different requirements in terms of image quality. For me, there is no need for highest quality at the cost of dramatically larger files, longer uploads, and more storage when dealing with multiple days of continuous monitoring footage from a dozen cameras.

The systems I’m replacing are 480i at roughly 300 kb/s, and even the lowest bit rate mode on the Wyze recordings is still a major improvement overall…really, miles ahead for my application. For me, the low bit rate option is completely acceptable.

Your comments and complete lack of concern for file sizes do highlight something that could be mindblowingly important for users who are trying to maximize quality…on some (most?) Wyze models, the relationship between the live view setting labels (HD/SD/360p) and the actual card recording bit rate is inverted or at least counterintuitive. A user trying to get the “best quality” would logically select HD over SD or 360p, but depending on the model, HD may actually correspond to the lowest card recording bit rate, while 360p may produce the highest bit rate recordings. So, I’m now wondering how many posters complaining about poor card recording quality may have unknowingly selected the lowest bit rate mode specifically because the nominal HD setting fully implies maximum quality and missed the relationship because they’re not focused at all on the file sizes.

8

Since my sole interest is in continuous recording (I have motion detection, sound, events etc all turned off) this isn’t something I can say for sure, but (Captain Obvious here) after clicking the gear, and going to Micro-SD Card, do you have “Record to Micr-SD Card” turned on? That would be the most obvious thing. Of course also making all of the other settings match what you want it to do.

Beyond that, what I’m picking up on my journey through this is that whether because of focus on subscription services or intentionally, there seems to be some amount of “breaking” of working features on new models that are answered only with subscription. Exactly how that might relate to your issue, I can’t really say.

9

Understood, different people have different needs. But bear in mind even at the highest quality, the Wyze cams record to SD card at about 10 megabytes per minute (it varies with how much motion and how complex the view is, but that’s about the normal average).

So around 14 gigabytes per day or 8-10 days of continuous recording on a 128GB card.

Upload speed shouldn’t matter, that’s a totally different video than the one on the SD card. I believe that one does honor the setting for quality but not sure since I don’t have a subscription.

What model cam have you seen where HD records lower quality on the SD card? I thought you were saying that the lowest quality was erroneously recording the highest quality to SD card, not the other way around?

For comparison the dash cam in my car records around 100MB/minute and that’s at 720P. I’d really like the option to be able to sacrifice some recording history for higher quality, even if only doubling the bit rate. The Wyze resolutions (1080P, 2.5K, 4K) are somewhat meaningless when they apply over 99% compression to them. A lower resolution with less compression would actually be more useful in cases where you need to get a clear image of a face, moving vehicle, license plate, etc.

10

There is no need to pay for a subscription for SD card use.

Does the cam see the SD card? Are there any recordings on it at all?

What model cam, and are you using the latest firmware and app? There were some cams that would incorrectly say there was no video but if you waited a bit, it would start playing. Or you could just go to the SD card view and navigate to it there. But that’s been fixed in the newest versions of firmware/app.

11

I had one Cam v3 when I clicked on a motion Event I got this error message.

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I could access the SD card by going to Live View and clicking View Playback, just Not from Events. Make sure you have the latest camera firmware and the latest App version. That is what fixed my problem.

Also, let us know:
What camera model you have.
What camera firmware you are using
Is your SD card set to record Continuous or Motion Events only.
What App version you are on.

12

Really, I appreciate that you’re trying to be helpful, but please understand that I do have a solid grasp of my application and requirements and have already weighed these things on balance. For my use, smaller file sizes do matter for multiple reasons and the lower bit rate video is completely acceptable. Things that may be non-issues for your use are issues for mine.

I’m using these cameras as standalone field recorders with continuous SD-card recording powered by battery banks. The uploads I mentioned are not to Wyze…I’m not using the subscription services, they’re to my own storage for client access. Both the time it takes uploading and storage used matter in that workflow. And even the lowest bit rate Wyze recording is still way better than the 480i ~300 kb/s systems being replaced. In fact, this is often intentionally a “low-res” application, because being able to resolve personally identifying details is sometimes undesirable (think having to blur a face that ends up in a shot)

As to which model I have, the reason I came here was to try to understand some unexpected behaviors of the WYZECGSD (2025) Cam OG model and hopefully find out whether other users had seen the same thing or found solutions. Along the way, I also discovered some unexpected behavior with the earlier WYZECGS model.

Regarding which model is doing what, the older WYZECGS model ONLY records to the SD card at two bit rate levels.

High when set to either 360p OR HD
Medium when set to SD

That behavior does not match Wyze’s own article describing the feature (screenshot below). It will not record to the lowest bit rate as it should when live view is set to HD.

The newer WYZECGSD (2025) model does record at the three bit rate levels, but continuous recording reliability makes it unusable for my application and I’ve already deleted them from the app and am returning the ones I can. But what I have

High when set to 360p
Medium when set to SD
Low when set to HD

At this point I can’t verify the 2025 model order with complete certainty anymore, but I’m pretty sure of it because ironically, before I found Wyze’s article showing the logic was inverted, I was selecting 360p chasing the smallest files, and every recording I gathered in testing was highest bit rate files except for one card that has the lowest bit rate files, which I assume was a cam accidentally not changed to 360p.

Screenshot 2023-09-03 132709
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13

Just having a discussion, not saying you are wrong or your use case shouldn’t be considered.

I would report this bug to support if you want to get any traction on it though, this is after all, just a user to user discussion forum.

14

Thank you for any help. So frustrating !

Wyze Cam v3

Firmware Version. 4.36.16.6114

15

Curious. You state that you are uploading these to your own storage. How? The OG cameras don’t support RTSP, so how are you uploading to your own external storage?

16

Are you able to view the SD card by going to Home selecting a camera and clicking the “SD card” icon (see the Yellow circle)?

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17

I’m pulling the SD cards and uploading selected days using a computer

18

Ah, not even close to real time - got it.