Some of my 32GB SanDisk High Endurance SD Cards are 3.5 years old and have been reliably recording continuously. I know they will fail at some point and have been considering going to higher capacities.
32GB has worked fine for me as I check my v3 cameras regularly. I am thinking about 128GB as replacements when my 32GB cards die.
128GB should get me close to 2 weeks of Continuous Recording video on a v3. My thought is why not get a new size that is somewhat close to the Wyze Cloud 14 day Auto Delete storage.
My question for the Wyze community is what are your reasons for choosing larger than 128GB cards? Do you frequently check SD card video older than the Wyze 14 day cloud storage?
Part of it for me is habit. When I started with my first Wyze Cam, I went with a 256 GB card because that was the maximum “officially” supported and I wanted to maximize my capacity since I wasn’t using a subscription. The per-GB cost at that point seemed better than smaller capacity cards, as well. Something else to consider is that with a larger card continuously recording, each part of the card will undergo fewer write cycles over time, so on general principle I’d expect larger capacity cards to have a longer useful “life” than smaller cards. (For instance, if a 128 GB card gives you 2 weeks of continuous recording before overwriting starts back at the beginning of the card, then a 32 GB card would be expected to have 4× as many write cycles applied during that same period, and that additional wear could shorten that card’s “life” by comparison.)
For whatever it’s worth, I started with SanDisk Extreme but have since switched to SanDisk High Endurance. I haven’t had any problems with the Extreme cards, but the High Endurance price is comparable and probably makes more sense given the continuous recording use case.
I do not. I rarely go back more than a day or two, but I like having the longer history of continuous recording in case I want to pull a card to copy the .mp4 files.
I have five 32GB, one 128 and one 256. Just like yourself my 32GB have been in service for almost 3.5 years and are not High Endurance cards. They are Kingston Class 10 and so far haven’t had any issues. The 128 and 256 are TeamGroup High Endurance. The 128 came with the dash cam that was DOA and the manufacturer didn’t want it back when they replaced it. Since the card that came with the replacement camera performed well I went for a 256GB version for my V4 and has been good so far. It was priced well and I went with that size for fewer overwrites as well.
Not really, I rarely check SD cards as I live monitor all my cams while working, roughly about ten hours a day. The only time I go and check them is when I want to see something before or after an event has occurred.
Approved. I have 128GB and 256GB cards. I’ve been using the 128 cards for at least 2 years 24/7 and the 256 cards for a least one year 24/7 without any issues.
For me 128 gets 9 to 11 days (it varies based on complexity of the image and how much motion) so if you want a full 2 weeks, go for 256 which should get you like 3 weeks. Samsung Pro Endurance or Sandisk High Endurance.
It doesn’t seem to matter, my 1080P cams (OGs, OG-T and Panv3s) and 2.5 v4 both get the same amount of time and the 1 minute file sizes are the same (around 10 MB per minute). They use higher compression on the 2.5K cams to keep the required bandwidth to about the same 1Mbps as the 1080P ones.
What does matter is what’s actually in the frame, some stuff is less compressible than others. My driveway cam that is mostly a static picture with nothing too complex gets 13+ days. My Panv3 that follows every car that goes by and has much more colors and detail to look at is down around 9-10.
My 2.5K v4 looks out over moderately complex stuff, but not as much motion as the Panv3. Around 10-11 days.
I use 128GB Sandisk cards in almost every 1080P camera like the V3s and then I use 256GB Endurance cards (from Sandisk or Samsung) for all the 2K cameras.
It’s probably best to also use endurance cards in 1080p cameras, but I never have and I’ve still never had any of them go bad since 2020, despite running them recording continuously.
Which 2K cams? My OGs, Panv3s and v4 all record somewhere around 10 MB/min. So obviously the v4 uses higher compression, as even the live stream bandwidth is about the same as the others.
Wondering if maybe the v3 Pro or one of the others has less compression so larger size, and that’s why you’re using 256? From what I’ve seen the v4 actually seems to have less compression artifacts than the v3 Pro but that could also be that the two just use a different algorithm.
Since coming out with the 2K cameras I have started buying 256 gig cards for nearly all of my cameras, I do this because not only does it give you more recording capability but SD cards and their longevity are akin to a tire on a car, Each time that it loop records over old stuff it wears just a bit out similar to a tire rotating, the bigger the card the more rotations you’ll get because it has that much more space to write over. So not only does it have that much more storage capability but in theory it should last that much longer as well before you start running into serious errors. But a big part of that also depends on the memory cell type in the card, Most of the Samsung cards that I run that most other people here run as well nowadays use good materials and the cards are very well made and warrantied just for our type of use. So even if you are able to kill it the warranty might still cover it.
That was one of my reasons for going 128 over 64 also (I didn’t figure I needed 10+ days but double the longevity seemed worth the extra few bucks). I did the calculation and at the rate the wyze cams record, the Samsung Pro Endurance 128GB is rated for about 16 years non stop. I’ll be perfectly happy if they last the 5 years of the warranty.
That’s another benefit of the endurance cards, warranty is not voided by continuous recording use like most cards.
I’ve been keeping both the Sandisk and Samsung ones in my amazon “saved for later” just because I don’t need them right away and was keeping an eye on price. They’ve been pretty steady for over 6 months. The Sandisk 128GB did drop $2 for prime day but it is back up to $16 now. The Samsungs jumped last year from like $14 to $20 and have stayed there (again for 128GB). Inflation and tariffs probably won’t see them come down anytime soon, but who knows, maybe one will release a new version and the old ones will get discounted.
Approved. I have 128GB and 256GB cards. I’ve been using the 128 cards for at least 2 years 24/7 and the 256 cards for a least one year 24/7 without any issues.
