Why I'm replacing my WYZE home security cameras

Yeah, this is why I like the Starlight Sensor in the Cam v4s I have looking out through windows for “color night vision”, and I keep the spotlight, IR, and status light settings off because the glare would make them useless otherwise.

Even my v3s perform well with Starlight sensors, but then so does the OG.

Loads of options.

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Of my 9 Wyze cameras, 4 have stopped working. I have replaced them with Ring cameras. Not buying Wyze cameras again; they suck. My Ring cameras a bit more expensive but they never malfunction.

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It’s so encouraging to see so many others who feel the same way I do. Wyze has decent products for the price, but they put so many artificial limitations on them that I find myself regularly researching competitors’ products because I know my patience with Wyze will wear thin.

Personally I use my cameras like OP does; I keep them streaming all day so I can keep an eye on things while I work. Wyze makes this really difficult to do. Firstly because they lock the web view functionality behind their Cam Plus paywall, which means that you are forced to use a mobile device or tablet to view your cameras unless you’re willing to pay for a bunch of premium features you don’t otherwise need. And secondly because even if you do use a mobile device you can only view 4 cameras at a time.

RTSP (and therefore a “local only streaming” mode) should be a required minimum for all security cameras these days. There have already been several security issues with Wyze’s cloud-connected cameras; a local-only streaming setup would be the ideal antidote to such risks.

I’ve seen people defend Wyze’s decisions because, obviously, Wyze is a business and wants to make money. Fair enough, but the kind of people who would go to the trouble of creating an RTSP setup are not going to be paying for Cam Plus anyway; they’re just going to buy the hardware. Or if they do pay for Cam Plus it will be for the security features (monitoring etc.) and not just for the ability to view cameras via their web browser.

Some people also say “streaming your cameras all day uses server bandwidth and costs Wyze money!” First of all, no it doesn’t, or at least it shouldn’t; the cameras [are supposed to] stream directly to your device over the local network. Secondly, if it is costing Wyze bandwidth fees, then they have even more of an incentive to implement local-only streaming via RTSP.

Also they boast about their cameras having “on-board AI” but actually this is only enabled if you pay for Cam Plus, even though the AI processing happens on your own device. It’s like BMW charging drivers a monthly subscription to use their heated seats which are already installed in the car (which is actually happening btw).

Ultimately my position is this: I’ve bought a bunch of Wyze hardware and I regret it because my experience of Wyze’s software is poor and full of needless limitations. If your customers have to set up emulators to run your software in a way which suits them, your software is deficient.

BTW I’m going to Reolink as well. Wyze should really sit up and pay attention.

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I am also disabled and not knowing what android phone you have can’t help you there, as for using RTSP why? I use an Android emulator called LDPlayer and just download the Wyze app onto that and have had no issues keeping track of my 6 Wyze cams.
LDPlayer - Lightweight & Fast Android Emulator for PC

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These are not security cameras, regardless of what Wyze and the other wifi cloud cam brands want you to think. Don’t waste money on another wifi cam and just get a real hard wired true HD security camera system if that’s what you want.

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Agree with you completely about WYZE’s poor software quality is a major problem with their cameras at this point in time, and that RTSP should be a basic requirement for any home “security camera” product. My wife and I have always laughed about and assumed that everybody in China could possibly be seeing everything streamed from our cameras - but we just don’t care! :grin: If they are, we’re sure that we are boring them to death! I haven’t yet tried to reverse engineer exactly how the (optional) WAN (Internet) access to my new ReoLink cameras actually work, but have the same general expectations - that if its stream is going out on the Internet - then potentially anyone could be seeing it.

One of the reasons that WYZE originally gave for not fully supporting RTSP was that it took too much space away in their firmware memory for them to add all the internal face and pet recognition logic that they’d originally contracted for another company to provide them. Then that other company pulled out of the deal, so they were back to square one with adding those features directly back into the camera logic. I usually do that type of intelligent monitoring and snippet recording from the open source iSpy PC security camera hub software running on my PC - so don’t really care if the logic in the camera is doing it at all.

I was grateful that WYZE released another “unsupported” firmware version at the start of the pandemic, to simply make the WYZE camera into a web cam device. That’s worked quite well and I’m still using it now!

Yesterday i got around to configuring my newest ReoLink E1 Outdoor Pro camera for my local network. No surprises, although it has a few more “bell and whistle” features than the indoor model of the E1 Pro has - its basic capabilities like RTSP are still the same. (Amazon’s “Rufus” AI shopping assistant didn’t know that for certain , but did correctly speculate that there were some indications that RTSP was supported from other customer feedback). Now that I’ve gotten it configured, I just have to get my local handyman back to install it…

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Agreed. I have been saying the same. I find these as useful gadgets but not for security of my family and property.

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Wyze is intented for people that have current technology. Maybe you should spend an additional $1000 and get a wired security system.