I have a cam pan v3 setup with SD card and event tracking setup, but the system doesn’t really make any sense to me. I get an alert, so I can view that alert which shows me a picture, if I tap on the picture or the play button I’m really annoyingly taken to an upsell page trying to sell me a subscription, so I have to back out of that and use the middle bottom button to play back from the SD card, I’ve seen it and then delete it. There are no more events, then I go to the camera’s album view, both videos and pictures are empty, I go to the SD card button to which I’m then shown a timeline of events with a lot of green parts that I can sort of move to and watch - this is hard to use, can’t just to the start of an event, there is no slider for the duration or the event just +30 seconds and -30 seconds which, generally, then gives a “No video at the selected time” screen and I can’t see any way of doing anything with these, my options are “Take photo”, “Record” (this doesn’t even make sense, it is a recording?) and Album (which again, is empty), seemingly I can’t delete these.
Why is this feature so hard to use, or is there a secret to it and I’m not using it right?
The “Play” option is a Cam Plus feature. All Cam Plus feature buttons will have an upsell popup. Don’t press the Cam Plus feature buttons.
Since you do not have a subscription, there are no Event Videos being uploaded to the cloud in the Events tab, only Thumbnail Snapshots with a 5m cooldown in between. If you had Cam Plus, all those thumbnail pics for Events would be playable full length back to back videos uploaded to your account in the cloud and saved for 14 days.
This is the only way to get to the SD Card Video from the Event. Events are in the Cloud, Push Notifications come from the Cloud triggered by that Event, notifications are linked to the event in the Events List and, when clicked, open to the Cloud Uploaded Events (thumbnail snapshots in your case). Everything to this point is all Cloud based. Only when you push the SD Card Playback Icon at the bottom will you be taken to the SD Card Video that was recorded at the time of that Event.
There is really no reason to delete Events. They are sitting on the cloud server. Wyze will do that for you in 14 days. And, if you delete the thumbnail, you loose the “Jump to SD” feature that puts you in the SD Video at that exact time from the SD Playback button. There is no way to delete SD Card Video while the card is still in the cam unless you format the card and erase everything.
The Album is only going to show you Snapshots or Videos that you have downloaded from the cloud events or recorded from the SD Playback and saved in your phone’s default Gallery folder. Those are files that are on your phone locally, not the cloud or the cam SD Card. The Album will also show Timelapse Videos that have completed and need to be downloaded to the phone as well as those previously downloaded.
The timeline can be pinched and expanded (use horizontal pinching\expanding, not vertical… even though the timeline is vertical… it is counterintuitive) to expand or compress the timeline.
There is no indication of the duration of the event because of the way files are recorded to the SD Card. The Cam records continuously and creates MP4 video files in exact 1 minute increments from second 00 to 60. If you have continuous recording enabled, it saves all of them. If you have Motion Events SD card recording enabled, the cam only saves the 1m MP4 video files that contained motion and discards the rest. Every Event Video saved will be a 1m long video. If the motion happened at second 3, the video event will be from second 00 to 60. If the motion happened at second 43, exact same. If the motion continues and bridges into the next minute, two files are saved, each 1m from second 00 to 60, back to back.
SD Card Event Videos do not start at the begining of an event and end when motion stops. They all start at second 00 of the minute and end at 60.
If this is occuring at a uncolored portion of the Timeline, there was no Motion Events SD Video file saved. If this happens when you are in a colored portion of the Timeline, your App is having trouble getting the video data from the cam over the WiFi. Check to make sure you have good connectivity and WiFi signal.
SD Card Videos cannot be downloaded or saved without removing the card and reading it externally with another device.
The only way to get the SD Card Video saved to a file in your phone, short of pulling the SD Card out of the cam, placing it in a card reader, and copying the individual MP4 files, is to “Record” it while the SD Video is playing or take a photo snapshot using those buttons. These will save the video “Recorded” or the “Photo” taken of the SD Video you are watching and save it to your phone’s default Gallery folder in a Wyze file. These files will then show up in your “Album” within the Wyze App.
OK this helps me understand the application. It seems like there is a useful view missing from the application, one whereby it just shows a listview of recordings that you can tap on which then plays that recorder in a video player that has a scrollbar for the duration of that video only, so you can scroll through it (and whereby if paused and you changed the seek, it updates the view rather than the view staying paused), Could even have a little icon (stored phone side) showing which videos you’ve seen and which you haven’t, or allow marking some. I find the existing way of going through recordings to be basically unusable.
And I assume then that it is not possible to delete single recordings from the card (whilst plugged into camera) unless you format it and delete them all?
I would also like to see more features in the SD Card Player UI. What you are describing is a full feature Video Player App. To do this the Wyze App would need to be a lot larger and have some significant upgrades. I’m not sure the SD Card file structure is right for that either.
But, if you would like to request that Wyze add this feature, that is handled thru a new topic post in the Wishlist. Go to the Wishlist, search the topics for one that matches your request. If you find one, vote for it at the top, like some posts, and add your reply post to support the request. If you do not find a match, submit a new topic for approval.
I (and many others) run the tinyCam android app in tandem with the wyze. If you’re up for it, you should check it out (functional free version available) and compare/contrast design/features for us here with a pair of fresh, new .
Sorry, that was bonehead of me considering your topic is about SD Card Playback which is not available through tinyCam.
Also, unless you are subscribed or on a trial with Cam Plus, you won’t have cloud clip Events with which to test that part of the interface.
And the Pan V3 isn’t eligible for name-your-price Cam Plus Lite with its 12-sec cloud clip Events and 5-min cool down.
You could check out the livestreaming performance - which has navigation and cam group qualities different from the Wyze. And a lot of other distinct features that may appeal.
some posts, and add your reply post to support the request. If you do not find a match, submit a new topic for approval.
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