I recently started watching/monitoring my WyzeCam v4s live video feed a lot as I have 1-2 herons that keep dropping by by pond to try to eat my koi. I’ve noticed that video quality of the live stream frequently downgrades from 2.5k to 360p which makes it difficult for me to see the heron when they show up. This happens both when using the app on my Samsung phone/tablet, as well as via the browser when using Wyze Web Live.
When using the app, the resolution indicator sometimes updates to show 360p instead of 2.5k, but not always - sometimes it still says 2.5k even though the video quality is definitely 360p . In all cases, I can get back to true 2.5k resolution by just tapping the resolution button enough times.
When using the browser, I have to refresh the page then select the camera I want to see in order to get back to 2.5k as there are no controls on the web page to change streaming resolution.
This issue is occurring on multiple v4 cameras. 3 of these cameras are within ~40 feet of my router so I don’t think it’s a WiFi signal quality issue, particularly because I can always get it back to 2.5k resolution when this happens. I would be OK with it if the resolution would ramp back up to 2.5k automatically, but that doesn’t seem to happen. Once the resolution drops, it seems to be stuck there until I manually fix it.
Anyone else having this issue? It’d be nice to be able to lock the streaming resolution and, if necessary, drop some frames rather than permanently dropping the resolution to 360p…
It implies some sort of communication limitation. Not sure why you assume 40 feet is fine - what walls and materials are in the path - and what other 2.4ghz is in the area?
Are you connected to the same wifi network (one with no limitations like client isolation, guest network, etc) so that the stream connects direct between the phone and cameras? If it loops out through the internet, then internet upload speed/reliability comes into play also.
There are a lot of possible causes for it to sense the network is having issues, but the most likely culprit is going to be the wifi portion between the cam and router.
It does seem their 2.5K cams will scale down where the older cams will ask you if you want to do it. Have seen other posts with similar symptoms, the icon says 2.5K but the image is clearly far lower resolution. Probably something they need to improve on, and possibly even add a feature where it goes back to 2.5K when it detects it can handle it. But who knows if/when that will get better, so in the meantime you need to focus on your wifi and see if you can reposition the router higher up/more central, or use a better router, mesh system, possibly repeaters (those bring their own set of challenges though) etc. There are some settings you can potentially tweak in the router too (depending what router it is and whether you can access those settings or not).
Do you have the camera in a camera group? I believe putting a camera in a group has the app downgrade the stream to 360p while viewing it in the group, then it is supposed switch back to 2K or HD when you view it individually and sometimes it will still say 360P when it is actually 2K, but in your case, it sounds like it is getting stuck on 360p.
If you are using groups, temporarily try removing one of those cameras from the group and see if it still has that problem. If it doesn’t then we will have narrowed down the issue to having to do with the camera groups. If it does keep happening, then it may be related to connectivity somehow.
I recall someone else saying settings from one v4 seemed to impact their others, so maybe somehow having it in a cam group does impact other screens, interesting theory.
I feel like my OGs and Panv3s (1080P) aren’t downgraded that low when viewing in a cam group or on the favorites tab, but I suppose they might be. But the clarity on the cam group view and the live view (which when the phone is in portrait mode is about the same size) is similar if not identical. But who knows, maybe that’s something only the 2.5K cams do.
The cameras have a solid WiFi signal (2 of 3 bars according to the Device Info page). The cameras are 30-40’ from the router or nearest mesh node, and generally only have one obstruction to deal with (wall or garage door). I’m on a 5 acre lot with no nearby neighbors so there are no competing WiFi networks within range. All of my devices are on the same network with no client isolation, etc. I do have a large house so I have 3 mesh nodes for full coverage.
I would assume internet connectivity only comes into play when accessing the stream via a browser. I see this issue on both the browser as well as via the app, which I assume would use my local network, so I don’t think my internet connection is an issue. In any case, I have a very solid internet connection that’s quite fast/reliable (2 gbps down/350 mbps up).
Unfortunately signal strength meters don’t tell you much. And neighboring wifi networks aren’t the only thing that competes for 2.4ghz spectrum. Anything bluetooth, microwave ovens, cordless phones, essentially anything wireless or that emits RF interference often affects that range.
Not saying it is definitely your issue, just don’t assume it isn’t based on a signal meter in the app.
The cam group theory is an interesting one, so give that a try, I recall someone here reporting that changing a setting on one v4 seemed to impact others. But I’d think in that case it would always be at 360 and not the symptom you’re seeing where it is 2.5 then drops down, that sounds more like bandwidth. Who knows.
Bear in mind if your mesh is wireless, the usable bandwidth at each wireless node is half what it would be at the main router. Normally that should still be plenty for a few cam streams, but if there are other signal issues, it can compound the problem.
Also check and make sure the cam is on the correct (closest) node. Sometimes with mesh systems, devices connect to a further node with poor signal for seemingly no reason.
It can come into play with the app also. Obviously when away from home it uses the internet, but even if something prevents the cams from talking directly to the phone, it will “loop out” via the internet. There is also basic control traffic always going between the cams and internet (when you change a setting in the app, that goes via the internet to the cam, not direct). However that basic traffic shouldn’t have anything to do with the stream resolution falling.
Moving the v4 cams out of my camera group seems to have significantly improved the video degradation problem I was experiencing. As a general rule, as long as I don’t interact with my tablet/phone/browser the resolution will generally stay pinned at 2.5k. It will still often drop to 360p when I interact (e.g. switch apps, resize windows, etc) with my tablet/etc but that is at least somewhat more understandable/acceptable.
Added a v4 to our network a couple of months ago. Original intent was to replace a V3.
While testing I never saw anything other than 2.5k.
Plans changed. Decided to use the v4 in a bird Feeder. Assembled the bird Feeder (btw–nice packaging), installed the v4 and tested for a few days in the house. Testing was good, always saw 2.5k.
Where we decided to place the bird Feeder was at the edge of our property line. This was a good 35 ft or so from the extender that I have on the back wall in the house.
Upon deployment I was pleasantly surprised I was getting 2.5k. That was a couple of days ago.
Then at night I noticed that the camera was coming up 360p. Clicking on the resolution toggle switched to 2.5k, and stuck.
Hmmmm. Over the last 48 hours I have seen this multiple times. During the day it seems that it comes up 2.5k but at night, more often than not, it comes up 360p. There may be some environmental factors with this difference but I’m setting those aside for now.
It would seem to me that the 360p is sticky. Once in 360p it stays 360p until the resolution is manually changed to 2.5k. This is repeatable (I’ve checked 20-30 times in the last 48 hours.
The bird Feeder camera is in two places on my Favorites page, in a group and also as ungrouped. I see no difference with the stickiness of 360p. I also see no difference in percieved quality of the image.
My bottom line—once in 360, it stays in 360
p. s. I also have a v3pro that is 2.5k. I belive it has also shown this behavior. It is so rare I have been writing it off as something I did while testing something. When it occurs again I’ll look at it in more detail.
How densely populated is your area? Around here I find my cameras are less responsive from like 6 to 8 pm, peak time for people to be doing stuff on wifi. Does surprise me a bit that so much of it is 2.4ghz but looking at my spectrum analyzer, it is in fact more congested during those hours. Maybe everyone is reviewing their cam footage or messing around with other IOT things.
Sounds like Wyze needs to add an improvement for the camera to scale back up (or at least retry 2.5 the next time you go into it). I believe once it changes to 360, your SD card also records 360, and I’m assuming uploads to the cloud for subscribers would also be low res, so if it sticks there, that’s not good…
My 1080P cams will sometimes ask me if I want to switch to 360, but they never do it on their own.
In OPs case I suspect the cam group may have been related, trying to load multiple streams at the same time overloading the available bandwidth. But there are also some reports that cam groups might change the cam to 360 and leave it there and/or reports that settings on one v4 sometimes affect settings on another.
Personally looking forward to the next app release where you can change the favorites page back to static images so it isn’t trying to load multiple streams at startup, I removed my cams from it due to that seeming to overload/confuse things.
But it sounds like they need to make some tweaks regarding the 2.5 cams and their scale down/up logic, or maybe add an option for “auto” vs “manual”.
I agree. Interesting point you bring up about the environment. The camera is near our back fence, that faces a small vineyard. The houses on either side are at least 50-60 ft away.
Butttt–6 ft away are 10 solar powered garden lights that I have been tuning up for our newly seeded backyard.
If you look closely you can see the bird perch in the middle of the image and off to the left the 10 garden lights radiating visible light and god knows what (would love to have your spectrum analyzer).
If they aren’t “smart” wifi solar lights, probably not anything in the 2.4ghz spectrum.
You’d be surprised what a 50-60 foot away neighbor can do, their router is probably running 40mhz 2.4ghz (a lot of routers are defaulting to that now if they “think” the spectrum is clear enough, which from what I’ve seen they always think that), some bluetooth crap, cameras and smart bulbs on the outside of their house, who knows what else. The further you get from your router and the more walls (especially exterior) you put in the path, the more their interference starts to affect you. These Wyze cams have a single small antenna and pretty cheap low power wifi chip.
With the v4 supporting AX 2.4ghz (much more bandwidth available and some better features around congestion and signal management) it might fare better than some of the earlier models. But I’m curious if it is truly taking advantage of the newer features or not (assuming your router is AX/Wifi6 or higher).
From what I was told by Wyze employe couple of years ago, the recording on the SD card is always 1080p (for the V3). You can change from HD to SD but the resolution remains the same, it is the bitrate that changes resulting in a smaller file size. I was also told that it will never record in 360p. I just recorded two clips with both V3 and V4 with resolution set to 360p to uSD card. Both videos are at the highest resolution as you can see below.
Interesting, thought I saw a discussion around when the camera downgrades, the SD card recordings also do. But if not, that would imply they can potentially do the feature request where SD card recordings are higher quality/less compression (which I’d love to see). But still depends whether the compression is done before hitting the I/O “bus” of the camera or not. Scaling resolution down could be done much later in the path.
Though we’ve see the v4 behaving differently than other cams with other things, so who knows how that one behaves when it scales down.
I’ll say. I still have those stupid twin V4 cams where if I change the resolution of one V4 like from 2.5K to HD the other V4 changes to HD also going by what is shown on the app.
