Very slow connection speeds during day time

[mobstaj]

I have an issue with a few of my wyzecam 2’s and I think it is a hardware or firmware issue. During the day time my HD connection speeds hover around 30kb/s. At night time or even is I manually turn on night mode this jumps up to a more reasonable 100kb/s. Also, if I switch to SD the rate jumps up to 70-80kb/sec.

I’ve noticed that if I play back recordings during the daytime they are also at that same slow rate. This makes images stuttery and almost unusable.

Can anyone help? I’ve attached screenshots of different transmission speeds with night mode off and night mode on.

[Demonfire]

What is your ISP download and upload speed. What is your internal connection speed?

[mobstaj]

Isp download speed is 150Mb/s, upload is 20Mb/s, internal connection speed is 802.11AC but I assume the Wyzecams are connecting at 802.11 g/n speeds. What leads me to believe it’s a camera firmware issue is that the speed increases on the same connection when I activate night mode.

[mobstaj]

Another camera, same issue. Any explanation for this odd behavior? Seems like if anything connection should use less bandwidth in black and white.

[TRusselo]

That number is not the connection speed.
It is the current bitrate of the video.
The video is a variable bitrate codec.

Blacks require a higher bitrate to keep detail, so black and white images (nighttime) need higher bitrate to look good.

you know how in many “downloaded moives” from torrent sites, in the dark scenes it looks like crap? that happens when the bitrate is not high enough for the darkness…

[pauly2]

How much download mb/s and upload is recommended or the minimum for the wyzecam to not lag?

[TRusselo]

current bitrate of each camera + 20% overhead…

i would say 0.5 mb per camera…

but at the moment they only upload when saving a 12 second clip to the cloud. this is transferred while being saved to the SD card

if you subscribe to the 1 or 2 services that allow 24/7 cloud backup, then .5 per camera…

[DreadPirateRush]

From the camera specs page on the Wyze website:

Connectivity Requirements: Upload speed 1.0 Mbps for SD and 1.5 Mbps for HD

360P was not listed on the page. Keep in mind 360P isn’t available for the V1 cameras, just the V2 and Pan.

[peepeep]

@TRusselo

That number is not the connection speed.
It is the current bitrate of the video.
The video is a variable bitrate codec.

Hey TRusselo

Is there any relationship at all between the number displayed and the wifi connection quality between camera and router? For instance:

• When the connection quality is optimal, this number is the current variable bit rate of the stream.
• When the connection quality is sub-optimal, will this number drop, irrespective of the demands of the scene it is encoding?

[pauly2]

Im bit confused here. So we are looking at upload speed correct as oppose to download speed when we do a speedtest of your wifi or data on this? Thus if your upload speed is very slow like 1mbps or less, that mean you cant view the camera from your phone that well whether its your internet or wifi if upload speed is only 1mbps? What if your download speed is 10mbps or 50mbps?

[peepeep]

I’m feeling my way along here as well. Hands and knees with a mini-flashlight in my mouth. An honest man trying to ask a clear question.

I advocate for diagrams to help make stuff more coherent:

Paint me the Big Picture

Has anyone made an infographic flowchart illustrating the confirmed design functionality of these cams and their features? I mean, making all these semi-informed assumptions and inferences which are sometimes confirmed and sometimes corrected and often not is, um, MADNESS. What are the base functions, how do the different parts work together, what is dependent on what, what is discrete, etc. Power Lense > video Mic > sound RAM > volatile storage SD > permanent storage Wireless Comms > remote…

At present there’s a paucity, imo.

[TRusselo]

The number you see on the screen has nothing to do with your wifi connection.

It is how many bytes per second the video file is being recorded at,
The number will not change depending on wifi speed.

My camera is 1 foot from a hardwired wifi access point inside the house,
I get the same numbers as you.

Your wifi connection will limit your ability to view live stream and uploading to the cloud

and yes Upload matters for your cameras to stream or upload to the cloud.

From the camera specs page on the Wyze website:

Connectivity Requirements: Upload speed 1.0 Mbps for SD and 1.5 Mbps for HD

So… if the camera is encoding the video at 300 kbps ( 0.3 mbps) you need that… plus the audio, plus network overhead… about 1.0 - 1.5 mbit total to live stream or upload, 2.0 mbps would be better to smooth out any spikes or fluctuations in the wifi signal. speed tests give an average over time…
If you are live streaming and uploading to the cloud at the same time you will need double that…

Make sure to run speed tests with your phone in the exact location of the camera to test speed…
Also realize that your smartphone will have a much better wifi chip, and wifi antenna than the 20$ wyze cam. You really DO get what you pay for…

If your speed is just not good enough, set the camera to record in SD instead of HD, it will need less bandwidth.

i dont understand how any of this could be explained in graphics… its wifi networking… it takes reading and learning… asking questions and googling for answers…

its pretty simple actually… if you dont have good enough wifi to watch live video without it skipping… you need more/better wifi.
Depending on the layout of your home, where your current router is located, and if your house has ethernet wiring at your phone jacks will dictate what your best course of action is for adding more wifi…
YouTube and google will help you there…
but the simplest option is a “Mesh Wifi system” such as “google wifi”. one plugs into the router, and you install the 2nd and 3rd devices in other areas/floors of your home using wifi.
these new fangled “mesh wifi systems” are basically really good repeaters and are much better than the 50$ junk repeaters that people usually go buy.
If your house is brick you may need to install an outdoor wifi access point…
wifi is like sound… gets stopped by dense material like glass, brick and stone…
once again go google “how wifi works” for a few days… time and energy Wyze does not have
(I do not work for wyze)

[mobstaj]

Happy to report that I downgraded firmware back to 4.9.4.28 and connection speeds are normal again. Seems to be a firmware or hardware bug.

[mixonepa]

Hello @mobstaj, while you were on the latest firmware did you submit any support ticket with logs attached through the Wyze app?

[mobstaj]

I did not submit any support tickets but will do it tomorrow on one of my 2 or 3 other cameras exhibiting the same symptoms before I downgrade the firmware.

[mixonepa]

Okay great, when you do that can you come back here and send me over the ticket numbers?

[mobstaj]

Well I submitted a support request via email from the app but don’t have a ticket yet. The camera I downgraded continues to have perfect throughput and clear picture. I attempted to downgrade another of the faulty cameras to the previous version and it continues to run at 20Kb/s daytime. When I turn on night mode it immediately clears up the picture and bandwidth quintuples but it becomes black and white. If I switch from HD to SD again, bandwidth actually increases.
Does anyone else have this problem?

I’ve attached a photo from another camera stuck at low HD

bandwidth.

[mobstaj]

Photo of same camera with higher bandwidth in SD mode.

[mixonepa]

This is a very weird bug so when you get the ticket number make sure to send it over so I can send this directly to the Wyze team. Thanks

[mobstaj]

Wyze Ticket number is 201624. Thanks for the help!