Outdoor Nest Doorbell (Battery) - Poor live feed footage

[DutchBhoy7]

I've had a nest doorbell for a few years now and the quality of the live feed and recordings via the Home app has always been good.

However, I've noticed recently that the live feed footage in the app has drastically decreased and is very pixelated.  The recordings are still of a high quality so its not showing on there.

My internet is of a decent standard and wasn't an issue before so not down to poor coverage/bandwidth.

I've tried rebooting the camera and changing a few settings but no change.

Any ideas what could be causing this?  I assume its been down to a firmware upgrade to either Home app or the camera.

[mercury670]

Hi Kelan, 

Any idea when we can expect the update in Australia?

When I check the device information as above, it doesn't include a build number. It only shows Model / Device ID / Serial / Software version / IP address. 

[blergh]

@mercury670  I am also in Australia, and 2 of my 10 cameras have updated so far.

[slix71]

I have a doorbell camera and 7 nest battery cameras. They are on the 422270 build as you stated. They are still blurry no matter if you're just looking at the feed starting or if you leave it on the live view for a while. Stays blurry. I've obviously invested a bunch of money on these due to their ease of installation. I hope that gets a real fix soon because they serve zero purpose as-is. 

[MCaud]

Same here resolution never increases. Had zero issues prior to that firmware update and feed was clear. With this "fix" the feed at least no longer cuts out completely...

If within warranty maybe its time we open disputes. Camera is defective at this point, did not spend all this money for 140p live feed with bitrate so bad it looks like Minecraft. Next camera system will be self hosted... ridiculous.

[Super_paulie]

still no update for me here in the UK. Getting pretty sick of all my visitors looking like 6 giant blurry squares, its such a massive waste of technology. HD, yeah right.. HD is the very least you should expect, not like 140p or whatever the hell this mess is.

[satyrica]

Firmware has updated, but the quality (or lack of) issue persists - erratically.  As I type, the quality of one of my live streams has degraded, yet was ok earlier this morning.  On top of this, I feel (maybe others can chime in) that firmware 422270 is an improvement over 416403, *but* not at the level of quality we had before that.

Given that google does not seem to want to dedicate full-time attention to what is our full-time problem, maybe we should take this discusstion to gizmodo, 9to5toys, the verge, or cnet to get some better traction?  

What does the hive mind think??

[AnonymousRed]

I can say I agree. Exactly as you explained for me too. I cannot wait for a large site to actually pick this up and the fact we are well over a year here and still not like it should be.

Day one firmware when new devices were perfect. Plethora of posts and locked threads for bigger outlets to use to setup timeline.

[slix71]

Well, I give up... done with the google garbage. Everyone here has the same complaints and no one from Google can provide real details as to what the heck you've done with these expensive cameras to make them into paperweights. I already installed a Reolink system and it blows the nest cameras away, even when they did work. Google, you need to step up your game or you'll keep losing business.

[treys1]

What's the deal here, I have 7 of the newer gen Nest Cam (Battery) & a Doorbell and even on 422270 the live feed is terrible..... I also pay for a Nest subscription and I am on my second year of that. We can we expect a fix, or will Google buy back hardware so we can switch to another system?

[satyrica]

The night vision (especially) is reminiscent of the "glamor shots" photos from the mall in the 80's.  That blurry/fuzzy/vaseline on the lens look.  And it's not working out.  I think I need to ditch these.

[un_BEN_annt]

My cameras are running on 422270 but the live view is still pixelated.

[Kilgoretrout79]

When? My camera footage is barely viewable. About to buy a different product. 

[Getmeoutherw]

The rollout of the 422227 build. Or what ever the build number is, similar to that. Didn't fix the issue. I have over 8 floodlights. This issue is unacceptable. Who in some sort of authority can reach out to me ? 

[AnonymousRed]

Better but not like it was. Still feels like Google is trying to keep bandwidth down for cost savings. This is better but feels like a consolation prize.

[Kilgoretrout79]

I see 422270 in settings but the quality is still pretty bad. 

[Getmeoutherw]

Where is our update ! This isn’t fixed. 

[LazySloth]

I'm on this version, quality is still poor not anything like it used to be

[Super_paulie]

The quality is absolutely appalling. Absolutely no use whatsoever for security in any shape or form.

[Getmeoutherw]

When are we getting this product fixed ? When are we getting some information. This is absurd. 

[Getmeoutherw]

Still waiting for an answer. We need this fixed. 

[Getmeoutherw]

Give us a fix

[Ravippe]

Live in the USA... The nest doorbell has been successfully upgraded and firmware and the problem seems resolved...

The rest of my nest cameras are still in the old firmware they have notupdated yet

[DutchBhoy7]

I'm in the UK and mine has updated to the new firmware. As Kelan said, the quality starts low but then becomes fine after that. Thanks for fixing. But as others have said, this shouldn't have happened in the first place of proper testing was done before releasing a new update. 

[rickytenzer]

Mine are updated, but the issue is still there. Prior to this issue, the cameras loaded quickly and I had full quality and full zoom right away; now, it takes 3-5 seconds for quality and zoom to be at max. I can't understand why this was changed!?

[satyrica]

No updates here.  6 indoor and outdoor cameras, none have updated yet.  If quality does not at least go back to what we had previously, this is going to be messy.  I think gizmodo.com is reporting on this now, the userbase is gonna revolt!

[Ravippe]

only 3 of my cams out of 7 are updated with new firmware.. no ryme or reason... some on battery updated, some on plugged in... the FARTHEST away from router updated first.. so i dunno 

[blergh]

I have 10 cameras and 8 of mine updated in the last few hours. The other 2 updated 2 days ago.

[Ravippe]

I think this was implimented because the battery is sucking too much power giving poor "life"... charging every 4 weeks etc...

Think if it as hard start every time you check... they probably thought.. lets make it a soft start...

For me im ok with a blurry video to load quick for 5 seconds and then let it get clear after... 

[mercury670]

I have battery doorbell. Video set to Max quality, I get 8-10 weeks per charge. 

[bpcs]

You're lucky! It's 6-8 weeks if I'm very lucky for me. I have about 6 video events per day average.

[rickytenzer]

I understand that, but when they are WIRED (not on battery) this shouldn't be necessary; they should forego that feature when wired. 

[bpcs]

Exactly!

[mercury670]

Even on max video quality I was still getting 8-10 weeks from a single charge. Was never needed to be changed. 

[satyrica]

Several of my nest cams have updated to 422270, but some are reporting the following (nest cam outdoor):

How do I interpret what firmware version these cameras are running? 🤷🏼‍♂️

[Micha_123]

Same here, Life feed is only in Low Quality doenst change to high quality even after some minutes stays at low quality, recordings are good.

Glas fiber connection with 1Gbit upload and 1Gbit download.

Wifi Mesh network where the mean AP is 1 meter (on the other site of the door) from the Doorbell.

Have WiFi speeds (on speedtest) around 600mbit/s up and down. Wired speed on my internet is 930mbit up and down.

So that cannot be an network issue.

The best firmware was the 1.65, best image quality, best night Vision.

Now from 1.67 firmware video Quality was broken, en after years and some updates later they have doenst fix it.  

Every update brings an another Bug on that device!!!!    Google Please roll it back to 1.65 im Missing the good Quality and perfect working video that was on the 1.65 firmware !!!!! All other firmwares  had bugs amd on every update you get more bugs !!!!

[Zimster]

UK user here, it's gone live over weekend. still not a fan of the slow ramp up of quality 

[Micha_123]

Im afraid that the next update wil Fix one thing and brake 5 other things.

Science 1.67 is it so, 1.67 poor quality night vision terrible.

1.69 better day quality but still no fix on night vision and sometimes the picture is flikkering (over day) really like an stroboscope.

1.73 picture still flikkering sometimes an give one more bug with the low quality issue on Live feed.

Now waiting for the next update, low quality on life feed seems to be fixed (as i can read reports of other users they have almost the new firmware) but now im really afraid that one thing wil be fixed and other thinks wil be broken.

My hope to the picture quality like 1.65 firmware (specially on night) is almost gone, i dont think anymore (after years  no fix on that) that the video quality at night wil be so good as it in 1.65 was.

[Hrcuk1986]

So I've had the update and every so often it's high quality on life feed immediately but with occasions where it's starts off poor then gets better however I'm still having poor quality  majority of the time for live feed. This is regardless of how long I leave it open for I just wish they'd fix it properly. 

[mercury670]

In Australia. Received the update overnight last night. 100% frustrated that it still takes 5-7 seconds once the app is opened for the quality to ramp up to where it should be to start with.

Do we know if there's a further fix / plans to backdate the firmware to the version 2 updates ago? Considering nothing was actually broken and things were working just fine, it seems ludicrous that they'd even attempt to change anything.....smh

[Ziflin]

Mine installed the update (422270), and I can confirm that the problem is definitely still not fixed yet. It will start off low resolution, then sometimes after only 3-4 seconds it will switch to high resolution video. Other times it will take 30-40 seconds (not acceptable). It will also sometimes randomly bounce between low resolution and high resolution for some reason.

This is over AT&T fiber w/ 360+mbps up & down. Hopefully this will improve, because I'm about ready to go back to my Ring doorbell... I still don't know why was this update not completely rolled back or tested properly?