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.

[Xofttam14]

Looks like it is the latest update to maybe try and smooth out issues with a struggling connection. I have this happening on all my 3 outdoor cameras. Seems to go into low quality and then high then low. What sort of speed do you have? I have 40mbps but I'm having 900mbps installed on Friday so I'm wondering if it will still do it after that

[mtjerneld]

I have 500 mbit fiber, and an 802.11ac access point less than 2 meters away. Connectivity and bandwidth has never been a problem. This is just software.

[Jassonr]

I am having same issues as of the past week or so. 

No change in router signal/position, but the video quality has dramatically reduced. It had previously been fine for 12+ months. 

[tpgnavy85]

Same here, I have noticed a significant drop in live video monitoring on my Nest Doorbell Battery over the last 24 hours, although tests of the video recording quality are still very high quality.  I've had my doorbell operating for over 3 years, never seen the live monitoring quality this bad and pixelated.  Even did a full restore this morning, same problem exists.  I suspect firmware issue, but all 3 of my Nest battery cameras (including 2 Nest Camera Battery cameras) are all on the same firmware level, just the Doorbell Battery camera is suffering from pixelation.  And my internet and connections to all 3 devices are solid and 5G.

[mtjerneld]

Sometimes in the last week the streaming quality from Nest Cams have deteriorated in quality. From HD resolution down to extremely low bandwidth.

A lot of people have the same issue, so it's not an isolated problem:

https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/s/Pn77TJwHOH

Recordings look fine, but live streaming is heavily affected. Seems like an issue on Google's side.

I have images comparing the difference.

[Volgunstrife]

This is the comparison

Is there anyway to roll back this update? this is beyond unacceptable. My cameras that i've used every day for about 7 months are now almost useless. The live quality is unusable. It says on their own store page "Up to 1080p at 30 FPS, HDR 24/7 live view" ... this is just false advertising now. Until this point I've dealt with the horrible connection on the phone side of things as the desktop experience was way better. Seriously ... i've read up on previous fiascos like this one and support are either not allowed to acknowledge it or blame the fault on your network, which is not the case as this issue clearly only started happening because of the recent update.  It's so disappointing to have invested in 5 cameras and a doorbell just so I can expect my entire investment to become almost useless overnight because of a software update.  Because I got most of these cameras around 5-7 months ago - i'm guessing a refund is impossible which is even more frustrating. There is nothing I can do except complain to other people who are frustrated with the same issue, so i'm just preaching to the choir. Anyone here that could actually help is prohibited from doing so as they likely don't make any of the decisions and just want to lock the thread as a result. If anyone that can change anything is reading this ... please, Roll back the update and return the worth back to my cameras ... please.

[Jassonr]

I have had this doorbell installed for around 12 months. It has very good WiFi connection. 

Video quality has always been great. 

Recently, within the past week or so, the video quality has dramatically reduced. 

There has been no change in internet/router/positions, so it's definitely an issue with firmware/software changes on googles end. 

Any confirmation on this being a known issue or any suggested way to fix this? 

[blergh]

My Nest cameras (battery, outdoor) just updated to version "1.73c 416403".

Is there any release notes for this new version?

[returned4good]

I haven't seen one, but my live feed quality is so bad now I initially thought my doorbell was failing and was about to trash it. Hopefully there will be another update soon that fixes whatever they broke. I'd stay away from 1.73c if it's in your power to do so. 

[blergh]

If you zoom in a bit, the resolution seems to improve. So it seems to be compressed rendering when first viewing the live feed. It's especially noticeable in night mode.

[returned4good]

I tried, but it doesn't change for me. It stays pretty garbled in both day and night vision. But the video it captures seems clear and normal. It's crazy. 

[WSteenstra]

This update really downgraded the live viewing quality a lot. Plus I can't zoom in as much as before. 

[Kmcooley]

Big time. I’m almost over my costly investments. 

[AnonymousRed]

I love how they’ve locked the previous thread. It’s not a firmware issue, it’s a them trying to save bandwidth issue. This has been going on for almost a year straight now. 

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Cam-1-69-Update-ruined-night-visio...

[Volgunstrife]

Is there anyway to roll back this update? this is beyond unacceptable. My cameras that i've used every day for about 7 months are now almost useless. The live quality is unusable. It says on their own store page "Up to 1080p at 30 FPS, HDR 24/7 live view" ... this is just false advertising now. Until this point I've dealt with the horrible connection on the phone side of things as the desktop experience was way better. Seriously ... i've read up on previous fiascos like this one and support are either not allowed to acknowledge it or blame the fault on your network, which is not the case as this issue clearly only started happening because of the recent update.  It's so disappointing to have invested in 5 cameras and a doorbell just so I can expect my entire investment to become almost useless overnight because of a software update.  Because I got most of these cameras around 5-7 months ago - i'm guessing a refund is impossible which is even more frustrating. There is nothing I can do except complain to other people who are frustrated with the same issue, so i'm just preaching to the choir. Anyone here that could actually help is prohibited from doing so as they likely don't make any of the decisions and just want to lock the thread as a result. If anyone that can change anything is reading this ... please, Roll back the update and return the worth back to my cameras ... please.

[ctcabm]

Try Starling Hub https://www.starlinghome.io/ 

They just released this direct streaming feature yesterday: 

https://support.starlinghome.io/hc/en-us/articles/24397611165335-Local-network-streaming-for-support...

[Pete04g]

Another one here for degraded image on 1.73 on nest doorbell wired gen 2, night vision is horrible now.

Other nest cameras I have  (2 outdoor battery (wired) and 2 indoors all on 1.73 ) seem fine

[Wede]

Noticed it today as well after it updated to 1.73. Recorded video seems to be the same but streaming video is greatly reduced quality. I have excellent internet speeds and the access point is a couple of feet away. Concerning that the service quality is declining over time. 

 

 

 

[Ravippe]

same with mine, door bell, nest outdoor/indoor cams new versions.. everything 1 week old... best buy BRAND NEW... same new firmware=blurry

[bpcs]

That's a good comparison of the problem. Mine is also so blurry I've been cleaning the lens thinking it's a fingerprint or condensation... hopefully a fix rolls out soon.

[blergh]

The issue of poor resolution seems to be resolved. After a few seconds of viewing the live video, the resolution returns to full definition. Zoom also returns to normal.

[tpgnavy85]

Disagree, blurry resolution for live video still exists on the Nest Doorbell Battery.  I don't think this will be resolved until another firmware is pushed out, or Google fixes something on their backend on the resolution quality they are pushing across into the live feed.

[blergh]

Strange, it's fixed on all 7 of my cameras including a floodlight version.

[tpgnavy85]

I think, for whatever reason, it's affecting the doorbell cameras more than anything.  My 2 Nest Battery Cameras, which have full power tied into them, work great for live streaming, picture is very clear.  The doorbell live stream when I activate it, not so much.  I've seen other comments above that also point to the doorbell cameras being most affected by the live streaming issue.

[Bloomy]

Not resolved here 😞 been happening for most of this week, but zooming etc do not return after viewing live feed for a while *sigh*

[Joen]

Same here, I first noticed it on my device and thought it might be my network signal because a family member of mine also has a nest doorbell which was working fine.

However, they were still on an older firmware version.

Yesterday their device also upgrade to the latest 1.73 version and now they've also got the blurry live feed issue 😞.

[sfalcon]

I have the same problem and found this thread it appears my doorbell camera has the same firmware.

[Ziflin]

I noticed this problem this week as well with our Nest Doorbell camera. The interior Nest camera seems ok, but the quality of the doorbell camera is terrible in live view. The clip history seems fine, but it isn't helpful when viewing who is currently standing at the door... Please fix!

[LamonaG]

Same problem here. If I exit and reopen the live view a few times and wait a few seconds then it sometimes goes back to good quality. But it is random... Very unhappy with the poor video quality

[peterfj]

Just want to chime in (pun intended) - I have the same issues with blurry live view on my Nest Doorbell. Spent an hour or so chatting with someone (or something - probably a robot) at tech support the other day that ended up concluding my doorbell was faulty, and I was offered a replacement 🙄 It is surely a software thing and they need to fix it asap.

[Nest_404]

I’m also noticing this too, has this been acknowledged yet?

Model: Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen)
Software version: venus-user 1.73 1.73c 416403 release-keys stable-channel stable-channel

[tpgnavy85]

I have the Nest Doorbell Battery which is affected, and I reported above.  Looking at all the comments here, I believe it's the doorbell architecture (whether battery or wired) that are the most directly affected platforms from this firmware change.  Whether Google is listening or doing anything about it, is pure speculation at this point.

[Hrcuk1986]

Mines the same 🤬 recordings are fine but the live feed is atrocious. Makes the doorbell pretty much useless for it's intended purpose. 

[Wede]

Update, was on with google support for a while today. After the standard troubleshooting they told me it was an update with the app and would be stuck waiting until a fix is created. 

[tpgnavy85]

Considering I see the same fuzzy live video on my doorbell camera on https://home.google.com, I doubt it's an 'app issue', and more how Google is streaming poor quality live feeds into their doorbells.  I see the same exact problem on the web interface at home.google.com as well as the live feed into the Google Home app.

[thmsnt]

Same problem as OP. Viewing the live feed from my battery doorbell has been very poor quality since the last firmware update. Recordings are normal quality. This needs to be fixed asap. 

[Zimster]

Same issue here

[Super_paulie]

What the sh*t is this Google? Come on, it's like a web camera from 1995. I'm paying a monthly for this garbage?

[jamsterdm]

Plus one on this thread mine is shockingly rubbish now