Nest cam streaming quality

[#1]

Having a few issues with my Nest Cams. I have 2, one outdoor one and one indoor one. If I set the quality to auto they never stream above 720 but they can stream up to 1080. I have even sat one cam right next to my access point and it still won't go over 720. If I manually set it to 1080 I get a ghosting on things that are moving, such as people, it sharpens up when they stop moving.

Nest say its either my upload speed isn't quick enough (speed tests indicate a 16Mbps upload, nest needs 2Mbps for 1080p) or the wifi signal isn't strong enough. I eliminated the wifi possibility when I moved the cam closer.

I have a draytek 2760 and I have also tried the PN supplied one hub on 2.4G and 5G, nothing seems to improve the quality.

Not sure what else I can try? Any ideas? Could is be PN doing weird things with their traffic priory stuff?

[#2]

@jrilton - It seems to be a common recommendation that you separate your 2.4GHz and your 5GHz WiFi Channels, so as you have a DrayTek this might be able to help you, assuming you don't have it done or know how to do it.

[#3]

@Anonymous I did that on my PN router, it didn't help. Sorry, I should have said I use an ASUS access point as my draytek doesn't have wifi.

So I've tried

PN router  > Nest cam

PN Router > asus AP > Nest cam

Draytek > asus AP > Nest cam

PN router > PN router as an AP > nest cam

nothing seems to get the quality to improve, which makes me thing its my actual connection. I've had tests done on it already which show no issues. I just can't work out what the problems is.

[#4]

@jrilton - It may not have anything to do with the camera or the WAN / LAN but what you're using to view the images on; which is? Are there any settings on that you can broggle.

[#5]

@Anonymous The nest app or windows PC.

The main issues is Nest doesn't tell you what quality its uploading at. What I can do is download the clips which then tell me what quality it's at. So even downloads are 720 unless I manually set it to 1080.  When i do set it manually to the higher quality there is a noticeable difference in quality, unless I move around, then it seems to struggle.

[#6]

Surely 1080p h264 video encoded down to a maximum bit rate of 1.2Mbps (according to the tech specs) is never going to look that good? OK so it would be mostly recording an unchanging image, which would compress very well, but I wouldn't expect any fast motion to look good.

[#7]

Are you able to view the camera(s) live using a third party viewer such as VLC or similar to see what that provides?

[#8]

@Anonymous You can only view it through the app or the nest website but it is 100% to do with what the cams are uploading at not what I'm viewing the stream at. My issue is Nest cams wont automatically upload at 1080p unless I manually set it that way.

@ejs I did think it was just the way it was, I'm never gonna get blueray quality 1080p but when I've watched reviews of the nest cam outdoor it shows people running around the back garden, while its not as sharp as if they were standing still its a million times better then what it looks like when I just walk around my garden.

As I say though nest said if my connection can handle it, on auto it should go to 1080p. because it wont go above 720 on auto suggest something is wrong somewhere.

[#9]

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@ejs wrote:

Surely 1080p h264 video encoded down to a maximum bit rate of 1.2Mbps

Just for reference I have an IPcam streaming 1080 h264 video. It runs at 4Mbs.

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[#10]

@Strat what kind do you have? I'm getting so fed up with this outdoor cam I might just send it back

[#11]

Amcrest ProHD IP2M-841B which is an indoor unit but they do good outdoor ones....available on Amazon.

[#12]

Thanks for the info @Strat

I think i have worked out that the fact in sticking the outdoor cam to the Juliette balcony metal railing is causing interference, even though it's to the side of it. Also there are a lot of 2.4Ghz networks around me. For some reason nest decided to remove the 5G option from the UK cam. I can only assume to avoid complains of the 5G signal trying to get though brick walls. This would have been ideal for me since the WiFi AP is right next to the wall and the signal is fine on the other side.

Still doesn't explain why my indoor cam's won't upload automatically at 1080p though, they are on 5G WiFi.