Doorbell

[Sophie0099]

Hello,

new doorbell is super glitchy- only records 3 seconds before freezing, sometimes nothing. I’ve tried reloading. Wireless Arlo camera right next to it is fine. Any tips? Thanks!

[JamesC]

Sophie0099,

If you live stream the doorbell, do you experience the same behavior? What does the signal strength icon show for the doorbell?

JamesC

[Sophie0099]

Hi James,

Thank you for your reply, appreciate the help. 

Live streaming is fine and it has full signal strength. I’ve also played around with the video quality settings with no change to the glitching of videos. 

Thanks again for your help!

[JamesC]

Sophie0099,

Do you experience this behavior with every recording or is it intermittent? Are you able to provide an example clip?

JamesC

[Sophie0099]

Hi JamesC,

The glitchiness occurs most of the time. If the doorbell is triggered on repeat it seems to record full clips, but after half an hour goes back to getting stuck. The audio seems to record on though.

here are two screen shots of what can happen. I can’t load a video to show but it either goes like the photo or the footage pauses, but the recording continues. 

Thanks!

 

 

[StephenB]

What you are showing is a corrupted/lossy video stream from the camera (even though nearby camera is working ok).   The freezes and artifacts are because the phone is finding errors in the bitstream when it tries to decompress it.  This loss might be due to signal issues (the app indicator isn't very useful), or it might be an issue with the camera compression hardware.

Maybe try taking the doorbell inside as a test, and seeing if the problem resolves or not.

Is the door or the doorframe made from metal (or trimmed with metal)?

[Sophie0099]

hi there, thanks for your response. 

There’s a metal door next to it, but it’s otherwise mounted against a brick wall. When it goes very pixelated like the photo it takes a moment to become clear, then it pauses. 

thanks!

[StephenB]

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@Sophie0099 wrote:

When it goes very pixelated like the photo it takes a moment to become clear, then it pauses.

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That is usual.  The camera sends something called an i-frame every few seconds, and if that is received with no errors, the picture will clear up.  An error after that will result in a freezed picture and/or more artifacts.  Exactly what you see depends on how the player handles the errors.

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@Sophie0099 wrote:

There’s a metal door next to it, but it’s otherwise mounted against a brick wall.

If the wall behind the brick is concrete (or concrete block) there would be iron rebar in the wall.  Sometimes there is metal flashing behind the brick.  So it is very possible that metal between the doorbell and the router is interfering with the signal.

Moving the doorbell inside (running it off the battery) is the easiest way to check for this.  If you do this, you could also put your phone flat against the wall at the spot where the doorbell is mounted.  Then use the Ookla speedtest app on the phone (disabling cellular data, so you know you are using wifi).  That will give you information on the upload speed and the packet loss at that spot.

[Sophie0099]

Thanks, I’ve just been through the old footage when it was inside before we installed it on the bracket outside and it was happening then, too- maybe not quite as much but lots of moments of the footage freezing. It seemed to run longer though- it’s blocking around 1-3seconds now. 

I’ll try the speed test, good idea. Thanks.