For the past couple of days I’ve had issues where some recorded events freeze and/or pixelate during playback. What happens is the video will start off normally but after a few seconds it will freeze, then either pixelate badly or the screen just turns completely gray.
I thought maybe it was an issue with video playback on my phone so I viewed them on my PC and the exact same thing happened with the same videos so obviously it’s how the videos were recorded/processed/encoded. I don’t know if this is being caused by the cameras or by Ring’s back-end processing.
First noticed it on an Indoor Cam. I thought the camera was going bad so I replaced it but then it happened on my Floodlight Cam Plus.
Here are a couple of screenshots. The pixelated one is from the Indoor Cam, the gray one is from the Floodlight Cam Plus.
The first few seconds of the clips were fine, then they froze, then a second or two later they turned how you see them. The video timeline kept advancing.
Like I mentioned, no matter where I view the clips, they do the exact same thing at the same time, so I know it’s not a playback issue, it’s how they were recorded, encoded, or processed.
Any ideas?
btw, I don’t think it’s a wifi or network issue. I have a very robust TP-Link mesh system with 400mbps down, 80mbps up, the Indoor Cam RSSI is -41, the Floodlight Cam is -58. I also have over 10 cams from another company and none of them are having any issues, nor am I having any network issues with anything at all. The times when these events were recorded were either early in the morning or late at night with basically nothing happening on the network as we were sleeping - no streaming, nothing uploading other than these videos, nothing downloading other than the very low-bandwidth chatter generated by the idle devices.
Anyone? This morning I had it happen with an event on the brand new Ring Indoor Cam I installed to replace the first one that I thought was going bad.
Unless this is a huge coincidence and I have two defective Indoor Cams and one defective Floodlight Cam Plus at the same time, it’s definitely not the cameras.
if I had to guess I’d say it’s something on Ring/Amazon’s end related to how the video is being processed.
Just to rule out any internet issues, my provider is T-Mobile and as I mentioned, I am consistently getting 400 down, 80 up.
Any known issues between Ring and T-Mobile Home Internet?
My internal router is a TP-Link Deco 5000 Mesh system.
Hi @GuitarMan. Does this happen if you download the videos, or just during playback? As a test, try connecting them to a mobile hotspot, record an event and then see if you have the same issue. You can also try making these adjustments here.
It happens whether I view the video on my phone, on my PC, or if I download it and view it that way. It looks like this is how they are being encoded.
Unfortunately it’s not something I can reproduce since it only happens once in a while. I doubt connecting them to a hotspot would help any.
I have found that the Ring devices have poor connectivity in general and with one of my mesh units in plain line of sight and 15 feet from one of the APs the best I can manage is an RSSI of -43. The router itself shows the connection from the device as being strong. Even with my outside Floodlight Cam Plus that hovers between -58 and -63, the router still shows that the connection with the device is strong.
Fortunately it’s intermittent but definitely annoying because most of the events that are recorded have the potential to be useful. I rely on my cams to let me know when coyotes or prowlers are around, and I’ve already got several of all of those on video. I worry that following Murphy’s Law, the one video that proves to be useful will end up being unwatchable.
Hi @GuitarMan. Thank you for this information. This issue looks like it is a packet loss issue. This often stems from a poor or weak connection. I suggest reaching out to our support team to look into this for you. Please send us a private message on Facebook @Ring or give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. If you are outside of the US, please visit here to see how to contact support.
What is the impact of having cameras linked so that if one camera detects motion another camera also records?
Yesterday I was trying different things and at one point I get a message in the app saying that linking a camera to more than one other camera might cause problems.
With some cameras I’d like to set it up so that if one detects motion, two others (so a total of 3) also record at the same time.
Hi @GuitarMan. Linked Devices allow one device to detect motion and other devices will also record. If you have multiple devices that are linked, this could be using too much of your bandwidth, causing the issue you’re having. Try unlinking them to see if this changes the video quality.
They use cheap lenses in all there cameras,pq is OK at best if there is plenty of light,but it will start to pixalate,buy a tp link for £18,ive never seen it once pixelate and u can record to a sd card so no rip off ring subscription
