Night Vision Too Dark

[SuperTrollMan]

Hi All,

I've recently installed new Google Nest Cameras.

They had been running perfectly, however I noticed night vision on 1 of the camera's had deteriorated significantly.
I toggled the night vision from auto, to on, to off and back to auto.
Its definitely on when its on auto, but its considerably poorer than a week ago (a lot darker).
The camera's are mounted and wired with the genuine Google cable, so they haven't moved or changed any other factors.

When looking at the 2x 'battery' camera's I have, the other one was working perfectly fine.
I noticed the firmware had changed on the one having issues "nq-user 1.67 OPENMASTER 361459"
Whereas the working camera was running 1.65 of the software.

I started chatting to support about this, they had me restart the camera this afternoon, which didn't change the issue unfortunatley.

I then noticed the working camera started showing the same symptoms, upon checking the Home app, it has now been updated to 1.67 aswell.

The same shot 24 hours apart has significantly poorer night vision and the only common denominator I've been able to come up with is the 1.67 firmware having issues.

Is anyone else seeing this?

[Anonymous]

Great move wish i could change brands...

The google nest battery cams have never been or never will be fit for purpose

[Lee139]

My biggest complaint with the Google cameras is that there is no control over MINIMUM event record time.  We live in a rural area, where our Internet is limited and we can not use 24/7 recording due to both bandwidth limitations and caps on our data transfer.  We are forced to use the Event based plan for Nest Aware because of this.  The problem is that recordings cut out even while an event is ongoing.  Someone can be standing in front of a camera, but if they don't move for a few seconds, the recording just stops.  This means we don't have a complete record of the event.  I've tried to get this resolved, but Google does not care.  They want everyone to pay extra for the 24/7 plan.  However, we can not do that because of physical limitations.  I would even be willing to PAY EXTRA just to have the ability to set a minimum event recording length.  Currently I am very dissatisfied with Google Home, and also have buyer's remorse.  An additional complaint is inability to have voice announcements when a person is detected by a camera.  Google only uses phone notifications, so if your phone is not handy, or you are not paying attention to it, you miss the notification and have no idea someone is on your property.

[Blurrycamgirl]

TIME TO DITCH THIS CRAP AND GO TO RING!

[CaliforniaLove]

I am a programmer for a living. It takes literally a few lines of code if that's indeed what this problem is HDR. Give the option to the customer to turn HDR on or  HDR OFF. You don't just take it upon yourself after like 2-3 years of the cameras running great to just turn HDR on full blast and customer can't ever turn it off or even revert to firmware 1.65 which was running great. I'm done with this Google nonsense. They have all the power and you can't do anything. They make changes, make new firmware (automatically updated, can't even turn off auto updates)...No thanks

[DP12]

Same Issue ...terrible picture quality especially under street lighting ... 

[CaliforniaLove]

The quality is awful now all the way around. Especially though like @DP12 mentioned, under street lighting..Horrendous. Why did Google do this to us? They had a great product and ruined it.

Don't know about you guys, but I am never using another Google product again. At least Apple lets us decide if we want software updates, and also lets us revert back to old firmware. This is just ridiculous behavior, and by a big name Company. Just disgraceful.

[DP12]

Info . below is via Bard ...so who knows ? but we can hope ...

Google Nest Cam Battery software version 1.67 was released on June 6, 2023. This update includes a number of bug fixes and improvements, but it has also been reported to cause issues with video quality. Some users have reported that their Nest Cams are now producing washed-out or grainy footage after updating to version 1.67.

Google has acknowledged the issue and is working on a fix. In the meantime, there is no way to revert back to version 1.65 or prevent your Nest Cam from automatically updating to version 1.67. If you are experiencing problems with video quality after updating, you can try the following:

• Restart your Nest Cam.
• Power cycle your router.
• Uninstall and reinstall the Google Home app.
• Contact Google Nest support for further assistance.

Here are some of the reported issues with Nest Cam Battery software version 1.67:

• Washed-out or grainy video footage
• Video freezes or stutters
• Night vision is not working properly
• Motion detection is not working properly
• Nest Cam is not connecting to Wi-Fi

If you are experiencing any of these issues, you can try the troubleshooting steps above or contact Google Nest support for further assistance.

[t210]

Same here with street lighting as well horribly blurry and washed out.
Firmware 1.65
firmware 1.65

firmware 1.67
firmware 1.67

[Boughtlessons]

Same issue as well😔

[JamesFletcher]

Same here. Video quality is now terrible. Google, please fix.

[Stephenjg]

Experiencing degraded colours and at low light levels the camera keeps switching between day and night mode for about 2 hours approximately, didn't have this issue before the latest update. At the moment i have to keep the cam on day mode setting, as the auto setting does not switch correctly, possibly due to the lower quality colours.

[Flashkick98]

Having the same issue. Definitely disappointed. Hopefully they will resolve this in timely fashion. 

[realrob]

I have also noticed this washed out/over saturated image quality once my cameras were updated to version 1.67.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google is experimenting with tweaks to the image quality that, while noticeable by the individual, are deemed "acceptable" on Google's end and therefore result in significant infrastructure cost savings, e.g., 500K cameras streaming 24/7 @ a lower quality= $100K per month/week/day (totally pulling those numbers out of my butt).

[CaliforniaLove]

When I first saw the quality, I immediately thought the camera's sensors went bad. So I exchanged the camera for a new one, which was shipped with firmware 1.65. Worked fine for about 5 minutes and then it automatically updated to the dreaded 1.67. To me, it looks like Google may have cheaped out and went with some lower end freebie codecs so it saves them on cost and bandwidth. Either way, it's not a company I want to do business with ever again. They have too much control here folks, it's this "trust us, we know whats best for you" attitude. If this is indeed a HDR issue, then spend the 5 minutes to code in a HDR on/off button. Or if they screw something up in a firmware update, allow the customer to revert back to old stable firmware that actually works. Also, I do remember once during Covid where Google "took over" all the cams and reduced out quality and bandwidth automatically and we couldnt even do anything about it.  It's just disguisting behavior by Google, and I am so happy with my new Lorex camera that I will never switch back to this garbage.

Check out the story here:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/14/21221423/google-nest-camera-reduce-video-quality-bandwidth-covid-...

Google may start adjusting the quality of video captured by your Nest security camera to help ease the strain put on broadband networks. The company is making the changes at a time when more people than ever are using internet-connected devices at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To answer the global call to prioritize internet bandwidth for learning and working, in the next few days we’re going to be making a few changes,” Google said in a statement to The Verge. “We believe these changes have the potential to help make it easier for communities to keep up with school, work, and everything in between.” Nest users on Twitter first reported receiving an email from Google announcing the changes.

[TommyLou19]

SAME HAPPENED TO ALL MINE. I HAVE 6 INCLUDING THE DOOR BELL AND ALL ARE BRIGHT, VIVID AND WASHED OUT. 🙄🙄

[CaliforniaLove]

Google doesn't seem to care as they haven't fixed it. Something tells me this was intentional and they are saving money by using less bandwidth on their servers. It was probably designed and the Google figured that no one would even notice the quality difference.

[stangz71]

All my Google nest battery cameras are having the same issue. They are washed out and causing issues will clarity, making them pretty useless at night. Please fix ASAP 

[Anonymous]

MILLIONS PROBABLY BILLIONS OF GIGABYTES OF DATA WASTED ON THIS UPDATE I WONDER HOW MUCH GREENHOUSE GAS THAT MAKES???

This just goes to show how pathetically bad googles software engineers are allowing an update like this to be approved. Obviously sufficient testing was not done or testing was simply non-existent at all. If there was sufficient testing google should've picked up on these faults "big ask i know seeing the plethora of ongoing issues these cameras have"...

When you take into account the millions of gigabytes of data required to do these updates it makes you wonder "WHO IS MAKING MONEY  OUT OF THE MILLIONS OF GIGABYTES OF DATA REQUIRED TO PERFORM THESE UPDATES"?
Your answer is google and ther affiliates. Watch the new update come out relatively soon to fix this broken update and watch the "MILLIONS IF NOT BILLIONS OF GIGABYTES OF DATA REQIIRED AGAIN TO ATTEMPT TO REPAIR THE BROKEN UPDATE"...
WE KNOW WHO'S MAKING THE MONEY OUT OF ALL THIS NONSENSICAL CRAP AND IT CERTAINLY IS NOT THE CONSUMER 

[Lisa12]

Hey Google, are you able to respond to these complaints and provide some feedback sk we know if you plan to fix these issues. So far not one word from the company!!!! If no response shortly I’ll be returning my products under warranty which is a doorbell, floodlight camera and 2nd gen best hub - the lack of communication  just isn’t good enough. 

[Jumperr]

I guess this is the response we will only get. 

https://9to5google.com/2023/06/14/nest-cam-hdr-update/

Hopefully it gets better judging by the article the brightness may be here to stay. 

[WayCoolJr]

They said this hdr thing was for battery powered cameras. Funny thing is, this happened in my WIRED floodlight camera.

[MplsCustomer]

@WayCoolJr 

We have the battery camera. The floodlight camera fixture actually uses the same camera. 

[MplsCustomer]

This is their blog post from today:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Update-to-battery-Nest-Cam-and-Nest-Doorbell-delivers-br...

[Xofttam14]

Would it be so hard to add a HDR on / off button in the video settings? My cameras look much worse with this update. It looks so unrealistic and not true to life at all. If I could id turn HDR off 

[Badattitude]

Glad to see I'm not the only one with this problem. 1st noticed the change last week. Tried the reset, factory reset and even removed the camera completely. Made no difference. Bad enough daylight viewing is now horrendous, but night viewing is just about useless!! Yet my older Outdoor IQ cameras are fine and unaffected. Hope to see this problem corrected soon, as I recently bought 2 more cameras with floodlight that I'll be mounting soon.

[SuperAdam]

Your IQ camera is fine because Google no longer does any software updates for them anymore, which in this case is a good thing. 

[CaliforniaLove]

Google is simply buying time. They got a lot of flack and bad rep for this 1.67 version and are simply buying time with customers while they fix it. If they had an update ready to go, trust me, they would roll the update out to everyone. They are still working on the magical update and it'll go out maybe by the end of the week (doubtful) to everyone all at once. It's not done yet and they are just buying time / stalling.

[Badattitude]

Couldn't get the copy/paste to work so I'll improvise:

"However, if your needs require a higher video quality setting, you can easily change it back at any time by going to your camera settings." 

The above quote was from  the  Google Nest notice addressing this issue, but I was viewing it on Twitter. 

Anyway...so where is this setting that allows me to switch back? All I can find is the video setting with "Max and High'. High is default, but I tried both with no difference noted.

[SuperAdam]

Before this update you could actually notice the difference between "high" and "max" but not anymore, this is not a settings issue, it's a software issue that only Google can fix, we can't do anything on our end. 

[Tink]

Latest update from Google

• https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Update-to-battery-Nest-Cam-and-Nest-Dhttps://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Update-to-battery-Nest-Cam-and-Nest-Doorbell-delivers-br... oorbell-delivers-brighter-images-with/ba-p/433839

[random_turkey]

All 4 of my cameras have washed out color as well.

[Akraz]

I have 2 Nest Camera (battery) and 1 Doorbell (Battery). all 3 cameras are washed out and the colours look terrible. The 2 Nest Camera (battery) are also having and issue adjusting at night when they turn grayscale, I can hear the mechanism in the camera constantly switch to colour mode and my app is reflecting this. The 2 cameras will switch from B/W to Colour every 5 seconds because they dont know what to do. I feel like this latest updated messed with the camera sensor.

as a workaround i put my cameras in grayscale mode permanently because I feel that constantly mechanism flip from IR to Colour is going to wear out the camera.

[Anonymous]

Google software engineers are a bunch of numpty halfwits this is totally pathetic 

[Iano23]

Likewise, 3 x Nest Battery cameras on constant power, and 2 Nest battery doorbells on power, all have 1.67, all have the same washed, poor image quality.

Bit pissed having spent the best part of £1k to buy the cameras, power cables, trunking kits, anti-theft housing etc, and only installed them at the start of May. If they aren't fit for purpose then back they go, almost useless having them now.

[CaliforniaLove]

The worst part is that we can't even believe Google at their word. They promised an update to fix this and low an behold, the week is over and NO UPDATE. That's why I switched all my cameras out to the 4K Lorex ones. They record directly to the SD card and 4K quality. None of this BS of Google having all the power. Google can't be trusted and it'll be who knows when before they release some magical update to fix this mess they started. The Google engineers for the cameras division are likely outsourced, but in any event, they are awful. Glad I made the switch over to a better company that actually cares about their customers and doesn't make up lies.

[SuperAdam]

They are %100 outsourceed with fake online degrees, this literally what I've been saying, they say that the video should be "crisper" now, like whoever thought that should get their eyesight checked. 

[Xofttam14]

I think the update they promise in their announcement is 1.67, that we all already have. They aren't saying they are going to fix this issue we are talking about here, they are making out what we see now is a fix for how it used to be. But most of us prefer how it used to be. All they need to do is add a HDR on / off button in the settings and we can choose. Can't be that difficult can it Google? 

[SuperAdam]

They need to bring back the old HDR, it was so good, how did their engineers look at this and think "man this looks better than before" whoever made that firmware should be FIRED. 

[SuperAdam]

Garbage Google is celebrating this firmware update as an "enhancement" to the cameras, they literally released like a mini press article about how these cameras are "better" now, I'm so mad and fed up with them, these cameras had one of the best videos and now it looks garbage, night vision is just plain horrible, they are garbage company. 

[SuperAdam]

 

 look at this, night vision is way dimmer and quality is so poor and grainy, the third one, look at my white shirt, it is literally glowing blue, like a reflective vest and my skin looks glowy red, the forth one is for night vision with a moth flying Infront of it, the moth is also glowing and that never happened before.

For some reason also my backyard camera now tells me there is a person in my yard whenever the wind moves the tree branches and that has never happened before, I woke up yesterday to 9 notifications saying there was a person in my yard and each and everyone of those was the tree branches moving, are we supposed to settle for this? Some of us paid hundreds of dollars on these, I have 4 nest cam battery and one nest cam indoor which it also received the same update, they are basically identical in terms of hardware except the water ip rating, and I didn't get those with a discount, they were all full regular price, customer support they say they are aware of the issue but just a couple of days ago google released an article talking about the new software and all the improvements it brings, so which is it? Is this the bug or the feature?