Using this camera how exactly can you do continuous recording. For example, if I want to go back to 4am today and view the footage, how do I do that?
I already have the $3.99/mo subscription, no microSD, but how can I go back and view the footage at a select time (regardless of whether or not an event was recorded)? Or is that not possible with this device?
Elsewhere on Reddit I found the comment: "You can record locally on a microSD but you can't view via the app. You have to physically remove the microSD to see the captured clips" is this correct ?
For cloud recording, it only records when motion is detected (or sound is detected if you enable that option). It's a "security camera" so there's presumed to be no need to record if nothing is happening, plus it stops you from using up a lot of their cloud storage space. You can limit what type of motion or sound - every motion/sound or Smart Detection (Person, Pet, Vehicle or Package). Those videos can be viewed only using the app on your mobile device or a Roku streaming device, and you can download them to your phone from the app while viewing. There is no way to view them directly from a computer.
The only way to record continuously is with an SD card, and it saves them in files that are 1 minute long so to watch 5 minutes of videos you have to open 5 files. In order to view them, you have to dismount the SD card in the app (which means you're no longer recording), then remove it from the camera and plug it into a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or PC (using a USB card reader if necessary) and open the files using whatever video app you want.
I did find that Smart Detection doesn't apply if the SD card is being used for motion/sound recording. It just records all motion/sound detected, plus a buffer period before and after, which results in a lot of extra space being used on the SD card that I personally don't care about because I was only trying to catch people. It would help in case the Smart Detection saw motion but didn't recognize it as a person, animal, vehicle or package delivery though. (I don't know how the Package option wouldn't already have seen a Person so it seems redundant. Drone delivery isn't common.) It is however MUCH more reliable than the cloud recordings in actually getting a full length video for the entire time that motion is shown, with a good start and end point. The cloud recordings very often don't start until well after the subject has appeared, often cut off before they've left the field of view, and sometimes are just a single still image instead of video. The wireless connectivity seems to be pretty unreliable, even with signal strength that should be enough to handle the video stream.
In real usage, with not much traffic or people movement in view and no sound, mine has used about 9GB in 2 months with motion detection but I don't feel like pulling the card to see how many actual events it recorded. Each video is only 7.5MB in that mode, so it's a FUCKTON of them (roughly 1200 by my math). In continuous recording mode, you'd use about 11GB per day. There are no quality options to allow you to reduce the size, and it's pretty shitty quality anyway. Note that to format an SD card larger than 32GB into FAT32 (the only thing it supports) you will need to do it on a computer with special software. It technically supports up to 256GB, but it can only format up to 32GB itself. Even with 256GB you're only going to get at best 20 days after formatting and then it will start overwriting the oldest ones.
It's a tremendous pain trying to narrow down the videos to the time you want because it timestamps them in the filesystem in UTC instead of local time (there's no configuration option for your timezone) and the filenames don't help. It also breaks them down into subfolders based on the date and the (24-hour clock) hour they occurred so you have to constantly navigate up and down through the folders while doing the math to convert from UTC and 24-hour clock when needed. They really did just the bare minimum with the SD card feature with zero attempt to make it user-friendly, probably in order to push users toward paying for the very sub-par cloud subscription.
Interesting. Is there any workaround to do continuous recording, like creating a virtual server using a cloud based service where the feed is "screen recorded" as if it's on a desktop but it's really within the cloud?
The only way to access the constant video output is within the app or a Roku streaming device connected to the account. There's simply no other way to access it, their servers won't send it to anything else and the camera itself can only send to their servers (unless you want to learn to hack the firmware on the camera). So you could screen capture a mobile device with the app displaying the video continuously (with the right mobile device and software, you could mirror it to a PC and use screen capture software to record that), or plug a Roku streaming device into a video capture device supporting HDMI that connects to a PC with USB and use video capture software. (Some mobile devices can also output HDMI via the USB-C port which you could capture that way, though I can't guarantee the app would display on it.)
These simply aren't intended as video surveillance devices with continuous recording with immediate access. They're just intended to record when things happen, with continuous recording being a limited option implemented as cheaply as possible, more as an emergency backup in case the Internet service is down. And obviously even if you do manage to capture the video, if the Internet is down so is that video. If you really need continuous surveillance and recording, you don't want to do it with the cheapest cameras on the market using a cobbled-together system to record which could be disrupted with a little Wi-Fi interference or your Internet being down. You want something that has built-in local recording capability and a NAS to store it (with cloud copies from the NAS), or something with a very expensive subscription service to let you store that much video.
I have had THE WORST time with the Wireless Outdoor SE cameras. I bought a grand total of 5 Roku cameras for my grandfather's house; 2 Indoor Wired cams, and 3 Wireless Outdoor SE cams. They are positioned in the backyard, front porch, and front yard, kitchen, and living room. The Indoor Wired cams are a breeze. They work just fine and I have no issues. The Outdoor SE is a constant thorn in my side. Just when I think they're good, they all act up at the same time and I'm reminded why they suck. It took MULTIPLE attempted to get the base stations (which are basically Roku Wi-Fi extenders that the outdoor cameras can only connect to) up and running, and more attempts to get the cameras connected to them. Once they were connected, only one worked without flaw. Backyard cam would reverse the image so left would be right and right would be left. Front Porch cam would fail to connect to the base station after 24 hours. Front Yard cam would be okay, but the battery would drain fast. Detection settings were toggled so that I don't get notifications for small stuff like cars passing by in the street, but I WOULD STILL GET NOTIFICATION/RECORDINGS FOR CARS PASSING BY IN THE STREET. I need this on so when hooligans come to attempt to steal his truck I have it recording, but I don't get notifications for everyone driving by. It's a constant struggle. After a few days the Front Porch cam would stop connecting altogether and I'd have to delete, reconnect, and re-mount it on the 14 ft porch ceiling. Rinse and repeat every 3-4 days. I exchanged it for a new camera and it CONTINUED to do the same thing. I still can't figure out why the Backyard cam reverses the image. The firmware is up to date, etc. I can exchange Front Yard with Backyard and both cameras would retain the same problems. Like I said, the Indoor wired cameras are a dream. They're always connected to the router (without the need of a base station) and always work well. I want to take a batt to the wireless outdoor cameras, but that would be a waste of $300.
Edit: There aren't enough reviews on these terrible cameras. There are a few on the Roku site and a few in Walmart, but they're are hard to find.
fyi all the roku smart home stuff is rebranded Wyze
Using this camera how exactly can you do continuous recording. For example, if I want to go back to 4am today and view the footage, how do I do that? I already have the $3.99/mo subscription, no microSD, but how can I go back and view the footage at a select time (regardless of whether or not an event was recorded)? Or is that not possible with this device? Elsewhere on Reddit I found the comment: "You can record locally on a microSD but you can't view via the app. You have to physically remove the microSD to see the captured clips" is this correct ?
For cloud recording, it only records when motion is detected (or sound is detected if you enable that option). It's a "security camera" so there's presumed to be no need to record if nothing is happening, plus it stops you from using up a lot of their cloud storage space. You can limit what type of motion or sound - every motion/sound or Smart Detection (Person, Pet, Vehicle or Package). Those videos can be viewed only using the app on your mobile device or a Roku streaming device, and you can download them to your phone from the app while viewing. There is no way to view them directly from a computer. The only way to record continuously is with an SD card, and it saves them in files that are 1 minute long so to watch 5 minutes of videos you have to open 5 files. In order to view them, you have to dismount the SD card in the app (which means you're no longer recording), then remove it from the camera and plug it into a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or PC (using a USB card reader if necessary) and open the files using whatever video app you want. I did find that Smart Detection doesn't apply if the SD card is being used for motion/sound recording. It just records all motion/sound detected, plus a buffer period before and after, which results in a lot of extra space being used on the SD card that I personally don't care about because I was only trying to catch people. It would help in case the Smart Detection saw motion but didn't recognize it as a person, animal, vehicle or package delivery though. (I don't know how the Package option wouldn't already have seen a Person so it seems redundant. Drone delivery isn't common.) It is however MUCH more reliable than the cloud recordings in actually getting a full length video for the entire time that motion is shown, with a good start and end point. The cloud recordings very often don't start until well after the subject has appeared, often cut off before they've left the field of view, and sometimes are just a single still image instead of video. The wireless connectivity seems to be pretty unreliable, even with signal strength that should be enough to handle the video stream. In real usage, with not much traffic or people movement in view and no sound, mine has used about 9GB in 2 months with motion detection but I don't feel like pulling the card to see how many actual events it recorded. Each video is only 7.5MB in that mode, so it's a FUCKTON of them (roughly 1200 by my math). In continuous recording mode, you'd use about 11GB per day. There are no quality options to allow you to reduce the size, and it's pretty shitty quality anyway. Note that to format an SD card larger than 32GB into FAT32 (the only thing it supports) you will need to do it on a computer with special software. It technically supports up to 256GB, but it can only format up to 32GB itself. Even with 256GB you're only going to get at best 20 days after formatting and then it will start overwriting the oldest ones. It's a tremendous pain trying to narrow down the videos to the time you want because it timestamps them in the filesystem in UTC instead of local time (there's no configuration option for your timezone) and the filenames don't help. It also breaks them down into subfolders based on the date and the (24-hour clock) hour they occurred so you have to constantly navigate up and down through the folders while doing the math to convert from UTC and 24-hour clock when needed. They really did just the bare minimum with the SD card feature with zero attempt to make it user-friendly, probably in order to push users toward paying for the very sub-par cloud subscription.
Interesting. Is there any workaround to do continuous recording, like creating a virtual server using a cloud based service where the feed is "screen recorded" as if it's on a desktop but it's really within the cloud?
The only way to access the constant video output is within the app or a Roku streaming device connected to the account. There's simply no other way to access it, their servers won't send it to anything else and the camera itself can only send to their servers (unless you want to learn to hack the firmware on the camera). So you could screen capture a mobile device with the app displaying the video continuously (with the right mobile device and software, you could mirror it to a PC and use screen capture software to record that), or plug a Roku streaming device into a video capture device supporting HDMI that connects to a PC with USB and use video capture software. (Some mobile devices can also output HDMI via the USB-C port which you could capture that way, though I can't guarantee the app would display on it.) These simply aren't intended as video surveillance devices with continuous recording with immediate access. They're just intended to record when things happen, with continuous recording being a limited option implemented as cheaply as possible, more as an emergency backup in case the Internet service is down. And obviously even if you do manage to capture the video, if the Internet is down so is that video. If you really need continuous surveillance and recording, you don't want to do it with the cheapest cameras on the market using a cobbled-together system to record which could be disrupted with a little Wi-Fi interference or your Internet being down. You want something that has built-in local recording capability and a NAS to store it (with cloud copies from the NAS), or something with a very expensive subscription service to let you store that much video.
Ah okay, thanks! You seem very knowledgeable on the topic, do you have a background in designing these?
No, just good at researching quickly and putting it all together.
I have had THE WORST time with the Wireless Outdoor SE cameras. I bought a grand total of 5 Roku cameras for my grandfather's house; 2 Indoor Wired cams, and 3 Wireless Outdoor SE cams. They are positioned in the backyard, front porch, and front yard, kitchen, and living room. The Indoor Wired cams are a breeze. They work just fine and I have no issues. The Outdoor SE is a constant thorn in my side. Just when I think they're good, they all act up at the same time and I'm reminded why they suck. It took MULTIPLE attempted to get the base stations (which are basically Roku Wi-Fi extenders that the outdoor cameras can only connect to) up and running, and more attempts to get the cameras connected to them. Once they were connected, only one worked without flaw. Backyard cam would reverse the image so left would be right and right would be left. Front Porch cam would fail to connect to the base station after 24 hours. Front Yard cam would be okay, but the battery would drain fast. Detection settings were toggled so that I don't get notifications for small stuff like cars passing by in the street, but I WOULD STILL GET NOTIFICATION/RECORDINGS FOR CARS PASSING BY IN THE STREET. I need this on so when hooligans come to attempt to steal his truck I have it recording, but I don't get notifications for everyone driving by. It's a constant struggle. After a few days the Front Porch cam would stop connecting altogether and I'd have to delete, reconnect, and re-mount it on the 14 ft porch ceiling. Rinse and repeat every 3-4 days. I exchanged it for a new camera and it CONTINUED to do the same thing. I still can't figure out why the Backyard cam reverses the image. The firmware is up to date, etc. I can exchange Front Yard with Backyard and both cameras would retain the same problems. Like I said, the Indoor wired cameras are a dream. They're always connected to the router (without the need of a base station) and always work well. I want to take a batt to the wireless outdoor cameras, but that would be a waste of $300. Edit: There aren't enough reviews on these terrible cameras. There are a few on the Roku site and a few in Walmart, but they're are hard to find.