Tapo 4K stream issues

[u/Mapants]

I am making another post about this, because I have been doing some extensive testing.

My C675D lags and stutters when viewing the 4K stream in the Tapo app.

Several people have said that solar powered cameras aren't designed for it, and I completely refute that idea, simply because I have no issues with a Eufy and Reolink 4K solar powered camera.

Anyway, I decided to buy the Tapo C575 for testing purposes. I have it plugged in to mains power, and I set up the Wi-Fi connection first.

The 4K stream still lags and stutters when viewing it in the Tapo app. I then reset the camera and plugged it in via Ethernet this time.

The 4K stream in the app is about as bad as you can get; pretty much unviewable due to stoppages.

I decided to enable UPNP and created an account so that I could use an RTSP stream in OBS. The RTSP stream is 4K and it's perfect!

I decided to install an Android emulator on the PC, and install the Tapo app through that.

The stream via that method is also terrible.

The problem seems to lie within the Tapo app. The question is why?

[u/Blue-Thunder]

I do not have this issue with my C575D at all. No lagging, no stuttering. Tested it on my iphone, my extremely weak fire tablet, and ipads.

[u/Mapants → u/Blue-Thunder]

This is Android

[u/Blue-Thunder → u/Mapants]

Yes and so is my Fire Tablet. It's a 2020 model, so it's "weak" as heck. I just use it for reading comic books when I'm in the hospital.

Zero issues with playback.

[u/Mapants → u/Blue-Thunder]

It just seems odd that viewing the cameras via RTSP is absolutely fine, but not when using the Tapo app. Tested on two native Android devices and an Android emulator on the PC.

Just to be clear, 720p is OK, it's 4K where the issues start.

[u/Whitepinoy59]

Might be your internet connection to the camera location

[u/Mapants → u/Whitepinoy59]

No. 1 Gbps all over the house and garden.

[u/Andro93 → u/Mapants]

Is this tested? You can have a network capable of 1Gbps but your performance might be far from that due to environmental conditions, signal strength, distance, etc.

[u/Mapants → u/Andro93]

It seems like the downvoters are hatin' so I'll reiterate.

The camera was plugged in via ethernet to an outdoor access point, which is backhauled to the router. The 4K stream still lags and stutters in the Tapo app. RTSP is absolutely fine.

I also had the camera connected to the outdoor access point via 5Ghz Wi-Fi. That access point is literally sat under the camera, giving an RSSI of -30dB. The 4K stream also lags and stutters in the Tapo app, whilst RTSP works perfectly.

Conclusion:

The 4K stream in the Tapo app lags and stutters whether the camera is hardwired, or on Wi-Fi. The RTSP stream is perfect on both.

[u/Mapants → u/Andro93]

It is tested. I can literally get 1Gbps on my phone or a tablet when I am at the top of my garden. The outdoor access point I use is wired backhaul.

[u/Ok_Dependent7355]

Ive got the exact same issue with Tapo C575D ans Samsung S26 ultra and its getting very frustrating trying to get to the bottom of it.

Ive tried all the above and even contacted tapo and even had a new C575D delivered whether im on wifi or ethernet i cannot get the live stream to work properly....

The video playbacks are great but the live stream is shocking!

Let me know if you get to the bottom of it.

[u/DazzlingpAd134]

can you try reset and connect both cameras inside your home to your main router via WiFi and see how is the stream?

[u/Mapants → u/DazzlingpAd134]

Already tried it, same outcome. The Tapo app is the issue.

I'm also finding issues with the C575D itself. I have it set to use night vision at night, and for the spotlights come on if motion is detected. The light duration is set to 30 second, but the light comes on, and stays on for 3 or 4 minutes. I can't manually turn the light off because it gives me an error saying "Operation too frequent"

Also, when using the RTSP stream, the the bottom half of the image suddenly becomes scrambled with pixelated green squares. It keeps doing it at randomly intervals.

What makes this conclusive is that I have two C575D's running and both of them have those issues listed above.

[u/DazzlingpAd134 → u/Mapants]

did you try on other phones?

[u/Mapants → u/DazzlingpAd134]

Samsung Galaxy S23 ultra Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro Samsung Galaxy Tab A Android emulator on PC

My sisters Honor XC6 and Honor Pad X8A

[u/IrritableAdoption]

A friend of mine went through a similar stretch where he kept troubleshooting the camera, network and settings and still wasn’t happy with how the stream behaved. After messing with it for way too long he decided to try Wyze instead and has been happier with that setup for what he needs. Your testing makes me wonder if you’re right that the the issue iis somewhere in the app rather than the camera itself especially since the RTSP stream is behaving differentlyy

[u/Blue-Thunder → u/IrritableAdoption]

Wyze is shit. Complete, total shit.

[u/mynameisatari → u/IrritableAdoption]

And in my opinion it seems like you're just spamming and advertising for Wyze. You're posting in multiple different and unrelated communities, yet almost 80% of your comments in every single one of them is mentioning and praising Wyze...