Google details Nest Cam and Doorbell HDR update behind video quality changes

Last week, Nest Cam owners started noticing washed out colors and what seemed to be degraded video quality. Google today is detailing a new update for battery-powered Nest Cams and the Nest Doorbell that improves HDR and makes “other image quality enhancements.”

Google is improving HDR performance with a “more advanced auto exposure control (AEC) algorithm and additional software optimizations.” This will result in cameras “more accurately [calculating] the multiple exposures based on the environment to avoid over- or under-exposure for each video frame.”

High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging on Nest Cams makes it possible to see details even in environments that have both dark shadows and bright highlights. With HDR, the camera captures multiple exposures and combines them into a single optimized video frame to render a better dynamic range.

However, Nest Cam owners last week found the changes to result in washed-out colors, with feeds losing dynamic range instead.

Meanwhile, Google says images should “look crisper due to improved local contrast.” It shared a before and after gallery of what the changes are suppose to achieve in ideal conditions:

Old vs. new on Nest Cam (battery) [top] and Doorbell (battery) [bottom]

Other software and hardware optimizations today make it so that you get finer texture and detail when zooming in. 

Google says the Nest Cam and Doorbell HDR update rolled out this week.

Old vs. new on Nest Cam (battery) [top] and Doorbell (battery) [bottom]

More on Google Nest:

• Google Home routines can now be triggered from the web, cameras get redesign
• Review: This solar panel recharges Google’s Nest Cam battery
• Google Home’s new automation Script Editor is already available to all users
• Animated camera notifications on Wear OS rolling out in June