@Wana5354 

I have the original V1 cameras, but installed some newere ones for an elderly neighbour who was recently burgled. She has the same problem with glare off the window at night, whereas I do not. Following to see if a solution materialises.

  @Lazza thank you for your message. It will be interesting to see if support could supply an answer. I have just installed a v2 firmware 1.0.4 and there's an update waiting 1.0.7 and I have set the auto update to off and will be testing tonight to see if I get the glared effect on the v2.

Does your camera have a different  firmware compared to your neighbours camera?

I hope support can view the video in my original post.

Sorry to hear about your neighbours being burgled. 

  @Lazza I tested the v2 camera last night and around 9pm the IR kicked in and the glare came back. Only way around this was on live view click the word "auto" and select "day" on the options. 

Tapo needs to fix this as it is not fit for purpose if the night ir is not working. 

Also on the v2 box it says starlight View but no option to turn it off or on.

I had to update the firmware from 1.0.4 to 1.0.7 on v2 but it didn't fix it.

My v1 camera stayed working last night.

🤷‍♂️

Lazza wrote

  @Wana5354 

 

I have the original V1 cameras, but installed some newere ones for an elderly neighbour who was recently burgled. She has the same problem with glare off the window at night, whereas I do not. Following to see if a solution materialises.

  @Wana5354   this thread may answer why C225 V2 does not have the starlight mode option. I think there is not enough light in your environment so even if the starlight mode is selected, the camera will still switch to infrared mode. 
Since the camera live view page is abnormal in infrared mode because the IR LED is reflected by the window, if you do not want to relocate the camera, selecting the Close option on the Night Mode settings/Night Vision Distance page may help, in this case, even if the camera uses infrared mode, the IR LED will not light up.

Summer_S wrote

  @Wana5354   this thread may answer why C225 V2 does not have the starlight mode option. I think there is not enough light in your environment so even if the starlight mode is selected, the camera will still switch to infrared mode. 
Since the camera live view page is abnormal in infrared mode because the IR LED is reflected by the window, if you do not want to relocate the camera, selecting the Close option on the Night Mode settings/Night Vision Distance page may help, in this case, even if the camera uses infrared mode, the IR LED will not light up.

 

  @Summer_S thank you for your response and link, I will try your suggestions and have a read up on the thread you have included. If the box says starlight and the v2 camera does not have this function for any reason then does that fall under false advertising I wonder. But if they changed the setup or functionality of the camera the packaging needs to be updated to reflect this, might be a logistical and costly nightmare. 

Solla-topee wrote

Hi,

@Summer_S thank you for your explanation and suggestions 

 

@Wana5354 

Can you share a picture of the box of the Tapo C225 V2 that advertises the starlight feature? I'll check if the related info needs to be updated. Thank you!

 

Best Regards

 

  @Solla-topee 

Hi, are you saying that the C225 might not actually have Starlight?  It is in all of the marketing and advertising materials on Amazon, B&H, the TP-Link website, and everywhere else it is sold.

I just bought a bunch of C225s and would be very disappointed if they don't have Starlight.  Even on the box itself it says "Superior Starlight Vision with Ultra Large Aperture.  Reveals high-fidelity details in low-light environments with an f1.6 ultra-large aperture."

My model is Tapo C225(US) Ver: 2.6.

Can you please confirm that this does have Starlight?

Solla-topee wrote

Hi,

@Summer_S thank you for your explanation and suggestions 

 

@Wana5354 

Can you share a picture of the box of the Tapo C225 V2 that advertises the starlight feature? I'll check if the related info needs to be updated. Thank you!

 

Best Regards

 

  @Solla-topee here is the picture of the v2 box and mentioning starlight.

Any suggestions how I can use the camera using the starlight and not IR in night mode without causing the glare from the ir on the wi dow?  Many thanks.

  @Wana5354 @Solla-topee 

Good discussion for a somewhat confusing feature.

Can someone clarify exactly how Starlight is supposed to work on the C225 V2?

I don't have any option to enable or disable it.  In the Video & Display settings the only thing I see for night vision is a setting called Night Vision Distance.  Inside that setting I have two options - Near and Far.  

Nothing about Starlight.

My initial understanding after watching a few videos and reading through info I found is that in order for Starlight to work, the camera has to be set to either Day mode, or Auto.  In Day mode Starlight will automatically turn on when the level of ambient light is low.  In Auto mode, same thing, Starlight will turn on when the ambient light gets below a certain level, BUT, if the ambient light gets too low the camera will then switch to Night mode which automatically turns on the IR lights and the image switches to black & white.

Is this correct or should I be seeing a specific setting for Starlight somewhere?

Also, in a slightly related way, on my C120s under Video & Display I have a setting called Night Vision.  In that setting there is something called Night Boost which can be set to on or off.  The setting has a description/explanation which says that it's a ColorPro Night Vision with starlight sensor.  I'm assuming this setting allows you to enable or disable Starlight.  Is this correct?

I don't see anything like this in the C225 so is it just automatically enabled in the C225 V2?

Below that Night Boost setting in the C120 there are two other settings:  Viewing Distance (options are Near and Far), this is the IR light setting, and another setting called White Light Settings.  I have no idea what this setting does.  Can anyone explain what this does?