Corrupt video files in Sentry Mode

[GolanB]

@GolanB, I think I am experiencing the same right_repeater not recording after one of the two recent updates. I know all three were recording in the past, but know when I just pulled out my sandisk ixpand flashdrive earlier today and plugged into the sandisk app, I can only view video from the front and left repeaters, nothing from the right (just has a weird symbol which I believe means there its a corrupt file). Are you still working with the Tesla engineers on this.

I last communicated with Tesla yesterday and have not heard back. I sent them another note a few minutes ago asking for an update.

The last software related issue I've had took Tesla close to two months to resolve. I'll post an update here as soon as I hear more.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to have intermittent recordings that are now 595 Bytes instead of 0 length files when corrupt (see image).

 

[Shaun5]

I have a scheduled service appointment tomorrow. I originally made the appointment to have the camera issue looked at, but based on the information here, I decided it was a software issue and changed the appointment details to just a tire rotation. Today, I received this text frm the service department:

"Regarding your camera issues, this is [sic] there are no alerts pointing to an issue with your cameras from what I can see. We have seen a common issue related to the files getting corrupted when they are decoded by image viewing programs on home computers. Since the ECU that receives the images is not sending any alerts I believe this is the case in your situation. Our engineering team is working on a firmware update that should resolve this but they don't have an eta for us yet...."

I don't believe their excuse on corruption being caused by viewing programs. The USB drive contains zero byte recordings, even before loading them into a viewing program. But maybe the tech misunderstood the details from engineering. Seems strange for Tesla to make a firmware update to fix an issue caused by a PC viewing program. If Tesla is writing the video files incorrectly, that might explain the green bands and pixelated images, but those file sizes are also off, so I definitely think it's a Tesla issue. Anyway....

 

[GolanB]

I have a scheduled service appointment tomorrow. I originally made the appointment to have the camera issue looked at, but based on the information here, I decided it was a software issue and changed the appointment details to just a tire rotation. Today, I received this text frm the service department:

"Regarding your camera issues, this is [sic] there are no alerts pointing to an issue with your cameras from what I can see. We have seen a common issue related to the files getting corrupted when they are decoded by image viewing programs on home computers. Since the ECU that receives the images is not sending any alerts I believe this is the case in your situation. Our engineering team is working on a firmware update that should resolve this but they don't have an eta for us yet...."

I don't believe their excuse on corruption being caused by viewing programs. The USB drive contains zero byte recordings, even before loading them into a viewing program. But maybe the tech misunderstood the details from engineering. Seems strange for Tesla to make a firmware update to fix an issue caused by a PC viewing program. If Tesla is writing the video files incorrectly, that might explain the green bands and pixelated images, but those file sizes are also off, so I definitely think it's a Tesla issue. Anyway....

They are at least acknowledging the issue to be software related, which they've done with me. The explanation with the PC viewer is nonsense since as you say, the files are 0 length and contain no information. I have had cases recently with the data also being corrupt at varying length, but under 1K in size. I also have no update to my case as of today.

 

[Kira]

I deleted clips out of the Recent and Saved folders on the flash drive last night (yes, I ejected it properly) and popped it into the car just now. Gray camera icon came up with a little gray "x" on it. I pressed and held the icon, waiting for the little flash around it to happen. A solid gray ring came up around the camera but didn't flash and disappear like usual. After several seconds, I let go - the red light didn't show up on the camera icon. Tried this process a number of times and also tried removing the flash drive and reinserting a number of times, no luck. I still see the red glowing eye Sentry icon, but the TeslaCam does not appear to be working.

Update for me -

Yesterday, my cameras & Autopilot stopped working completely. Thankfully I was already booked to see Tesla Service for a frunk actuator replacement. The Tech advised that Sentry Mode does need to be turned off from time to time as it running constantly caused the Autopilot module (?) to crash completely. He suggested choosing a location to exclude from Sentry Mode or turning it off for a little while regularly to allow it to reboot. The Tech also checked my flash drive to see if he could figure out why TeslaCam still isn't working even after rebooting things. Apparently something is now wrong with the flash drive - even though there's no clips in the folders, it's showing that it's essentially full with no space available. I'm going to take it back to Best Buy (who formatted the folder for me in the first place) and ask them to fix it or replace it.

 

[SRoth222]

Yesterday, I enabled Sentry mode and after going to the store, I watched the video on my PC. The Right Repeater image was often saturated and moving objects (car door, person, cars) would jump back forth as they moved through the scene. Maybe this is why I see cars and trucks around my Model 3 jumping forward and backward on the car's display when stopped at a red light. See a sample video:

After uploading the video, YouTube managed filtered out much of the jitter, particularly of the person walking and the car driving by.

 

[SRoth222]

The video is best viewed by maximizing it.

 

[Tha_Reaper]

im on 2019.16.3.2, and i still have problems with my right repeater NEVER recording, front camera recording 1 out of 2 times without errors, other half of the times totally unwatchable garbage, and left repeater being the most trustworthy at viewable content 4 out of 5 times.
I really hope they solve this issue soon, because i just disable sentry at the moment to conserve battery

 

[PawelS68]

I have AP2.0 in my MX, and today I tried Sentry Mode with 32GB USB stick (USB3.0). The file system is correct, because 2 folders were created: RecentClips and SavedClips. In RecentClips all files are in one folder, in SavedClips the files are divided in several folders, named with date and time of the event.
The date and time that is part of the filename is correct, according to my local GMT+1 time.
Interestingly the file creation date is 9 hours back. Seems, that system time of Tesla computer is California time. Strange considering the car is in Europe.
All the files are 595 bytes long. Obviously this is only a header, no video data.
Two things could happen:
1. Cameras don't work, so image is full solid black, nothing to store.
2. Video encoder software bug.

Since many people have problems, and video that is published in one of previous posts is clearly corrupted, I bet the encoder is in early beta. Blaming media players on the computer says much about IT expertise of Tesla support. I hope software engineers know their filed better. Otherwise creating FSD can take much time.

After one of software updates several months ago, my automatic doors stopped working, my driver's door does not open when I approach.
I was suspecting that maybe camera is not seeing me, and today, trying Sentry Mode I was hoping to check if camera is operational.
Since nothing is recorded, there is no way to see if camera is working at all.
There should be debug mode with camera test image, just to confirm cameras are working.

Since there is a lot of bugs in the software, Tesla should be interested in IT savvy users analyzing problems, but without some tools it's hard to do. I understand security is a concern, but some compromise is possible.

 

[phtp]

im on 2019.16.3.2, and i still have problems with my right repeater NEVER recording, front camera recording 1 out of 2 times without errors, other half of the times totally unwatchable garbage, and left repeater being the most trustworthy at viewable content 4 out of 5 times.
I really hope they solve this issue soon, because i just disable sentry at the moment to conserve battery

Model 3 with hw3? or S/X?

 

[Tha_Reaper]

Model 3 with hw3? or S/X?

Model 3 HW3

Edit: holy shitsnacks! Just tested again and 2019.20.1 seems to have fixed sentry mode!

 

[Tha_Reaper]

Model 3 HW3

Edit: holy shitsnacks! Just tested again and 2019.20.1 seems to have fixed sentry mode!

Nope, never mind... just a couple of working videos, and as i looked further down the list everything was corrupted again. It certainly improved, but it isnt fixed yet

 

[phtp]

Nope, never mind... just a couple of working videos, and as i looked further down the list everything was corrupted again. It certainly improved, but it isnt fixed yet

Are the clips h.265 encoding?

 

[Tha_Reaper]

Yes

 

[Toumal]

This is definitely an issue on Tesla's side, not the viewing program or flash drive. I have tried many differend brands and models, including SSDs, and after some time I always get corrupt as well as empty files. It is important to reformat at least once a month too.

 

[DesertSilver]

I saw reports that an SSD would resolve the issue with corrupt/empty files so I purchased one (Sandisk SSD Plus 240GB w/ write speeds of up to 440MB/s). This made no difference in the amount of corrupt/empty files I was getting with a USB stick.

I’m on 2019.20.1.

 

[marksp3d]

i'm having the same issues with pixelated videos, or videos where half the screen (generally lower half) is green. on 2019.16.3.2

 

[bb4srv]

I have a new theory. The green/pixelation or no recording is because there is no motion being detected by the cameras when operated in Sentry Mode.

I have this theory because on multiple instances of reviewing sentry mode videos, the 0kb recording is mostly a static field with little to no motions, but when there is recording, there is usually enough motion. For the pixilation, the pixilated portion of the recording has no motion but as soon as there is motion in the area of the pixilation, the pixelation disappears. For example, I had one video where the bottom part is pixilated, but as soon as someone walked into to pixelated area, the full video was recorded.

I believe this was implemented to save file size and not record a static image.

 

[Telstar]

I have sentry mode turned off at my house but it still records in my garage anyway. At least the files are not corrupted.

 

[Knightshade]

I have sentry mode turned off at my house but it still records in my garage anyway. At least the files are not corrupted.

Sentry mode does not record if it's not on...I think you're confusing it with the dashcam feature (which always records when the car is 'on' or awake but doesn't save any footage permanently unless you tell it to)

 

[Telstar]

I wish I was confusing it with the dashcam feature. All three cameras record all the time whether it is awake or asleep, even if sentry mode is off.