topic Re: VMB4000 base and VMC2030-100NAS cameras in Arlo Pro 2

cannot view my new VMC2030 cameras on my iphone app.

AKGRAM — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 19:57:36 GMT

cannot view my new VMC2030 cameras on my iphone app. downloads to a USB. what can i do? not what we bought this unit to do

Re: VMB4000 base and VMC2030-100NAS cameras

StephenB — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 18:01:33 GMT

@AKGRAM wrote:

cannot view my new VMC2030 cameras on my iphone app. downloads to a USB. what can i do? not what we bought this unit to do

Are you saying you can't livestream? Or can't see the recordings?

Do you have a subscription for the cameras? You need one to get cloud storage.

Re: VMB4000 base and VMC2030-100NAS cameras

AKGRAM — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 17:52:50 GMT

to make sure i understand, the only way to see the library recordings for the 2030 cameras is to subscribe to the cloud?

Is there a newer base that would be compatible with my pro cameras and the 2030 that would accommodate without a subscription? We are on a fixed income and do not want a monthly fee.

Re: VMB4000 base and VMC2030-100NAS cameras

AKGRAM — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 18:15:55 GMT

also. are pro 2, pro 3 or pro 4 cameras compatible with the VMB4000 base that we can use without a subscription?

Re: VMB4000 base and VMC2030-100NAS cameras

StephenB — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 18:22:35 GMT

@AKGRAM wrote:

to make sure i understand, the only way to see the library recordings for the 2030 cameras is to subscribe to the cloud?

That is the only way to see the cloud recordings for the Essential Spotlight cameras.

The Pro / Pro 2 cameras came with free 7-day cloud storage, but Arlo stopped offering that on new models back in 2018.

@AKGRAM wrote:

Is there a newer base that would be compatible with my pro cameras and the 2030 that would accommodate without a subscription? We are on a fixed income and do not want a monthly fee.

A VMB4540 or VMB5000 smarthub would let you see locally recorded videos in the app. That also requires at least 16 GB of storage (USB stick for the VMB4540, a MicroSD card for the VMB5000). The Pro cameras could be moved to that base, or you could just run both bases.

There are limitations:

Recordings only available in the app (not the browser)
Recordings only available from the primary account (not friend accounts)
No manual recordings or snapshots
No thumbnails (surprisingly annoying)
Remote access requires router setting changes that some find difficult (and isn't possible with some network providers - starlink and tmobile broadband to name two).

You also lose activity zones with no subscription.

As far as the fee goes: List price for the VMB4540 is $99, but I don't think you can find any for that price. I am seeing some VMB4540s available on Amazon for $199 USD. If you only have two VMC2030s, then the subscription would cost $6 per month, so it would take about 33 months to break even on the smarthub. If you need the multicamera subscription, it would cost $10 per month, so about 20 months to break even. Whether that's a good deal or not depends in part on whether you can live with the limitations.