topic Re: Pro4 with base station w/hard drive... planned setup.... in Arlo Pro 4

Pro4 with base station w/hard drive... planned setup....

kurtataltos — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 02:05:51 GMT

I would like to buy a Pro 4, 3 camera setup with base station using a USB 1TB hard drive attached to the base station for local storage. Read: no subscription. I would be using a Windows PC for viewing video (and set up if possible). Does anyone know of any inherent flaws with this plan such as....

- video stops recording after 3 months because there is no subscription?

- is setup dependent on having a cell phone or a MAC ?

- I am not interested in receiving alerts, rather, I want crisp video of the area that I can review after the event has occurred.

Insights and thoughts greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Re: Pro4 with base station w/hard drive... planned setup....

StephenB — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 13:54:58 GMT

@kurtataltos wrote:

I would be using a Windows PC for viewing video (and set up if possible).

The direct access to local storage feature only works with the app - not a PC browser. So you'd need to eject the USB drive and connect it to the PC to review the recordings. Note that direct access also requires a smarthub (VMB4540 or VMB5000) - not the older VMB4000/VMB4500.

The VMB5000 uses microSD, not USB - so if you require a 1 TB hard drive, you can't use that particular base. Though 1 TB holds a lot of recordings - personally I find 128 GBs of local storage to be more than enough.

@kurtataltos wrote:

- video stops recording after 3 months because there is no subscription?

Cloud recording stops, but not local recording.

@kurtataltos wrote:

- is setup dependent on having a cell phone or a MAC ?

No, you can set it up by browsing to my.arlo.com in a Windows PC.

You will need to deal with 2 factor authentication - which is messier if you don't have a smart phone: https://kb.arlo.com/000062288/What-is-two-step-verification-and-how-do-I-set-it-up

Re: Pro4 with base station w/hard drive... planned setup....

jguerdat — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 13:59:07 GMT

Personally, a USB thumb drive is a lot easier to deal with than a hard drive. As above, 128GB holds a lot - I tend to use 32-64GB drives.