topic Re: Reducing video quality in Arlo Pro 4

Reducing video quality

Morrison58 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 14:06:29 GMT

When home internet upload speeds are slow (under 8Mbps) what can I do to reduce bandwidth usage? The cameras are advertised as having 2K quality. How do I reduce that to say Full HD?

Re: Reducing video quality

StephenB — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 14:10:18 GMT

@Morrison58 wrote:
When home internet upload speeds are slow (under 8Mbps) what can I do to reduce bandwidth usage? The cameras are advertised as having 2K quality. How do I reduce that to say Full HD?

Turning on "auto zoom & tracking" in video settings will result in getting 1080p.

Though you might not need to do that - are you seeing any signs of not having enough upload speed (for instance, corrupted recordings)?

Re: Reducing video quality

Morrison58 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 14:19:54 GMT

Started using this set 3 days ago by installing one camera at a time. No problems and all were online and were triggering on movement and sending notifications and making recordings.

But yesterday one of the 4 cameras went offline so I had to remove and add it then another went offline so I did the same for that one. However now even though all cameras can allow live viewing only 2 trigger and make recordings.

A live chat with technical support suggests that my home internet upload speeds are too slow. Speedtest.net says it is around 7Mbps. Support says I need 4Mbps per camera.

Re: Reducing video quality

StephenB — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 14:24:18 GMT

@Morrison58 wrote:

Support says I need 4Mbps per camera.

This says 2 mbps for the the Pro 3/Pro 4: https://kb.arlo.com/000062043/What-are-the-minimum-requirements-for-installing-and-using-my-Arlo-system

Re: Reducing video quality

Morrison58 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 14:30:43 GMT

OK thanks perhaps Support was mistaken.

I've changed one of the cameras as you suggested then found one of the others has gone offline.

Re: Reducing video quality

StephenB — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:12:39 GMT

@Morrison58 wrote:

I've changed one of the cameras as you suggested then found one of the others has gone offline.

It could be a bandwidth issue (as support thinks). Or it could be local connectivity.

What signal strength are you seeing in the app for the cameras?
Also, what upload bandwidth is speedtest.net reporting?

Re: Reducing video quality

Morrison58 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:20:32 GMT

When they were working it was Strong. Speedtest.net is reporting 7Mbps consistently.
I've tried all 4 and none can be found by the app. I've rebooted the modem/router, removed the battery from 3 of the cameras but still can't get a camera to connect.

Re: Reducing video quality

StephenB — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:30:37 GMT

@Morrison58 wrote:
When they were working it was Strong. Speedtest.net is reporting 7Mbps consistently.
I've tried all 4 and none can be found by the app. I've rebooted the modem/router, removed the battery from 3 of the cameras but still can't get a camera to connect.

If you select the library, are you seeing any recent recordings?

Re: Reducing video quality

Morrison58 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:45:47 GMT

Yes I am.

Re: Reducing video quality

StephenB — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:13:19 GMT

@Morrison58 wrote:
Yes I am.

Ok, so the cameras are recording to the cloud at least sometimes.

Are you seeing the offline message immediately in the app, or only after you try to livestream the camera(s)?

Re: Reducing video quality

Morrison58 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:31:42 GMT

Live streaming was fine for all 4 cameras. It was that 2 of them were not recording.
I can't remember if I have mentioned this to you as I am emailing with Arlo support but I have removed all cameras, removed batteries from 3 of them and tried adding the remaining camera. No luck. The whole system is dead.

Re: Reducing video quality

Morrison58 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 20:20:15 GMT

Tech support suggested that I check the wifi for 2.4Ghz. I connected to the modem/router to find that it was running both radio frequencies on the same SSID. This is my parents' home and I'm just visiting. So I split the radios to separate SSIDs and have successfully connected 2 cameras to the 2.4Ghz radio.
Many thanks for your advice and patience.