topic Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds in Arlo Q

Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

1902 — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 23:57:48 GMT

Hi there,

Looking for some advice.

I have a new Arlo Q HD that I set up yesterday. Everything seems to be going great, execpt that for any recordings captured (via motion or manual) seem to go from really high quality video to ultra pixelated at exactly 16 seconds into the recording... on every video.

Any ideas?

Apologies to the community if this has already been covered in the past. I scrolled back a few pages but didn't come across anything.

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

jguerdat — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 11:43:35 GMT

I haven't seen anything like this being reported. My guesses:

- Bad camera. Swap it at the store you bought it from.

- Possible upload speed issue. What's your upload speed (speedtest.net)?

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

TomMac — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 12:00:02 GMT

I just went and reviewed my library of Q videos... looked at about 20, all looked fine.

That's a strange event, can you post a video showing the problem?

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

1902 — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 05:53:05 GMT

Thanks for the response. Since further testing I've found that it isn't always at 16 seconds, but always after 10 or so seconds. It also then goes back and forth between good and bad quality for the remainder of the video.

I've tried placing the router right next to the camera so that I have optimal signal strength but this didn't fix things.

As suggested, perhaps it is the upload speed limitations of my ISP???

Example pics below

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

jguerdat — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 12:19:54 GMT

If it's upload speed, try dropping the resolution to 720 just as a test. Also, run a speed test on speedtest.net and report your findings. Note that it can be that multiple devices are using the upload bandwidth at the same time causing issues.

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

1902 — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:29:11 GMT

I did a speed test and only getting 1.6 Mbps upload. Dropped the resolution to 480 and it seems to stay consistent throughout the video rather than change quality, so reasonably confident upload speed is the issue.

Any idea what upload speed I'd need to be able to record/stream at 1080?

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

TomMac — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:47:19 GMT

I've seen the Q peak at a hair above 1.5 mb in the 1080p mode.

it seems to hover at a steady 750 and then peak at what seems like key frames, not sure.

Since you've seen it at yr speed, I'd say another 500k or 2 mb to cover other data flowing

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

jguerdat — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:30:08 GMT

I dropped mine to 720 due to my 1Mbs upload speeds and it seems fine, even when multiple cameras (the others are wireless) are streaming in addition to the Q.

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

hokeysmoke — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 15:01:14 GMT

Here's the official word (straight from the manual) from Netgear regarding streaming requirements. It matches the observations posted earlier. For the wireless cameras, I have seen the bit rate go up to 743 kbps at highest quality.

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

TomMac — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 14:51:26 GMT

tks... was looking for that , had it in the past , but couldn't find it

Re: Recording quality drops at 16 seconds

BonBon16 — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 11:50:43 GMT

@1902: Is the image quality of Arlo Q better? Do you check the upload bandwidth? Thanks.

1902 wrote:
Thanks for the response. Since further testing I've found that it isn't always at 16 seconds, but always after 10 or so seconds. It also then goes back and forth between good and bad quality for the remainder of the video.

I've tried placing the router right next to the camera so that I have optimal signal strength but this didn't fix things.

As suggested, perhaps it is the upload speed limitations of my ISP???

Example pics below