topic Arlo Q detection problems in Arlo Q

Arlo Q detection problems

foxfly — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 04:36:46 GMT

I'm using an Arlo Q. No CVR plan yet. Recording Setting is "Record until activity stops". I found that:

1. The system determines the time point when the activity stops (which is normally accurate) and keep recording for about 5~10 seconds. But if there is an activity occuring again (like me re-entering the view) within the last 5~10 seconds, Arlo Q ignores that activity and still stops recording after 5~10 seconds. This is probably because 5~10 seconds are too short for data uploading/video processing on the server/sending command back to the camera. Is there a way to improve this? higher bandwidth?

2. There is a reset time between triggered events. For a certain amount of time (10~20s) after the event is recorded, the camera doesn't record anything even thought there is activity. As far as I understand, Arlo Q has no motion sensor, so it totally relies on image processing on the server. Is this reset time related to bandwidth/vedio quality?

Are these behaviors normal? Would CVR solve both of these problems? Any comments would be appreciated! @JamesC

Re: Arlo Q detection problems

jguerdat — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 13:38:55 GMT

Your observations are accurate. No way to modify them - upload speed increases may help a bit since I think the reset time involves finishing the upload of the previous video but I don't think it would help much.

CVR would "solve" this since you'd be able to review the whole stream of before and after. A couple of caveats, though - 1) it's not downloadable (use a screen capture utility while viewing to have a local copy) and 2) CVR disables the pre-buffering of your videos where you see a few seconds of what happens before the actual motion starts.

Re: Arlo Q detection problems

foxfly — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 00:32:45 GMT

Thanks @jguerdat. I also noticed Arlo Q never records vedio for full 3 min (with sensitivity 9) even when there is still an ongoing activity - the longest vedio I got is 1 min, most of them are between 20 sec to 40 sec. Guess this also has something to do with communication to the server and/or limited processing power on the server?

Also want to confirm that all the image processing is done on the server and Arlo Q is only for data collection and transfer, is it correct? Thanks.

Re: Arlo Q detection problems

jguerdat — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 14:29:18 GMT

If motion stops long enough it may cause the recording to stop. I have no idea what "long enough" would be - 2 seconds or 30? You'd have to test to see.

The camera system has to be doing local processing such as compression to minimize data transfer rather than sending raw data to the servers to be post-processed.