topic Re: Video capture problem after switching from wifi to base station connectivity in Arlo Video Doorbell

Video capture problem after switching from wifi to base station connectivity

asantopietro — Thu, 07 May 2020 21:22:01 GMT

I recently read, on this community site, that a VMB5000 firmware update added support for my video doorbell.

I already have a plan with my camera and base station, and wanted to take advantage of that instead of having to pay for a second plan. So, after confirming my base station had the firmware update required for the doorbell, I removed the doorbell device and re-registered it, this time configuring it to use the VMB5000. Setup went without a hitch.

However, I immediately began noticing an issue with the video capture. When previously connected via wifi, it was capturing without any skips. Now I am only getting small bits of motion video from every event - for example, maybe 3-4 seconds out of 11 seconds of video capture are fine - the remaining time is just frozen. Sometimes the frozen image is only partially drawn.

As I stated, I have a camera - Arlo Ultra - also using the base station, and it's capturing 4k motion video without a problem. Also, the wireless signal strength for the doorbell and the camera look to be the same. The base station is sitting almost equidistant from the camera and the doorbell.

Anyone encountering a similar problem, and if so, have any thought and/or suggestions? Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Video capture problem after switching from wifi to base station connectivity

jguerdat — Fri, 08 May 2020 13:49:02 GMT

It could be a signal QUALITY issue rather than a strength one. How different is the path the signal takes to get to the hub vs. the router? Something using the 2.4GHz band (not just WiFi) may be causing the issue. I suppose placing the Ultra camera near the doorbell to see how it reacts to that location could be useful to help troubleshoot.

Re: Video capture problem after switching from wifi to base station connectivity

asantopietro — Sat, 09 May 2020 16:44:10 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion jguerdat. I'm beginning to agree with you.

I moved the base station to a room at the front of the house, near the doorbell, and the quality improved significantly. Skipping is very infrequent now. Unfortunately, the Backyard camera quality took a bit of a hit, but it's still working reasonably well, well enough for now.

Thanks again!