topic Re: Night time pixelation in Arlo Video Doorbell

Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 13:17:05 GMT

For a while now, my night time video recordings have shown severe pixelation. Mostly with vehicles (see attached picture) but also with people walking by if they walk fast.
Version is 3.5.8 released Oct. 12 2021. According to my app, no updates available.
Motion is set at 80.

Motion sensitivity is set at 90.

Flicker adjustment is set to “auto”.
Brightness is set to 0.

Video Settings:

Auto HDR “on”

Night Vision “on”. NOTE, turning this OFF made no difference.

Video quality 1536sq.
This is a wired video doorbell.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Re: Night time pixelation

TomMac — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 13:28:30 GMT

From looking at pic, there is a LOT of reflection of the IR on the left side of picture....

This may be washing out the video/stills of the camera ( wreath on wall ?? )

Move the object and see if it improves the vids.

Re: Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 14:06:20 GMT

Hi TomMac and thanks for your quick reply.

I’ve had the camera/doorbell for almost a year now and the problem started a few months back. The left side you see is a brick wall so can’t move that. 🙂 🙂 🙂 No wreath or anything hanging near by. I made a 1.5” block to mount the doorbell on so the video doorbell would “stick” out a little further to give me the most video area possible.
Can’t move the doorbell as it’s wired.
This has me stumped as like I said, this started a few months back and I’ve played around with the settings.

Re: Night time pixelation

jguerdat — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 16:13:46 GMT

Pixelation frequently has to do with signal strength and/or quality. Is it connected to a base or hub or to your WiFi? Has some wireless device been added or moved to near the doorbell?

Re: Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 17:51:01 GMT

Hi Jguerdat, thanks for your reply.

It’s connected via WiFi. My Xfinity gateway/modem is about 15’ away from the video doorbell. But now that you mention it, I did replace the gateway/modem the beginning of August with a faster, upgraded one from Xfinity. Could that be the problem?
Forgot to mention, if a car/person/animal is going slowly at night, video is fine. Daytime videos are always fine regardless of rate of motion.

Re: Night time pixelation

jguerdat — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 14:56:03 GMT

Your new hardware may be an issue - did the pixelation start immediately when you upgraded? Since daytime videos are fine but some nighttime ones are not is it possible that your network is being heavily used at night? Guess it could be an ISP issue.

Re: Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 22:43:16 GMT

I wish I could say if the issue started after the hardware upgrade, really don’t know as I didn’t put the two together until your suggestion.
Network is not heavily used at night as I’ve checked it’s usage.

Again, thanks for your ideas and thoughts.

Re: Night time pixelation

Exia7891 — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 17:41:53 GMT

I am beyond relieved to know that I am not the only one who is experiencing this as well. I noticed this started maybe a couple of months ago. Nothing has changed the setup is the same, doorbell worked flawlessly at night recording video up until a couple months ago. This has been irritating, as the the video is essentially useless as any person walking up to the doorbell is washed/pixelated (trailing pixels with motion). Like I mentioned, nothing has changed since this started. Arlo needs to look into this.

Re: Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 20:35:14 GMT

Sorry you’re experiencing the same thing but glad I’m not alone. Hopefully Arlo can provide a fix or firmware update!

Re: Night time pixelation

jguerdat — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:59:52 GMT

What happens if you lower the camera resolution?

Re: Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 15:57:52 GMT

Hmmmm, don’t know but I will and report back my findings.

Re: Night time pixelation

Exia7891 — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 16:33:12 GMT

I have already tried lowering it to 1080x1080 before with no resolution. I will try 720x720 and report back.

Re: Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 12:16:48 GMT

I too lowered my resolution to 720x720 and no difference, severe pixelation on moving vehicles.

Re: Night time pixelation

NewProvSS — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 01:20:26 GMT

I've been having the same pixelation issue at night with my video doorbell. It started a few months ago and I've made no hardware changes of any kind. It really does make most night videos useless as any people moving past turn into digital blurs. There been no resolution to this still?

Re: Night time pixelation

JPav80 — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 02:38:45 GMT

This is the same issue I have been experiencing and it has been happening since I first installed mine back in October. I posted on the forum and was working with support. They did send me a new unit recently but as I suspected it also has the same issue so I am leaning on firmware. Tech support on this has been slow, but seeing more people come forward with the same problem might get Arlo to work on a fix.

Re: Night time pixelation

Exia7891 — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 16:28:24 GMT

I changed the resolution and monitored various night time clips throughout the weekend. Unfortunately bumping it down to 720x720 did not seem to help, as others have noted. I too am starting to think this is firmware related ...

Device info:

FW - 1.14.0.0_1117_c9951d1_b4efa46

HW - AVD1001Ar1.2

Re: Night time pixelation

Exia7891 — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 23:19:21 GMT

I have opened up a ticket case regarding this issue and linked this thread to the rep so they can pass it along to the engineers to investigate. Hopefully they can resolve this with a FW update.

Re: Night time pixelation

JPav80 — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 23:22:50 GMT

Sounds good! I have a ticket open as well and here is a link to the thread referencing it:

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Video-Doorbell/Arlo-Video-Doorbell-Night-vision-green-display-and-blurring/td-p/1833463

Re: Night time pixelation

GordonScot — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 00:19:18 GMT

I’m really getting fed up with my Arlo video doorbell! 😞

I bought it through Costco and am within the year warranty so a return is very possible.

Ring video doorbell is seriously becoming a possibility. Given that Arlo is so lacking in addressing this issue, I’m really considering this option. There is no excuse for them not to come out with a firmware update!!!

Hello Arlo……are you listening?

Re: Night time pixelation

KCShelton — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 10:46:54 GMT

I've been having the exact same issue...