Smart Hub V paid online app subscription

freer — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 23:24:03 GMT

ok to the question to try and get some definitive facts

I live in Australia - I have two cameras and a doorbell

purpose and my evaluation criteria

With these devices I can see who is entering my property and with the doorbell in particular for delivery people they can press the button to announce a delivery, and I possibly can speak to them if I need to leave instructions on what to do with the package
if someone is breaking in, I can set off an alarm and maybe even talk (shout!) on the hope that may scare them off
it's in real time so I get alert to an event and can action - call the police, do the above, call a neighbour, come home, et al
if I need to make an insurance claim on any theft/property damage I can point to both the installation of the cameras as a deterrent and a record of the event - if the hub is stolen so is my record?
identifying the offender may help but is not a key evaluation criterion - likely hard to identify
so, I still have the app on my phone providing real time action and recordings of events but it's via the smart hub (free) not the subscription
on cost I pay about Aus$13/month, but can buy a smart hub for about $100 - so it pays for itself within a year

the key question is about functionality in respect to these criteria

for the sake of saving about $150/yr after the first year is the smart hub a good option?

I am not after opinion but facts from anyone who may be in this position, went the smart hub route, have tried both

Re: Smart Hub V paid online app subscription

DannyBearAgain — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 03:12:50 GMT

Do you have an existing arlo system? If so what are the models?

First concerns are a loss of mains power or internet connection will disable the system.

The use of wifi jammers can also also be a problem.

The video recordings made do not have time stamps captioned on the video and don’t have legal value in court.

The quality of the recordings is degraded by the digital compression used so number plates and people faces are not easily discernible.

The record until motion stop feature is a joke, resulting in missing footage as the camera detector goes to sleep for 10sec after the recording stops when the subject stops waving their hands.

I have legacy cameras that came with 7days free cloud storage but also have backup storage on my Base station.

I do not intend to purchase a subscription since I purchased the product with cloud storage bundled.

The new arlo app experience is a disaster so intend to keep using the old app until arlo rips it away to free themselves from their obligations.

topic Re: Smart Hub V paid online app subscription in Arlo

Smart Hub V paid online app subscription

Re: Smart Hub V paid online app subscription