topic Re: Can anyone tell me why the first three seconds of my videos are black and can that be changed? in Arlo

Can anyone tell me why the first three seconds of my videos are black and can that be changed?

harshalom — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 20:45:47 GMT

All of my video recordings start with about 3 seconds of black. I am wondering why this is and whether or not it can be eliminated.

Re: Can anyone tell me why the first three seconds of my videos are black and can that be changed?

StephenB — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 13:01:36 GMT

Can you tell us what camera model you have?
Is this only happening with night recordings (or recordings made in a dark space)?
Is the camera AC powered?

Re: Can anyone tell me why the first three seconds of my videos are black and can that be changed?

harshalom — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 14:34:56 GMT

The cameras are the PRO models. This does happen both during the day and at night. The cameras are not AC powered. Thanks for your reply.

Re: Can anyone tell me why the first three seconds of my videos are black and can that be changed?

StephenB — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 14:59:59 GMT

@harshalom wrote:

The cameras are the PRO models. This does happen both during the day and at night. The cameras are not AC powered.

With my own cameras, Nightvision sometimes takes a while to kick in. Also with Pro 2s and and later, when the camera is AC powered there is a 3 second lookback (and Nightvision might not be on during the lookback). The LED takes about a second to turn on (typical with LED bulbs).

But none of those possibililities apply to a Pro camera during daylight. Does this happen every single time? If not, about how often?

Re: Can anyone tell me why the first three seconds of my videos are black and can that be changed?

harshalom — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 17:52:52 GMT

Yes it does. However, it seems as if the daylight black screen time is shorter than the night screen by about a second. Question: What is the look back feature that you mentioned? Is it only available if they are AC powered? I really appreciate your help.

Re: Can anyone tell me why the first three seconds of my videos are black and can that be changed?

StephenB — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 15:47:38 GMT

@harshalom wrote:

Question: What is the look back feature that you mentioned? Is it only available if they are AC powered? I really appreciate your help.

When the camera is AC powered it is always capturing video, and stores the previous 3 seconds in the camera. Then when motion is detected, it includes the previous 3 seconds in the stream (providing the look back).

This can't be done on battery, as continuously capturing the video would drain the battery very quickly.

@harshalom wrote:

Yes it does. However, it seems as if the daylight black screen time is shorter than the night screen by about a second.

This sounds very unusual to me. You might want to contact support: https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

@JamesC - have you folks seen this issue before?