Arlo Baby Nightvision

[Pgsullivan]

Hi

I think there is a bug in the app for the Arlo Baby as the toggle for nightvison I think is set the wrong way round.. when toggling so it shows green (which would usually indicate that it's a positive selection, like it is on other settings) for the nightvison the green selection means it's off. I have thought for months that the nightvision was rubbish when it wasn't even on!!! May be one to change or at least have an on/off label in the app as which side of the toggle means what. A second aspect relating to the night vision when on. When in live mode any only when night vision is active the pixelation is horrendous. But when taking a picture of the screen, to try and post here. The screen shot is perfect resolution, so unsure why only in live mode with night vision on is there so much pixelation.? Anyone else have this? As just about to have new baby and the want the night vision to check up on her but the image quality is rubbish, but as I say when then taking a picture that's clean which is very strange?

[JamesC]

Pgsullivan,

Toggling to the right for Night Vision (toggle shows green) means it is enabled. Toggling to the left indicates disabled. I'm not sure why you would experience the opposite. Consider restarting the camera from Settings to see if you still see the same behavior.

JamesC

[Pgsullivan]

Have reset, still the same see the pics

This one shows the nightvision off and a live view photo

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/EC284289F238228C_201709

[Pgsullivan]

This is then with the night vision toggle at green

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/4590CE3F15325635_201709

Clearly the toggle is the wrong way round and this is after a full reset?

[jguerdat]

The issue is very likely the reflection from close by walls and blankets (?) which will cause the exposure control to reduce the exposure.  Reposition the camera away from the wall and other objects so the view is much more of the baby's sleeping area.

This would be similar to taking a picture with a camera in the same location using a flash on an automatic setting - to avoid burning out the reflective surfaces nearby, the exposure changes making the background dark.

[Pgsullivan]

Thanks but it's definitely the toggle is the wrong way round as when the toggle is deemed to be 'off' for nightvision you can see the slight red glow of the infrared emitters and vise versa when deemed on, there are no infra red leds on and it's dark. So clearly a 'bug' in the programming, It's no biggy now I know as just have set the toggle to which ever side makes it work and happy with that.

Am more concerned about my noise and pixelation issues. The noise is to do with microphone sensitivity as is ridiculously sensitive, from 2 meters away it starts to infinity reverb with my iPhone when playing live screen and can pick up a pin drop probably about 100m away! You have got to put in a fix to be able to turn it down. The pixelation is a concern as after all it's suppose to be a baby monitor so would like to be able to see it! I guess this is due to the live feed going up through the Arlo servers and back down again? This is why we bloomin need the direct monitor everyone is desperately let down about....

[JamesC]

Pgsullivan,

I've not been able to replicate any issue with the toggle for Night Vision. Green indicates on (and tests correctly show Night Vision enabled), Gray indicates off.

You might consider reinstalling the Arlo mobile app and see if you still experience the same behavior.

JamesC

[Pgsullivan]

Not sure then?? Have done all those things and the the night vision clearly comes on when the switch is to the off position. I’ve left it that way so no issue really. Must be a quirky bug?

[JamesC]

Pgsullivan,

What kind of iOS device are you using and what iOS version is it running?

JamesC

[Pgsullivan]

Hi James

An iPhone 6s and was running iOS 10 and now on 11 and both same situation

[ronanh2002]

I'll give my two cents.

The noise is electrical noise - always present in the sensor, but at a very very low level (so it's normally "dark"). When the image is bright, the noise is at a minuscule *relative* level (you might see a bit if you zoom in on a black area). When the image is dark, the camera electronics compensate by boosting the signal level... which brings up the dim parts of the image, and the noise as well.

If you're old enough to have played with cassette tapes... imagine you're playing a blank tape, and normally you hear nothing, until you turn it up REALLY LOUD, until you can hear the hiss from the tape (small levels of latent magnetism, in this case). If your music is at a suitable level, you won't hear the noise, because you have to turn the overall level down... if the music is very quiet, you have to turn the volume up more, and you'll hear more of the hiss underneath the music.

This is almost exactly the same thing that's causing image noise in your camera at low light.

We have had the Arko Baby since June. We have faced issues just like everyone else, but the nightvision has been clear and great. Image 1 shows the settings. I have also included a video utilizing NightVision. 

One thing you might want to enable is the nightlight on the camera. I found that it has helped with image quality.

2nd is placement of the camera. 

3rd are the lenses clean and all packaging off the camera. When I first set up the camera the image was poor and what happened was that I was in such a hurry to set up the camera for my wife that I forgot to remove all the clear plastic film from the lenses.

4th Ensure that you have a strong Wi-Fi signal. Lag will cause image degration. We set up a Wi-Fi Mesh in the house to ensure signal strength and quality. I installed the Netgear Orbi and it took about 5 minutes to configure.

5th set image to 1080p

6th - have viewing device on your home wi-fi network and not lte(cellular)

7th - off the wall idea - if you have done all the above and it still looks like rubbish - try live view on another device

Here is a video capture from 3 am in the morning. Yes the recording and live view are the same quality. We are using an iPad mini for playback.

[Pgsullivan]

Thanks, I’m not sure if you posted that reply in the wrong thread as more applicable to my other questions m, this post was about the fact that my night vision toggle seems to be reversed, not about the quality of nightvision camera. Thanks though as Interesting post never the less

[Pgsullivan · Accepted solution]

The latest Arlo iOS firmware app upgrade on the 27th seems to have fixed this bug as the night vision selection seems to be working in the correct manner now since this upgrade 👍