Arlo Baby Quality of Video

[DerekV]

Im having horrible results with the video quality on the Arlo Baby that I just purchased. It's highly pixelated and comes through live at about 1 frame a second, not at all up to the quality that I should be able to expect. My wireless router is a Netgear X10, and the camera is about 20 feet away - the signal shows full on the Arlo Baby. I've got the most recent firmware on both the base station - V1.0.2.40 and the Arlo Baby (1.8.0.31_13810). The Arlo Baby Hardware is ABC1000r6.

I'd rather try to get this fixed than return it. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[DerekV]

I actually wonder if this is a matter of the compression algorithm the Arlo Baby (hardware, app, cloud) uses to limit the size of the files ultimately sent to the cloud? If there's no movement I notice the issue more, if there is a little movement, it captures it. 

That said, this is a baby monitor and even the most subtle of things (breathing) is the most important to be able to see. There should be an option to have an uncompressed local video stream in lieu of any cloud storage. The compression makes watching something like this impossible as it's simply not sensitive enough to discern the motion. Until this is remedied I have a very hard time recommending this to someone as a baby monitor.

[DerekV]

Investigating more, the recorded video quality (I took a 10 second video to test) is far superior to the live stream, which makes no sense to me given local bandwidth vs internet (even with gig internet I have).

[TomMac]

I would do a reset of the Arlo Baby and see if that clears the issue...

I have not seen these problems you state on my system and I only have 30mbs dwn/ 10 up.

video is as clear as this... here's a snip ;

[DerekV]

I'm nowhere near that. Pixelation everywhere, 1 frame a second, and its lagging nearly 30 seconds.

Using speedtest on my R9000 gives me.

Ive tried restarting everything and resetting. Still no joy.

[jguerdat]

Is your firmware up to date? Certify against the Release Notes section here.

[DerekV]

I've got the most recent firmware on both the base station - V1.0.2.40 and the Arlo Baby (1.8.0.31_13810). The Arlo Baby Hardware is ABC1000r6.

[jguerdat]

If a reset of the camera doesn't help, open a case with support.

[DerekV]

Its open and escalated.

[DerekV]

Additional information after a few calls:

Viewing the stream via a browser over the internet allows a full resolution, clear image to come through. iOS devices on the internal network show pixelation regardless of 2.4 or 5Ghz connections.

Moving the iOS device to LTE restore the full resolution.

This is either an app or firmware issue. More testing to come.

[JamesC]

DerekV,

Do you have bluetooth enabled on your iOS device? Bluetooth could be causing interference, resulting in image clarity issues. Disable bluetooth and test to see if you still get the same behavior.

JamesC

[DerekV]

Tested both on and off.

Ive uploaded video to level 2 tech support showing the differences between LTE vs WIFI taken seconds after each other. The quality over LTE is far better.

I wonder a bit about the firmware update that the app did when I did the initial setup. While it says it is the current firmware, the app froze waiting on the update to complete. Usually a failed firmware update yields a bricked device so I'm not inclined to point at it. And yet, there aren't a whole lot of options to pursue.

[JamesC]

DerekV,

Being connected to the app or not would not impact the firmware update in any way. This could be a network related issue. Please let us know the results of your support case.

JamesC

[DerekV]

We did an RMA swap of the camera to determine if it is a hardware issue. The pixelation still exists unfortunately.

Again, this is over wifi only, iOS, on the netgear R9000. The minute I switch the phones and iPad off wifi and go over LTE (including using the hotspot on the iPhone for the iPad, the pixelation disappears and all is crystal clear. Viewing through a browser via wifi to arlo.netgear.com is also crystal clear.

I've updated the results in my case with level 2 support and we will see where we go next. I beta test and bug track in my spare time (have for too many years to count) and offered to test things out.

I'll keep this updated with results as I can or am allowed to (should I beta test anything).

[JamesC]

DerekV,

One of our Arlo Baby engineers would like to better understand the issue you are experiencing. They will be reaching out to you in a private message to gather more information on this topic.

JamesC

[DerekV]

Thanks James. I replied and have signed up for the beta program. If there's anything I can assist with I'm glad to do it.

[Pgsullivan]

James

This is exactly the same issue i have that I recently posted about.

I have just read all the posts on this thread and turn iOS wifi off on my phone and exactly like here, all pixelation stopped and perfect image, turned back on the wifi on the phone and back comes the pixelation. I have 52mg fibre and this only happens on the babycam and not the other 8 Arlo Pro cams I have so not a speed issue.

Did this ever get resolved from this poster?

Thanks

[DerekV]

We are still in process on this. Logs have shown a few odditiies but so far nothing is pointing definitively toward anything specific. I dont have any wifi tools to see whats going on (if anyone knows of any good mac or ios-based tools I'm all ears). I'll keep this updated as I can.

[DerekV]

Here's a question... what device did you use to set up your arlo?

[Pgsullivan]

Hi

I used an iPhone 6s

Thanks

[Pgsullivan]

On my post about this issue, someone posted this article

https://kb.arlo.com/1284065/How-can-I-reduce-video-streaming-lag-or-delays-when-viewing-my-Arlo-Baby...
Message

There’s definitely something different about local streaming, I wonder if the have sacrificed massive video quality to get less lag? Might be worth asking in your support ticket?

[DerekV]

I'll ask.

I did a factory reset on my R9000 and the Arlo and haven't seen any improvement. Wireless diagnostics on my Mac isn't picking up anything out of the ordinary other than the fact that my R9000 isn't showing/reporting a country code which is a bit odd.