Live view pixelation?

[Pgsullivan]

Hi

I have a 52mg fibre broadband with full signal in the nursery.

If you look at the attached pic (taken via a screen grab on my phone) I get pixelation when viewing the live view on the baby cam. (I also have 8 Arlo pros and do not get the same pixelation in live view). However when then taking a picture or video in live mode it comes out clear? Any ideas??

As for the baby cam the live view is what I want to be clear as will hardly ever take pictures from it as it's a baby monitor.

Pic
https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/9F12CE534CFFF610_201709

Video
https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/59EED153A36324DB_201709

[jguerdat]

Guess I'm blind - I don't see any pixelation in either the image or video.

[Pgsullivan]

In the two link pic and videos that's the point they are pretty perfect. Look at the 'attached' pic which shows the pixelation...

[jguerdat]

Missed that - thanks.

I think it may have to do with the direct connection used for this. This bypasses the servers so may use a different method for some reason (lower resolution?). Someone else will have to verify this if true.

[Pgsullivan]

There's a post from another member, the thread is called; Arlo Baby Quality of Video. This is the exact issue I have as turning off phone wifi solves it, turning back on wifi makes he pixelation come back!.

[jguerdat]

While I can't prove it, there's still the possibility of live streaming via your local WiFi vs any other network being the issue. The following doesn't address the differences but may give you something to work with:

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

[Pgsullivan]

Thanks, interesting post. I wasn’t aware of local streaming. Strangely you would think that the quality would be worse on the LTE stream not local Wi-Fi. I wonder if Arlo have massively reduced the video quality to reduce lag time within local streaming. But the other poster has tickets raised that this hasn’t come back as the answer? Can #James C comment? Thanks

[JamesC]

Pgsullivan,

Do you have bluetooth enabled on your streaming device? This could cause issues when live streaming on your WiFi connection. Consider disabling bluetooth and test again to see if you get the same results.

JamesC

[Pgsullivan]

Yep tried that, no joy

[ronanh2002]

sorry to hear about your frustration.

The KISS questions:

Do you have a device that you can set to wi-fi only?

Or have you tried turning off your lte?

Verified that your device is attached to your home network?

Signal and channel strength in your baby's room? Yes I saw but are there other networks on the same channel

"I have a 52mg fibre broadband with full signal in the nursery.

I wrote a detailed response to a user that is facing nightvision pixelization. Hope that maybe there maybe some meat in there for you.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Baby/Arlo-Baby-Nightvision/m-p/1382368#M908

[#11]

"I have a 52mg fibre broadband with full signal in the nursery.

[Pgsullivan]

Hi thanks for your response but think you are completely missing the point of my problem too be honest

I don’t have night vision pixelation, that post was was about the nightvision coming on with the iOS toggle setting, nothing more and not about image quality. I wrote that other post issue.

This post is about live view only, and is exactly to the letter the same issue that another poster has..

It is not to do with camera location, as in lte the camera/video images are perfect as are the live view recordings from the same location.

. So all your points although helpful generally are not anything that improves this issue as this is about live vision doing different image pixelation behaviour that is not present in lte viewing and also not present when actualy recording off live view itself. As i can see pixelation in live view, and take a pic or hit record and the result is an image quality as clear as your video. The point is that in pure live view only which is what you want as a baby cam. It’s got pixelation. I have full WI-FI signal and my lag in live view is less that 2 seconds which I think is pretty good. After I close the app and reset the Wi-fi image is clear for a few minutes and I think it’s solved, but then pixelation comes back. I unfortunately don’t have another WI-FI device as still waiting for the lid monotor to come out. I also have 8 Arlo Pro in same network and this issue is not present for them on live view mode. Thanks anyway

[Pgsullivan]

Just tried a friends Lg android pad and it’s exactly the same.

[Wb77]

Experiencing the same thing. Live view is fine on LTE, but so pixelated I can't make anything out on local WiFi. Have tried all the different permutations of 2.4 vs 5 GHz and disabling Bluetooth, no improvement. I don't know if a firmware was pushed recently but it didn't so this to me in late October or November. Essentially makes the device useless as a baby monitor when it happens.

[jguerdat]

If it works on LTE but not WiFi, it's not a Baby issue - it's something about your device and/or WiFi. What happens if you use a computer browser?

[Pgsullivan]

It’s a known issue that they have been trying to work on which hasn’t been resolved to a satisfactory conclusion.

I suspect this problem is actually what is holding up the launch of the screen up as that works in the same manner.

[DylanP]

I'm having the exact same issue. Happens all the time on my wife's Samsung Note 4 and intermittent on my Note 5. Never had pixelation over mobile data, but do over wifi. Any updates about this?

[Sye46]

bump... this is still a major issue. 

[Kellte2]

Another bump. Running firmware 1.8.4.5_20140, but the issue persists. Clean video over LTE, pixelated and choppy over fiber optic WiFi via ORBI (netgear product no less).

Mods? Anything?

[Lukespapa627]

I've had this same issue since I purchased the camera maybe about a year and a half ago. Never resolved the problem, firmware updates did nothing, reset camera, reset WiFi, toggled network between 2.4 and 5ghz, changed channels, turned off bluetooth, used different devices as monitor and all still resulted in pixelated live feed on local stream. Pretty disappointed at the quality of a $300+ piece of equipment.

Not to mention, I more frequently than not, get dropped from the feed altogether when leaving the "always listening" mode on with the screen off for extended periods of time say...over night?? when you WANT to be able to hear if your child wakes up in the middle of the night??? Come on Netgear, get your act together!!

[Kellte2]

Funny thing is that the live feed in the HomeKit app is flawless, which signals to me that this is clearly a software issue. Netgear had the time to release a new color of rabbit ears, but can’t be bothered to properly maintain the firmware/iOS app for the baby camera.

[b_ran_don]

I can also confirm that the live stream via HomeKit on my iPhone while on the same WiFi network is clear (when I don't get the "Camera is already being used" bug in HomeKit) versus when streaming from the Arlo app.

Seems like a different stream/format is being served when connecting via HomeKit vs through the Arlo app. Perhaps a LAN feed is being sent to the Arlo app when on the same WiFi network, but HomeKit stream may always be through the cloud (unlikely?) which would also match the observation of folks who stream via LTE (which I can also confirm is generally flawless).

[Kellte2]

My HomeKit feed (necessarily over WiFi) has less latency and artifacting than the native Arlo app (also over Home WiFi with the home icon present). The Arlo app is just an all-around disappointment in terms of the feed quality over home WiFi and one could only expect that this issue will be addressed, as use of the monitor on your local WiFi network is kind of a bread and butter function of the cam. Alas, here we are....

[Sye46]

HomeKit does indeed provide perfect WiFi streaming but it doesn’t include any features from the Arlo app like temperature, humidity, and air quality. I don’t know why this is still an open issue for Arlo to just ignore. How did this Arlo baby even pass QA

[b_ran_don]

So as I mentioned above, I’m having the live view pixelation issue through the Arlo app but not HomeKit while on my home WiFi. I’m using an Orbi RBK53 system (1x router, 2x satellites) for my home WiFI..

Where this gets strange is I then swapped my Orbi system back out for my AirPort Extreme (2x in WDS mode) system for a couple days, and I no longer had the pixelation issue while streaming from the Arlo app. I just went back to the Orbi system and issue is back again.

This really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I’d be curious to hear what setup others have that are experiencing the pixelation issue.

[Sye46]

Can someone else test this please.  When I view live view at home on the Arlo app (with google wifi) it's pixelated like crazy.  But if I manual record the same video and play it back, it's crystal clear!

Am I crazy??