Faster recording

[AskMcGowan]

This is as it states in the subject,

Based on my test experience there is a lag between motion detection and recording start. 

So according to tests (and this is one example)

There is a street in the camera view. A car drives by at about 15mph - Camera detects it at the beginning but by the time it records I only see the back of the vehicle. So there is a 2-3 second lag.

I would like that lag to turn to 0-1 seconds.

[StuBee]

How are you determining the "motion detected" time and when the recording started?

I do have a timestamp on the email that arrives stating "7:33:21 AM PDT", I wasn't postive that was the start of motion or the end......but I also don't see a timestamp with seconds on the playback video.

thanks.

[RarFnd]

I couldn't agree any better.  This individual has done a great service to Netgear and the entire Arlo user Community and should be rewarded in some way by Netgear for his very insightful free honest feedback.

I actually dropped $499.99 before tax to purchase this unit and feel that the afore mentioned features, especially the Alternative storage option, which would allow the users the flexibility to store and save our personal data (This is considered our private information).  Being overly greedy and only providing 1GB to users and also putting a cap on 5 Camera's  for free users is actually funny and I hope that Netgear is anticipating that the users continue to purchase and add additional cameras to their current package.

Also I feel that the issue with Deleting Trashed Videos, should be addressed urgently since I don't think that Netgear would want to deal with Data Wharehousing of their customers personal information in this day and age of identity theft.

I really look forward to Netgear really taking their time and looking at these issues and taking charge like they have done with the Products they put out in the Networking world and make this product a force to reckon with including the afore mentioned robust features

Thank you in earnest for listening - I hope.

[DeannS]

Good afternoon WadeShuler,

Thank you for taking the time to write this post.

These are all very valid points and great ideas to say the least.

We are continuously looking for ways to improve the Arlo Smart Home System.

To ensure our Product Development team puts these suggested enhancements on their list, if not already there, this information has been passed along directly. Our Product Development team routinely reviews the Ideas Exchange Board and will be taking your suggestions, thoughts and ideas into careful consideration.

The success of our Community and product lines are dependent on the suggestions and feedback from our customers. We take all of our suggested performance enhancements very seriously. All suggestions, thoughts and ideas are looked at by a team of individuals who manage the Community, our Product Development team, and our Engineering/IT department.

We are actively researching ways to enhance our Community and Arlo product line and will continue to do so.

We have several groups of individuals who are responsible for testing/replicating issues that may or may not be associated with our products. As you know, it is nearly impossible to predict which and what kind of errors will occur with future use. We do our best to combine the feedback from the Community with the knowledge of our IT experts in order to replicate and resolve as many issues as we can on a daily basis.

For public knowledge of changes/updates that are being made to the Arlo system, we have Release Notes. You can find them here: Release Notes We will continue to keep the Arlo Community informed with real time reports and data through these Release Notes.

We embrace our competition from other products and really take pride in the enhancements we create to differentiate ourselves from the product lines of others. We strive to keep an open mind when it comes to changes to our product that may be requested by our customer base and our employees.

The changes you have requested that we make to our website and product as a whole have uplifted our competitive spirit!

Here at NETGEAR, we have the utmost respect for posts, such as this one, which will keep us informed by our customer needs. We really appreciate the valuable time it took to put this information into perspective. If you have any more questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly and I will be more than happy to assist you.

Thanks,

DeannS

Arlo Team

[Kevin]

In addition I'd like to suggest motion sensor accessories. I would like to place cameras in positions to record people moving toward the camera, at the end of a long corridor or narrow side yard. The motion sensors on the camera don't work well in these situations as they work best detecting movement crossing the camera not moving directly toward it. I would like to add a sensor at a gate or entry and have a rule when the stand alone motion sensor detects movement on the accesory to start recording on one or more cameras.

The suggested location of 7 ft or higher for cameras makes it hard to get good video for identification purposes. Most intruders where baseball caps I believe for that purpose. They know the cameras will be mounted high so the bill of a baseball cap helps hide their identity. Allowing customers to mount the camera at 5 ft or eye level can greatly increase the chances of getting video that will help identify subjects.

[Target_Acquired]

+1 for your initial post and also for your motion accessory and lower mounting ideas. Mounting high does indeed make it much more difficult to get a good identification of the subject!

I would like to see more variety in terms of mounting options, including better security for the camera itself I would like to see more variety in terms of mounting options, including better security for the camera whenever it must be mounted within arms reach.

[Target_Acquired]

Whoops… Please forgive the buggered up grammar in my prior post. Posting via cell phone is not always the best way, and Siri often has a way of making me look foolish in spite of my best attempts to the opposite! 🙂

[CG198]

As I read this post it is as if someone was reading my mind on suggestions. So in the meantime I have used rules and modes to create "Zones" to help reduce lag time. For instance I have a camera that looks across my front porch, I have a rule that turns on my front door camera as soon as some motion is detected on my front porch. You see you have to move across the front porch camera in order to get to the front door. With the front door camera looking at a downward angle it doesn't always detect motion until someone is right at the front door. With the front porch camera turning on the front door camera I can gain a few seconds of recording on the door camera activation.

I have used this technique across my property and it has greatly enhanced the response time. However I have 20 rules just for vacation mode. It is time consuming and detailed oriented. But you can make the system effective. For instance, I found my motion detection works better in the carport area if I invert the cameras. Sounds odd I know but the point is to change the angle and test it until you get it to respond the way you want it. I have 7 cameras and I have them working in concert with each other and so far it seems to be working well. 

My background is in the Fire and Security industry and I understand limitations of the system and how to make things work better as a whole. What I would recommend is more in depth information regarding rules and modes. The average user/homeowner may not have the understanding as to how programming zones and modes can enhance response time. Not to mention you can change sensitivity with rules and so on. The flexibility is there but there needs to be more details as to how the user could arrange devices and program them to work efficiently.

The idea of a motion sensor add on would be nice but change the program so that you could say Motion Det 1 turns Camera 1-whatever number. Or allow you to individually pick which cameras to turn on. Right now I am using rules to follow the path of where I think an intruder may take and it is working well so far. Could be easier though.

I understand that money is the key to everything, however I too would like the ability to not have to rely on NetGear Servers for storage. I have 5TB of storage capability in my home and would love to be able to stream these recordings to a dedicated drive in my home and use the cloud storage as backup. What if Netgear servers fail and I no longer have the ability to save recordings. Or lets say that Netgear suddenly decides they dont want to support ARLO any more? What then? I have $1,000.00 tied up in a system that would immediately become useless. The end user does need to have the ability to continue to use their devices let's face it ARLO is just a managment decision away from support or not. So giving the end user the ability to stream to their own computer needs to be a capability.

All of the above being said I think the system is great. I am in it for the long haul as long as NetGear can make changes to help the end user. My System has been installed for a month and it has taken time to get it adjusted but it is working well. The batteries that came with the devices are still showing a full charge so all of the other stuff I have been reading about batteris not lasting I think is due to people over using a system that should be dormant until motion is detected. The quiescent current draw on a motion detector is nil and the batteries should last quite awhile if time is taken to set up modes and rules so it is going off every few minutes.

OK I am Done!

Thanks ARLO Team! 

[brownee]

Arlo are you listening. I have read about 10 different threads like this about motion and recoding. If you add all the kudos you would identify this as an issue.

[ScottF]

I just got an email from Netgear talking about New Features...Sharing video to Facebook and twitter. Come on. There are so many more important issues people are asking for a resolution to and yet sharing to Facebook wins??

Brownee is completely right. There are MULTIPLE threads about the terrible delay the ARLO has in starting it's recording once motion is activated. If "kudos" are all that matters to Netgear then add up all the kudos from all the threads asking for this major issue to be looked into and it will outweigh everything else. I can't for the life of me understand the point of these idea communities if nothing that gets suggested, and WIDELY agreed upon by the users, doesn't get at the minimum a response from someone at Netgear.

It really makes me think that this forum is simply a place for system owners to feel like we are being heard. But in reality we are not.

[jrw46]

It's probably been mentioned before.  The green Schedule chart has to be extended, made longer.  Some of the "ON's" and "OFF" get squash together and they can't be read.