Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras
× Arlo End of Life Policy Notice
To view Arlo’s new End of Life Policy, click here.

Feature Request: Record Until Activity Stops - Continue Recording For X Seconds

It would be nice if the "Record until activity stops" recording rule screen in the App had an extra setting that allowed me to set a period of time to continue recording after activity is no longer detected.  If activity is detected again before this period of time elapses, then the timer is reset and Arlo continues recording. 

 

This should help cut down on the total number of videos captured even if the videos are slightly longer.  Likewise, serial alerts when something continues to come in and out of frame will also be reduced.

Comments
Holden23
Novice

I agree this needs to happen. In my opinion it’s the only downfall to this system. 

I love everything about it except that videos cut out half way through any detected motion. 

This is a fix that needs to happen. 

TPerry21
Onlooker

+1

 

This is a fatal flaw of the whole Arlo system.  It has been an issue for years and I don't think it's a priority for the Arlo team to address.  They give shallow responses like "we'll look into it" and have never given a timeline.  Seems so simple but the lack of addressing this issue tells me it will never happen.  They ignore their customers that have spent $1,000+ and would continue to expand their systems if this wasn't an issue.  Has anyone received feedback?

BarryLL
Aspirant
It's great that the idea of automatically starting & stopping the camera was implemented! It fell a little short, though...

There still needs to be a maximum time, which is less than 300 seconds. For a wireless camera to be useful, conserving power is paramount. The camera just comes on too frequently, and Activity Zones don't help with the power drain, were I to get full 300 sec recordings.

Consider that I know based on experience, that about a minute is sufficient for the worst case. But I still don't want that full minute if motion stops sooner.

It's not even just the battery usage, it's having to watch all those video clips, instead of the camera being able to let me know that there was no additional movement.
BarryLL
Aspirant
It's great that the idea for automatically starting and stopping the camera was implemented! It fell a little short, though...

There still needs to be a maximum time, which is less than 300 seconds. For a wireless camera to be useful, conserving power is paramount. The camera just comes on too frequently, and Activity Zones don't help with the power drain, were I to get full 300 sec recordings.

Consider that I know based on experience, that about a minute is sufficient for the worst case. But I still don't want that full minute if motion stops sooner.

It's not even just the battery usage, it's having to watch all those video clips, instead of the camera being able to let me know that there was no additional movement.
BarryLL
Aspirant

I thought I'd done something wrong, when I wrote my idea and it ended up being a comment under this feature request... so I wrote it again.  Now it's here twice.  My idea while in a control on the time length of a video, is really not the same. 

 

The idea by dg23 is to set a fixed amount of extra time after the activity stops, to avoid "short cycling" the camera resulting in more video clips. 

 

My idea is for another completely different setting, to set a maximum amount of time that still respects the camera detecting that activity has stopped.  This would allow me to short-circuit really long video clips -- essentially to have a user-defined maximum instead of the current 300 second maximum.  Right now if for example I set the record time to 45 seconds, I get all 45 second video clips, even though that's just my upper limit and most of them stop activity at 10 seconds.

 

Both these ideas could be used together.  I would use my idea to change the max recording to 50 seconds.  Then I would use dg23's idea to add another 10 seconds after the end of activity/maximum time.  The longest video clip I'll ever get will then be 60 seconds.  But if the activity stops after 10 seconds, I get a 20 second video clip.

Stuart_C
Fledgling

This idea would be a great improvement - i.e.  If activity is detected again before the timeout period, then the timer is reset again and Arlo continues recording. Has nothing been done in the four years since it was suggested?