Support more storage options

[P-LEE]

There are 2 type of markets:

Group#1: You have the none-techincal people, who just want to turn everything on, and start using it as a "for dummies" style. Everything is simplifed and beautifully presented to them without need to know all the technical stuff. They are welling to pay a reasonable fee for making their life easier.

Group#2: On the other hand, you have the computer geeks, like myself, would prefer my recordings goes to local NAS and then automatic synced to my OneDrive, this way I get a copy locally and a backup copy in my cloud. I know how to configure it, am familar with troubleshooting if have a problem. and frankyly I couldn't care less about the the nice interface after it has been configured. And i don't want to pay for more money when I already got tens of GB of cloud storage available at my dispose.

I see Arlo is satisfying only group#1, and making some money off the subscription. But I think group#2 would prefer an IP camera over Arlo partly due to the space limitation. If Netgear can support pushing recording to various cloud storages (local NAS, OneDrive, Amazon Cloud, Dropbox...etc), then you might get more share of group#2 market.

[lore_73]

If the internet connection is down my home is not safe and I cannot record anything. I have a NAS with an UPS so it is ever online.

I would like to store locally my data in order to improve the redoundance. Moreover I prefer don't share my video on the cloud for privacy.  

[TheCodingArt]

My largest gribes with the current camera configuration, along with suggestions, are below.

1.) Local storage. The system should not be 100% useless without direct hardline internet access, and we shouldn't be forced to the limitations provided by the cloud based system and costs. 

2.) The magnetic mounts are horrible. The magnetic mounts included in the package wobble and rely on 1 screw to hold them in place. When you have an unbalanced weighted camera magnetically attached, this is not a steady/secure setup. This ignores the magnetic factor all together in the sense that the literal balancing of the mount is off from the horrible engineering of the hole to hang the nail upon. This should at least have 2 nails required to mount this in it's current form. In reality, the mount should be gone all together and replaced with the secure mounts sold separately. The half ball magnetic mounts also have the assumption that the camera will be facing outward from a 90 degree angle... which is not the majority of cases. 

3.) Why are ship times for the screw on mounts soo long (rediculously long)? On Amazon, it's reported as 1 - 2 months... months!? So first you provide me with one good mount, the other mounts are horrible so I want to go and buy the 'secure' mounts for and overpriced '$30' and I'm required to wait 1 - 2 months. Typically, one buys a security system in a time of need... and this does not meet that need. I would just go over to Home Depot and Best Buy and buy these mounts, but they're sold online only... horrible. 

4.) Switch over to AA batteries if possible. Expanding the length of the cameras makes no difference (it's not like they're current form factor is rediculously small). The current batteries are extremely hard to find 'decent' rechargeable forms which presents a problem. AA batteries have plenty high mAmp rechargeable/reliable counterparts. I shouldn't have to 'hunt' down a decent brand (which doesn't seem to exist anymore since surefire no longer sells rechargeable RCR123 batteries) of batteries that are used on military grade flash lights. Whomever made this engineering decision choose very very badly. Sacrifice the size for convienience.. not the other way around. Not when it comes to security. 

5.) In the future you should consider providing a hardwire option. Just the option to hardwire into an outlet if for some reason the hardwire was indoor house bound. The option is good so the battery thing is less of a hassle. 

6.) Re organize the app. The UI/UX designer did an aweful job here and the settings are atrocious. The modes should not be in 2 different areas (and I constantly forget modes is even a tab bar option), starting the camera feed in the app hardly ever gives decent feedback on the camera start up status (and usually spontaneously cans without a message that informs the user of anything useful), and I consistantly have to restart the app to start up live feeds. The app needs a general overhaul to be more intuitive and ease of use. The scheduler and pan/zoom options are horrible as well. I don't know who designed reading in the touch events and translating those to adjust the drawing/views on screen, but 90% of the time it doesn't remotely do what I want it to do. The scheduler won't event add time slots to the areas I want, nor can I just drag it down (I have to drag and drop those rediculous slots into the time slots).  

[TheCodingArt]

I also want to note that there are more wishlist items/changes that are not included in this list. One being notification sounds. We should have the option of changing the notification sound from the default notification (which should not be hard using the APNS payload). This way, we can distinguish the notification from normal notifications. Considering we'd prioritize security related notifications differently than a candy crush notification. 

[Schorschi]

You are not mounting the magnetic mounts properly if they are wobbling.

You must screw the mounting screw in deeper so that when the mount is slid over the screw, it is rock solid. Experiment with driving the screw in deeper. It will require some elbow grease to put the mount on, but it can be attached such that the mount is very firm and will not wobble. Depending on the underlying surface, the screw may have to be screwed in so deep that its head is only one or two millimeters above the mounting surface.

Prior to mounting, I suggest marking the spot on the outside plastic ring to reflect the location of the big (release) hole on the mount. That way, you know to slide the mount towards the mark, when you want to remove it.

The quality of the result will vary depending on the surface. Uneven surfaces may cause problems. If all fails consider using Arlo's outside mount which uses three screws instead of one, or use similar mounts from third parties that are also often cheaper than Arlo's outside mount. For instance, I got three mounts from Amazon that look identical to Arlo's outside mount for less than the price of a single Arlo mount. The community forum provides many suggestions for alternative mounts.

[TheCodingArt]

@Schorschi Yes I mounted them correctly and obviously I am "trying" to purchase the mounts provided by Netgear (minus the fact that it will take 1 - 2 months for them to get them to me...). The magnetic mounts provided are flat out un acceptable. They are unbalanced and logically require them to be literally screwed in in order to balance at the level they should be balanced. It's impossible to screw them in at this magnitude because they expect you to hang them like a picture frame. It's just very bad engineering. No one should justify that major design flaw. 

[AlexisAndrews]

i agree you are doing something wrong with the installtion of the mounts...

they should not be hung with a nail...it should be with a screw that will be able to be tightened into the wall or wood surface etc...

when i first hung mine i didnt screw the screw in far enough for the mount to slide on and lock...once i tightened the screw it was perfect

there is NO wobble because there is no give

as far as the batteries...the 123 batteries have a much higher potency and longer lasting and it is not recommended to use rechargeable batteries for this product as ANY rechargeable batteries do not hold the same level of power as the normal non rechargeable ones do...its a science thing...they just dont...and AA or AAA batteries would need to be replaced more often than these do...i have had my cameras for a while now and no issues with the batteries 

if you want a hard wire option then you chose the wrong camera system...this is not the kind of system you get if you want to constantly be live...this is a motion only camera system...essentially you get a notification if there is motion and it is up to you to investigate if you need to record more...

i would recommend you return these cameras if you hate them so much...i have not seen you say one good thing about them

do they have opportunites..YES...but they do what they say they are suppose to do...nothing more...this is a place for constructive feedback and requests not to change the entire business model...now i will get off my soapbox...i hope you learn to enjoy them for what they are here for and not for what you wish they had been when you purchased them

[geekstar33]

I think the subject line says it all.  I've invested in these products.  Please give me the option to use them as the storage place with the Arlo cameras.

Nowhere on your packaging does it say you MUST use the Arlo specific cloud service.  I bought this Netgear product thinking it would work beautifully with my other Netgear devices.

thank you for listening.

[zackstark]

This would be great. Local storage or storage to a NAS would be awesome! I wouldn't mind paying a one time fee for the software if necessary. This would be great. 

[arlocamera]

Netgear will never make it to store locally.  They'll lose the business of charging for cloud storage.

[DMarks]

Netgear:

Local storage (i.e. NAS) is simply a must-have requirement. I prefer to invest potentially more money upfront instead of the monthly residuals. Hmmm don't your have your own NAS product line? Ahh yes, I have one of them ReadyNAS. Seems like a good idea to leverage your existing customer and to make this intially store directly to your products, versus losing money to other vendor which have local storage.