Time and Date Display on video (Timestamp)

[J_Benson]

Preface: The property management company I work for purchased 8 Arlo cameras to set up around the apartment complex I manage. 

The current system does not provide an easy way to tell the exact time a specific time that an image within a video clip was captured, nor does it provice an easy way to navigate to a specific time within a video. The only mention of an exact time is the time listed when the camera began recording each clip. To find out when a still image within the video was captured, you must mentally add up the amount of time you are into a video and the start time of the clip. Example: I want to find the time 6:32 within a video clip. The video clip states that it starts at 6:30, so I navigate two minutes into the video.

My suggestion is to either add a time and date stamp to the video recording, in an unobtrusive area of the video, perhaps customizeable to which corner it appears in. Alternatively, rather than the time slider at the bottom of the clip playback stating the time into the video clip, it displays the real time the video was taken. Current setup for video playback begins at 00:00:00 and advances to 00:02:00, if video length is set to 120 seconds. Instead, it could start at the real time the video capture was taken and continue along at real time. Example: Video starts at 06:30:27 and the slider at the bottom of the playback advances to 06:32:27.

This would aid in finding a specific time in which an event reportedly occurred, as well as serve for better evidence when assessing a charge against a tenant for littering, as you could print out a screenshot of the video with a timestamp and attach it to a document for issuing a charge. It would also aid in police investigations or as evidence when in litigation. Police often come to my office to request video footage of a certain time and date, and this would assist them. We also have a problem with illegal dumping of mattresses and furniture, in which case we would need a timestamped image to present to police.

Thank you for reading this suggestion, and I hope that a timestamp could be implemented as an optional feature for the Arlo camera system in the future. 

J. Benson,
Ullrich Real Estate

[J_Benson]

Thank you for considering this suggestion!

[Granicus]

Timestamping needs embedding in downloaded videos.

I used Arlo to monitor an area that was suffering from vadalisation, shortly after installation some fantastic footage of the perpetrators in the act was caught.

Fast forward to Court"

their lawyer "what time was this?"

me "approximately 10:34PM"

lawyer "how do you know?"

me "epoch time as the file name coupled with application that interprets that number"

lawyer "and you can prove this?"

me "yes"

lawyer "and what if I told you I could just rename to file to any "epoch" time I liked?

me "yes, you could do that"

lawyer "so you can't definitively state and prove anything"

me "I can definitively state that was the time
lawyer "thanks"

Ultimately it didn't make a huge difference as the outcome was a guilty verdict based on the fact it was clear who had committed the crime but if timing had been important there was no way of proving the integrity of the evidence.

[klibeson]

When I get an email with a notification that has a link, I go to click the link to watch the video. This is fast and easy and doesnt require me to log in. Unfortunately, it only shows the date in the web page. I would prefer it also show the time as I can get quite a few email notifications through the day and it means having to flip back to my email to figure out the time.

[SimonHart]

I cant believe there are only 12 Kudos on this or that this is missing in the first place.

If Arlo is a security system then it MUST HAVE a timestamp as much as there needs to be an image else it's worthless.

[kurtk]

Can we get an option to add a date & time overlay to recorded video?

This would be extremely helpful for cataloging downloaded videos as well as if you ever needed to (heaven forbid) submit video to law enforcement.

[blushark]

its just comment sense to have an option to embed time and date into each capture. Also, an option to embed name of camera wouldn't hurt either.

[blushark]

this NEEDS to be an option/setting in Arlo for embedded timestamp.  I am having the same problem...someone keeps trespassing onto my property to vandilizing it. There is nothing to think about here, just add the feature, please!