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

[voidnothings]

Sure it’s amusing to capture a harmless pet but when safety and legal process is at stake everyone can agree that what netgear is doing is pure bs. For something so basic the product is useless for what it’s intended for without this feature. Netgear should allocate the resources to the arlo team immediately. 

[blushark]

this topic has been going on for so long there is no reason it has not been implemented other than a legal one i would guess. At this point it seems they are intentionally ignoring this feature that customers have been hollaring about ad nauseam. 

[mystery9]

@DanB-AUS What claim did you have that was rejected on the basis of time/date stamp?

[DanB-AUS]

@mystery9 as there was no time and date I could not prove that a driver from the courier company damaged contents of a package by throwing it across my drive, as he parked out side the view of the cameras.

If there were time and date I could have submitted it with the company's GPS and proven the case.

[kevin4]

+1 this seems like such a basic requirement for video security system.

[Rommel_DC]

Arlo team I think you have your requirements priorities in wrong order. Being a CCTV/ security system device having timestamp in the video itself is not a nice to have but a MUST HAVE. Its on the same level as detecting motion I think. Its not enough to have it in the filename and metadata as we know these can be modified. Hope this gets added soon.

[AmandaJ]

Hi

Looks like this has been a future consideration for a while.  Sorry Netgear but the current way you have things is not working in court.  Yes I know we can use an Epoch converter - but unfortunately the Epoch string is the video file name which can be changed.  I can just as easily use the epoch converter to give me a date & time of my chosing.  Unfortunately this makes the file useless for a prosecutor  - a good argument for defence lawyers.

This really needs to be done or all our systems are pointless.

Amanda

[Youthman]

Just purchased and installed Arlo 2 Pro cameras 2 nights ago.  I just realized there is no time stamp or date ON the video.  Seriously?  Cannot believe this is acceptable for a $200 per camera system.  Will be returning them to Best Buy since this thread has been opened since 2015 and apparently Arlo has no intention of adding it as they continue to recommend using the Epoch converter but as mentioned over and over and over...this will not hold up in court.

[Investech]

There needs to be a date and time stamp option on the recorded image. As this is being used as surveillance, I thought it was standard. Disappointed that it is not included yet. I may have to use the recordings for court soon. Please fix this soon.

Mike

[brh]

@Investech

This has been requested several times in this Idea Exchange. So that you are not starting from scratch, find the posts here and give them a Kudo. The more Kudos the more likely the idea will be implemented.

The name of the video is actually a time stamp, but it is in epoch time not local time. There are epoch time converters out there. But what a pain for court use. The time stamp should be written into the video and converted to local time that you set up when you first set up your account.

Brian