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Time and Date Display on video (Timestamp)

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

Comments
Macahi
Apprentice

@srwilliams 

 

I don't personally know for at *fact* that the camera hardware can support it (but if it can't, I'd be pretty surprised).  I *do* know for a fact that it doesn't matter if the hardware can support it or not.

 

This is a very bad business decision and frankly, I'm surprised they haven't been vilified in the rags due to this.  In no way should this be missing from a modern system.

alien_scones
Apprentice

@Macahi and others, this thread topic is almost 4 years old.

 

It's not going to happen because the hardware used in these models doesnt  support it.  You can go back to the beginning of this thread, there is a hardware expert that tells us which chipsets are used in this camera and what the capabilities are for that chipset.   I'm telling you, if arlo could put a time stamp on the image they would have done so already. 

 

Also, the Amazon product reviews going back years point out theres no timestamps on the videos.  

 

Best regards.

Macahi
Apprentice

@alien_scones 

 

And if you're read MY posts, you'd see that I've already read every comment here.  As I've also said, it doesn't matter if the hardware supports it or not.  It can still be done, relatively easily.

b00573d
Onlooker
If a $25 wyze cam can do it, then Arlo needs to figure out a way to do it!
alien_scones
Apprentice

@Macahi and others.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

You are correct it would be easy to add the timestamps to the video.  But since the hardware doesnt support real time overlays, the limited hardware would need to process the video and add the overlay using what limited processing power it has.  Which means a 30 second video clip might take 5 minutes or longer to process.  And that processing would not be cheap, power speaking wise.  And we all know how bird-dropping great the solar panels perform. 

 

So after the limited hardware processes the video and adding the timestamp to the video, assuming it has enough battery power left, it transmits the video the the cloud.  

 

Are you on with a 5 to 20 minute delay because the camera had to post process the video?  

 

Again, thanks for the responses.   Dont bother replying to me because I'm done with the less than in the know respondents.  I'm unsubscribing to this topic.  After almost 4 years,  it's about time.

 

Good luck. 

 

 

Macahi
Apprentice

@alien_scones 

 

You're bowing out because you don't know what you're talking about, and you know that we all know it.  You don't post-process in the camara!  Are you stupid?  It would take < 2 seconds, tops to post-process on the server.  Did you also miss where I pointed out that if needed, they could also delay post-processing until the user actually chose to download the video.  Do you have zero reading comprehension, or are you not even trying?

 

As I've also stated, and you've apparently ignored, I've been in software dev., for more than 35 years.  You're quick to use a hardware 'expert' to support your capitulating views, but ignore that you're speaking with a software expert.

 

SF_Apartments
Fledgling

Has this ever been fixed? Does Arlo support date/timestamp embedded in the video stream and/or snapshot?

SF_Apartments
Fledgling

Has this ever been produced by Arlo/NetGear? This is a basic video surveillance feature. Does it exist yet?

Macahi
Apprentice

No, it still does neither.  At this point, if you haven't bought yet, I'd suggest looking into other technology.  It's more and more obvious that this company is going into the **bleep**ter.

useragent
Fledgling

It's been so long time... and I believe Arlo just won't add the feature, so I just f**k add it by myself. 

Made a small powershell script to download image/video from arlo library and cook the timestamp by using FFMPEG, download it to local, sync to onedrive/dropbox or whatever you want

 

git repo here: https://github.com/Zhangwei-WU/powershell-download-arlo