Arlo Pro 2 purchase - Question for Superusers

[gka2011]

I’m considering taking advantage of the Boxing Day sale at Best Buy and purchase the Arlo Pro 2 - 4 cameras system for my home.  Seeing that the Arlo Pro 2 is a relatively new release, any reason why I should hold off?  

[michaelkenward]

Have you read the various discussions around here? There have been several sessions on various issues.

Remember, people turn up here with issues. If they are totally satisfied they have no reason to come and seek support. So the balance here is probably not representative of the general experience.

[TomMac]

What other buying options do you have ... like the Pro 1 vs the Pro 2 ? ( cost difference )

What are your intented usage... inside, outside, battery , ac power ??

[gka2011]

Fair enough. Thank you for your reply.  I’ve followed the progress associated to the Arlo Pro but I haven’t had a chance to dive into issues concerning the Arlo Pro 2 platform. I’ve recently had the exterior of my home refitted to give me the option of having the cameras hard wired.  However, I just noticed that there has been a recall on their external hard wire. Different issues completely but I wanted to get a sense from the community whether the Arlo Pro 2 is stable enough before I dive into the purchase.   Thanks again for getting back to me.  

[TomMac]

Well, right now the outdoor ac power supply was recalled. There will be another but no date given yet.

IMO, if you are not going to hard wire with ac, you lose many of the benefits of the Pro2 over the Pro1.

(mind that ac can be in or outside, only the outdoor ac is on hold )

Guess it depends on your needed time line.

Other than that , The Pro2 should work as well as the Pro1, and  remember , the P2 has 1080 over the P1's 720

[st_shaw]

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gka2011 wrote:

I’ve recently had the exterior of my home refitted to give me the option of having the cameras hard wired.  

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Hard wired in what way?  Do you mean AC power or Ethernet cabling, or both?

[brh]

Have you thought about using the new Solar Panel? Works great with my Pros.

Brian

[gka2011]

Sorry, I should have clarified.  Exterior of my house was recently refitted with new AC power to accommodate potential spots for cameras.  Other than reading about the new features that comes with the new Arlo Pro 2, I haven’t had a chance to dive into any issues associated to the Arlo Pro 2 except for what people have posted on YouTube.  I’ve monitored the comments from this community relating to the Arlo Pro extensively.  I was about to pull the trigger when they announced the release of the Arlo Pro 2. So I held off.  Trying to decide whether to take advantage of the deal at Best Buy for the Arlo Pro 2 or wait for the Arlo Pro 2 platform to be more stable and hope Costco will start carrying the Pro 2 at a later date; hopefully for the same cost.  

[st_shaw]

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gka2011 wrote:

Sorry, I should have clarified.  Exterior of my house was recently refitted with new AC power to accommodate potential spots for cameras.  Other than reading about the new features that comes with the new Arlo Pro 2, I haven’t had a chance to dive into any issues associated to the Arlo Pro 2 except for what people have posted on YouTube.  I’ve monitored the comments from this community relating to the Arlo Pro extensively.  I was about to pull the trigger when they announced the release of the Arlo Pro 2. So I held off.  Trying to decide whether to take advantage of the deal at Best Buy for the Arlo Pro 2 or wait for the Arlo Pro 2 platform to be more stable and hope Costco will start carrying the Pro 2 at a later date; hopefully for the same cost.  

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If you had run Ethernet cabling, I was going to say go get yourself a POE switch and a few hard-wired POE cameras. You don't need to plug them in to AC, they will keep operating in cold weather, you don't have to worry about poor WiFi coverage, the picture quality is better, etc.

As for the Pro 2... I like most things about mine. I expect you would be disappointed if you try to use the Pro 2 outside at night in an area with no ambient light. But, I'm told you can connect the older Pro cameras to the same base station, so you could add a couple of those if you needed better night vision.

[brh]

I don't know about Costco having a special going on, but usually the price is the same everywhere unless you are buying refurbs or from an unauthorized dealer.

If you have power to the locations that you wish to mount the cameras you have half of the battle won as there is a plethora of camera choices including wireless cameras. When you are doing your research be sure to go to a retailer such as Amazon and read the many questions/answers and reviews first. You might be amazed at the mandatory cloud storage fees, or systems that are easily hacked.

Foo some the recalling of Arlo's outdoor power cable is a big disappointment the Solar Panels are only about $79 each and once mounted, you can pretty well forget about the cameras and power. In direct sunlight the cameras charge pretty quickly. 

Just another solution.

Brian

[michaelkenward]

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brh wrote:

Have you thought about using the new Solar Panel? Works great with my Pros.

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From what I read, all that solar panels do is to keep the battery charged. They do not give you the features that you get when you have mains power. Zone control and stuff.

[brh]

I forgot about that, but I was thinking about a temporary solution until Arlo redesigns the power adaptor cable. I have a few special needs for outdoor cameras and after doing a lot of research I keep coming back to Arlo. I don't want to drill holes and pull cables, etc. Now, if he has ethernet cables along with his power, he has many choices for POE systems. If he is interested in the soon to be released Arlo lights/motion detectors he could use the solar panels for those and as soon as there is a new power adapter cable, he would be in business.

Brian

[gka2011]

Thank you everyone! You have been a great help.  I’m leaning toward getting the Pro 2 seeing that I’ll have constant AC power to take advantage of the full capability of the Pro 2.  I don’t like the outdoor cable being recalled but I guess I can manage around it for the time being.  Costco has a great return policy but doesn’t carry the Pro 2 yet.  If things don’t work out, it’s easier to deal with Costco as oppose to going thru red tape with Arlo and Best Buy.  This is a great forum.  Thank you for everyone’s insight! 

[VancouverBC]

I took advantange of the Boxing Day sale at Best Buy Canada and got the 4 camera Arlo Pro 2 set. I've been using D-Link wifi cameras up to now which need AC power so have had them sitting inside on window ledges looking through the windows. Not great angles and low resolution but did the job. The Arlo Pro 2's let me put the cameras outside in places with better views of what I want to keep an eye on. If you have AC power, you're all set then for continuous recording, spot locations for motion detection, etc.