Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras
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Danielbcook
Aspirant
Aspirant

If I have 3 or Arlo2 Pro 4 cameras, and I have an XFinity monthly quota of 1TB of broadband Internet which my family sometimes gets quite close to exceeding, how likely is it that having the Arlo cameras forwarding footage up to the cloud will push my family over the quota? How much upload of footage goes on, and is it only upon sensing some motion/change in the camera's view?

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jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

You'd need to add up the size of the videos to get a realistic number. Using a lower resolution (Optimized or Best Battery Life use lower and lower resolution) can help as will keeping recording length and the number of recordings to a minimum.

 

Download a few different ones to get a sense of what Arlo will use over 30 days.

 

Edit: Also, don't use AC power for Pro 2 cameras since they will stream if upload utilization is part of the quota.

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jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

You'd need to add up the size of the videos to get a realistic number. Using a lower resolution (Optimized or Best Battery Life use lower and lower resolution) can help as will keeping recording length and the number of recordings to a minimum.

 

Download a few different ones to get a sense of what Arlo will use over 30 days.

 

Edit: Also, don't use AC power for Pro 2 cameras since they will stream if upload utilization is part of the quota.

Danielbcook
Aspirant
Aspirant

I'm not so much interested in the math, I'm just trying to get a sense of whether the Arlo2 Pro uploads:

 

  • all footage from all cameras, and an X-day moving window of it is retained for viewing in the cloud UI (where X appears to be 7 days for the free plan, 30 days for the next stage up)
  • only footage spanning a configurable length, pre- and post-movement, of footage from within each camera's frame

Obviously it would be less bandwidth consumed if the only thing going up to the cloud is footage spanning some movement. But if Arlo is streaming 3 or 4 cams to the cloud on a 24x7 basis, then I have a feeling there is no amount of dumbing-down of the video quality that would make it not a problem. Nor do I want to dumb down the quality if there are products on the market (e.g. Ubiquiti) where my footage remains on-premise and the only limited is the size of my local disk array.

jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

Any recordings are sent to the cloud. Resolution and length are the primary things to monitor for how much data is used. If a P2 is plugged in, it will stream the whole time - that's how you gain access to the 3 second lookback and CVR features.

Danielbcook
Aspirant
Aspirant

Let's assume here that the P2 is not plugged in. In that scenario, if power to the house is cut will all cameras on battery power continue to save to a local buffer even though the footage is not being streamed to the cloud? Or is it the case that once the base station loses its cloud connection and / or its power source, no footage is saved until service is restored?

 

This is a relevant scenario for me, having suffered the power-cutting talents of a burglar recently.

steve_t
Master Master
Master

If you put the base station on a UPS, you will have recordings on the USB drive (as long as you put one in and turn it on) even if the internet connection is down. To see these recordings, you need to eject the USB drive and stick it in a computer and use something like VLC to watch them. You cannot access them through the app nor will the cloud sync them once the internet is restored

Danielbcook
Aspirant
Aspirant

OK, so what I think this tells me is that one purpose of the base station is to serve up a private wireless network (WiFi or something else). Presumably it is also bridged to the home's main network, except when that network is down as in the case of a power failure or domestic network issues.

 

If that's the case it sounds like it doesn't matter what my home's regular WiFi coverage/topology is like; I need to locate the base station where it has connectively to all of the cameras. That might be tough in my house, which is a colonial brick exterior and lath-and-plaster interior walls (effectively, an 802.11 no-fly-zone). I've solved this problem by using a bunch of access points strategically placed around the house. But the exterior, which is where I want to put Arlo cameras, doesn't have very good signal.

jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

An alternative solution is to use multiple base stations appropriately positioned so every camera has good signal.

Danielbcook
Aspirant
Aspirant

If I put in a USB drive, does it get a 2nd copy of the motion-activated footage which is sent to the cloud? Or does it effectively replace the cloud as the primary storage device?

jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

2nd exact duplicate.

steve_t
Master Master
Master

Just be aware that the filename of the video stored on the USB drive is the time and date stamp but in Epoch/Unix time. You can use an online converter to see the time the recording started

Danielbcook
Aspirant
Aspirant

Sorry that my questions have been all over the map, which makes it hard to pick one which is the approved answer! But here is one more question: (well, for now):

 

Does anybody have a UPS suggestion? I'm looking for probably 30 mins of runtime and would use the UPS to power my cable modem (7.5W), Ubiquiti USG router (max power 40W), Ubiquiti switch (max power 150W but PoE usage is limited to 5 of the 8 ports, so let's say 100W), Arlo Pro base station (apparently 5W). All up let's call it max 160W. Was thinking something like Tripp Lite 900VA UPS (AVR900U)

jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

That would be fine - I use a 750VA UPS.  Rather than adding up the power specs on the various devices, try using a device such as a Kill-A-Watt to measure actual current draw. It's been quite some time but I think I measured my base, router and modem at something like 40 watts total (everything plugged into the UPS so I measured the input to the UPS - a power strip with all devices plugged in would be fine, too).

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