Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras

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OlleBull
Tutor
Tutor

I prefer the website on my computer, rather than the Arlo app. For some time now, recordings can’t be played in Chrome, or any other browser for that matter. It still works in the Arlo app, which in my case requires very sharp reading glasses. Probably some setting that need to be changed. Please help me fixing this.

/Olof

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SAub
Apprentice
Apprentice

This issue occurs for me too. For me, maybe 5% of all videos fail to play in my browser either Edge/Chromium or Chrome on Win10. I filed a tech support case with Arlo for this over a month ago. The response from tech support is that the MP4 is corrupted and that browser's playback is less tolerant of corrupted MP4's. Whereas if you download the video to your desktop, the Win10 (and I assume Mac) video player plays the corrupted MP4 it because it is more tolerant of corrupted MP4s. It also seems that the iPhone Arlo app is more tolerant of corrupted MP4 as mine also always plays them. The corrupted MP4 reason, in my opinion, seems to be accurate.

 

Now, the sketchy part from tech support that I don't believe is that the MP4 is corrupted because of  WiFi transmission errors from the camera to the Arlo base station. I don't believe this because:

A. It is too easy and convenient for Arlo to blame everything on WiFi transmission errors.

B. My cameras are only 60' from the base stations with only 1 wall in between with 3 bars (the strongest) of connectivity so WiFi transmission errors should be non-existent or very, very few.

C. HTTP is a reliable protocol built on top of TCP which is also a reliable protocol and I assume the cameras use HTTP and if not they must use TCP. If they don't use TCP then that would be a serious design flaw,

 

My belief is that WiFi transmission errors are not the cause, but that there is at least one bug in the Arlo system (camera, base station or Arlo backend servers) that is causing the corruption, and that it is possible for Arlo to detect and correct any errors that may occur during MP4 creation so that the MP4 is always valid and if Arlo would fix the bug(s), all MP4s would be playable in all browsers.  

 

So far, at least with my tech support case, Arlo is unwilling to investigate the possibility of a bug(s) in their system and is sticking with the flimsy and convenient excuse of WiFi transmission errors.

 

Dannybear
Master
Master
If Arlo is using UDP to stream the video from the camera then this might account for the corrupt files.
Stream corruption can occur over wifi for a number of reasons, poor signal strength due to path obstacles or over distance, transient interference such as from mains power switching like refrigerators air conditioning etc and from other wifi sources.
If not already, reference the USB backup device recordings to compare playback.
Check that the wifi channel that is used is on a clear channel.
SAub
Apprentice
Apprentice

I agree there is most likely is stream corruption and there are many ways for corruption to occur. But I contend that a robustly designed and implemented system (system in this case = Camera, base station, backend servers, browser app, and iPhone/Android app) will detect and correct any errors either by retries or other algorithms so the created MP4 is always valid. Given that Arlo is a security system whose only purpose is to detect motion/audio and record video I would expect it to be a robustly designed/implemented system. However it seems not to be robustly designed nor robustly implemented. And while I understand that any software system has bugs, I also expect the issues reported by customers, like this issue, will be investigated by experienced engineers and corrected. However, once again Arlo disappoints and blames many issues, this one included, on WiFi transmission corruption without investigating their bugs that most likely are the root cause.

Dannybear
Master
Master
If I had to defend Arlo I would suggest that you would need to look for a cable camera to achieve the reliability.
Wifi is not that reliable when it comes to security especially if someone uses wifi jammers to nobble the system.
The smart features are done in the back end servers so any stream correction would need to be the same and so add further delays making live viewing impractical as well as creating higher overhead for the servers.
I don’t believe the existing client side hardware has the processing capabilities to support stream the correction required.
I suspect that they rely on the client App or browser to handle the stream errors. Some handle it better than others no doubt.
SAub
Apprentice
Apprentice

My Ring Doorbell does not produce corrupted videos. All play correctly in the Ring browser app on Win10. My Ring Doorbell is about the same distance with 1 wall from the router as my Arlo cameras, so it seems it is possible to implement a robust video stream. 

However, if Arlo is unwilling or unable to implement a robust video stream, then there is another solution: Arlo should implement a native (Win32?) Win10 app, instead of a browser app. The native Win10 app would use a native Win10 video playback app that is more tolerant of corrupted MP4s. This too has been suggested to Arlo, but so far they have refused as it seems Win10 is a low priority platform. 

 

Dannybear
Master
Master
@SubA

A PC based app would be a great idea, that would also help those that get frustrated with 2FA.
Interesting that you mentioned that the Ring device is corrupt free. Does the Ring device use the 2.4ghz or the 5ghz wifi? If 2.4ghz then this could be a source of interference since the arlo base matches the same channel as the local wifi.
I shifted all my local devices across to the 5ghz wifi channel of my local dual band router to minimise congestion and improve reliability.
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