Arlo Pro 3 Video Delay/Lag

[dcbruin]

I just purchased the 3 camera system and two solar panels, and installed the first camera a few days ago. My internet speeds are consistently 235 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up, and I have a two node Orbi wifi system that provides ample coverage for my entire property... 2 story 2000 sq ft home, front and back yard. I very rarely have problems with internet or WiFi stability, and it's usually a device side issue.

The first camera I installed is 15-20ft from the base station and covers my front door. Battery charge full, great connectivity reported by the cam. For me, the whole point is being able to see who is coming to my front door, and interact with them as needed. Since installation, the delay between something happening in reality and me seeing it on my app (wifi or mobile data) or web portal, is 3-10 seconds. This is with local streaming enabled; it's worse if I don't have that enabled. It takes 10+ seconds to get the live feed connected. These two things together are non-starters for my desired use case. I suspect this will only get worse if I bring the other two cams online.

I know how to troubleshoot tech -- I build computers and administer all home IT 🙂 I've already tried rebooting everything Arlo, pulling batteries, rebooting Orbi system, turning down the video quality, turning off AI features, etc etc etc. I have logged a support case, and they asked me for a long list of information (serial number of the camera, test delay w/ mobile data and web portal, etc) which I have provided.

I've had several software issues with the app. These aren't deal breakers but I would expect better for a premium priced product. Having worked in high tech for many years, this experience has all the hallmarks of mediocre software development. Their streaming seems inefficient and anything that touches their cloud lags... I also read they are using N-band wifi chip in this base station that I bought in 2020, when AC has been the standard for many years now... and they are trying to push 2k video through it... and I have a feeling based on the boards they are about to tell me my system is the problem which would be a joke.

The odd thing is this doesn't really show up in the tech media reviews. These are recognizable trusted sites... some of them have a brief light mention of "slight" delay "sometimes" but most of them refer to this system as the gold standard in the market.  Do I have a defective system? I want to love the system, but my gut is telling me mediocre software development and good marketing...

So here's my question:

Does anybody have a live video feed with almost no delay? I'm talking snappy in the 0-1sec range consistently. I just want to know if I should invest more time into troubleshooting or just return the system now. Maybe my use case isn't a good fit for this product, which is fine by me. I just don't want to waste my time or money on something that won't ever work because of a software or hardware limitation that I can't fix.

[morrawr]

Latency... You said 2k will have some latency if you are a separate network. I've proven that even on the same network, streaming 4k the latency is almost the same as streaming "locally" on a 2g network.

The primary issue here is the latency between actual viewing and live viewing experiences. If you view on a local or remote connection, the latency is practically the same. It seems that at every aspect of viewing, the camera will always send the feed to the cloud first.

[tony_2018]

I can see you're adding way more than what I said even though I already clarified what I mean about networks.  My answer is still the same.

Can only stream 2k on local network, will have some latency issues.  

[turkeysub426]

Unfortunately, I have to say that all these issues sound way too similar/common to be "user error".  It seems to me like a general problem with the Arlo Pro3 system.  Problem is that I feel like I'm too deep in now to do anything about it - 4 cameras, 1 video doorbell, extra mounts, solar panels, etc.  Boxes are all long gone.  I'll have to give support a call when I get the chance to see if there is anything I can do.  Ugh!

[J_JJ]

Oh hey to be clear I was just trying to watch my live feed with cameras staged indoors without 2k finding that using my iPhone (Arlo app) over the same wireless network that the Arlo hub is connected shows constant feed delay of around 10-20 seconds.

But it sounds like this live 'feed' is always sent out to their external network first and does not stream across the internal network.

Thanks,

[daxon]

So, mine is still not useful when I receive a notification, although at least now all 4 cameras, doorbell and 2 base stations work.

If you have the iphone homekit app, you can see live streaming with only a second or so lag. However, it doesn't work for the doorbell at all. So that's useless.

And, if you get a notification for say, your side gate, from Arlo, by the time you open your Arlo app or the Homekit app and connect to the right camera, it's 15 seconds later because the app has to load and connect while the video is still being uploaded to the cloud.

While you wait, the new recording is unavailable, the person that walks through your gate is gone, and the live feed is still circling or hanging until the video is done.

If more than one camera is recording at the same time, it's glitchy.

I have two base stations and it still handles the bandwidth poorly.

It's just not written well. I can stream on 3 HD tvs simultaneously and have xbox game running with no problems, but one little camera recording is slow as molasses.

And the classifications of animal/vehicle/person... for a day now, one camera is just sure that any flying bug is a person. And a moving leaf is a vehicle.

Next time, hard wired cameras, local network, backup, and second backup to the cloud. This is stupid.

[tony_2018]

Most companies are stop making adjustments and updating their algorithm. I've seen false/miss alerts on ring, I've read about eufy as well, and yes I get the wrong alerts on Arlo. They'll work on it.

Its good you got the delay down, I just test live view and was messing the spot light and was only getting 2-4 sec delay. Guess having a power adapter on constantly helps.

Now if only I can get access to my local storage.....

[daxon]

Well, the 2-4 second delay only works if nothing is recording. And not on the doorbell. So it's not really a solution.

Because, when I get a notification that someone is moving around my house, it still takes too long to actually get anything to load until the recordings from the movement are done uploading to the cloud. If they are walking from the front gate to the back yard, that's 3 recordings, 3 cameras, and up to 45 seconds before I can get any of the live feeds OR recordings to work.

By then it's too late.

So this is still not working for it's intended purpose - live feed.

But if I just want to watch an empty yard with no movement at some other point, sure, works great.

[turkeysub426]

Yeah, same here on the next time being hard wired, etc.  I tried to go the "easy" route and now I'm regretting it.  Stupid, stupid...  I just thought the technology was here and had to be robust enough to handle the wireless signal and be able to stream well with the high bandwidth that I have...

[Wibbey]

If we can all work from home having video conferences with several other people across the internet with zero lag why can we not expect zero latency within our own networks? It's a bloody a camera no different from your webcam. I encountered the same 15-20 second delay lag. I can literally live stream to my TV located at the back of my house and watch myself walking through my own front door! Two way communication is not even approaching usable.

[Stan-]

I am also having this lag issue using the Arlo app and I was trying to find a way to resolve this. The lag in the Arlo App is horrible, when I move, the video feed picks up the movement ~10 seconds later.

Today, I have  connected my cameras to Apple Homekit. No lag viewing my videos through there and my video feed are being played in real time.

This is so disappointing from Arlo's part, especially for the price that these cameras cost, the app integration is so bad.

[mrpetrov]

Hi there - when you say you connected your cameras to Apple HomeKit (and that eliminated the lag) - which cameras are you referring to? The Arlo cameras...?

[Stan-]

Yes, I have the arlo pro 2 cameras.

[Linusl]

I have about 5-20sec delay when I want to stream. Sometimes no feed at all and I have to close the app and reopen and try again. I do have the Arlo 3 cameras set to 2K stream. I have the cameras about 3-10 (9-30 feet) meters from the basestation connected directly to my Amplifi router.

[larch]

Having taken delivery of the Arlo Pro 3 two camera system, I am also getting 2 to 10 second delay on the video.

This renders it useless as a security system.

This forum tells me this is a firmware problem that Arlo is denying.

I shall return this expensive system unless someone can post something with a cast-iron solution.

[Markv1]

I have the Arlo Pro 3 cameras and I always have a 1-2 second delay. That includes the video doorbell.

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

The delay you are experiencing is normal behavior. A slight delay is expected as the camera must communicate with the Arlo cloud when live streaming.

JamesC

[defaraz]

Dear Support,

I am using Arlo Pro 3 Cameras with the base station at my home in Pakistan and i am living in KSA at the moment. I upgraded to Arlo Pro 3 because of Live Stream 2 Way audio feature, however, since the beginning it is not working fine. I have the following Observations:

1. I am using the Arlo app on the Iphone.

2. I can hear from the camera little bit quicker but my voice back to camera is almost 3 to 4 sec delayed.. it fact makes no sense in conversation. I can understand that video requires more bandwidth but audio suppose to live without depending on the video stream... But that is not the case here.

3. Another strange issue is the volume level of the camera. it is too low that the other side barely hears the sound.

Please kindly assess if there is any resolution, firmware optimization can be done to improve the experience.