Top third of camera shaded under camera positioning setting

[pineappleguy16]

Does the top third of the shaded area not detect motion at all? Arlo recommends positioning the camera so the non shaded bottom 2 thirds captures where you want motion to trigger.

Does setting up an activity zone to cover the entire camera field of view override this shaded area?

My camera is mounted above a garage and I positioned it to capture the garage door below and the top third captures the driveway but it is not detecting motion at all at the driveway as that is within the shaded area. If I adjust the camera higher to get the view within the non shaded area, it will miss the garage door.

I know Arlo created the shaded area to prevent constant motion like cars driving by on the street but I need to have my camera capture motion in the entire field of view. Why couldn't there be an option for the user to enable/disable this feature?

[jguerdat]

I'm not sure if it's actually blocked of it's due to the very wide angle nature of the camera resulting in that area generally being beyond the normal detection range of PIR sensors. If it's blocked, there's nothing you can do. Otherwise some creative positioning (pointing more down than out) may help. Zones won't help at all.

A possible workaround could be to rotate the camera 180 degrees so the shaded area is at the bottom. Whether that would be useful would take testing.

[pineappleguy16]

Thank you for the suggestion. If the bottom is shaded, if somebody gets in from the side then it wouldn't trigger motion.

I was able to find a thread dated back in 2019 for the ultra camera where after the firmware update, they implemented this new feature where they disabled motion detection by adding the shaded area at the top third of the camera. The user was getting no where near the motion detection/recordings after this update as the camera was only recording the bottom 2 thirds.

Please see this thread:

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Ultra/SmartHub-VMB5000-amp-Ultra-VMC5040-Performance-after-latest...

I also believe this shaded area is contributing to some users complaining about motion detection activating too late so it only records intruders or delivery persons leaving rather than arriving or approaching the area.

[Shaun1234]

I have turned my camera side nearly fully sideways and angles down as this makes the active zone go up and down the drive and also the cameras are better a detection when objects are moving across the camera, so if you turn the camera sideways and down the camera then works better walking towards it. Hope that makes sense.
Also double check the areas in settings are turned on to full sensitivity, setting is in Mode, then click your hub, then clicked armed, then click your camera,then click detects motion and that is on 100%, when you exit every page after this check to see if there is a save button at the top and click it.

[pineappleguy16]

Yes that makes sense. It won't work in my case as I require a horizontal view rather than vertical to capture what I need.

Anybody else read this thread: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Ultra/SmartHub-VMB5000-amp-Ultra-VMC5040-Performance-after-latest...

Can anyone confirm whether this shaded area does not trigger motion at all or just less sensitive?

[jsaus63304]

I have 2 cameras in rooms that have ceiling fans.  I positioned the cameras so that the fans are in the top 1/3 of the field.  I do not get motion alert when the fan is running.  I assume it receives no motion alerts in this gray area.