Arlo Pro 4 battery concerns

[cjogrady]

I have questions about the best set-up for some very specific circumstances. Our house has been egged from the street a few times, and we have some problem neighbors (loud parties and angry responses to our requests to turn the volume down) behind us, so I'd like to get a set of cameras to watch both the front and back of our house. My concern re: the front is that we live on a reasonably well-trafficked street (10-20 cars per hour), and I'd need it to watch the street, since that is where we were egged from. I'm guessing that amount of traffic would trigger way more recordings than the battery was meant to handle, which would become a nuisance. My concern re: the back is similar: it's only 75-100 feet from our deck to theirs, with limited privacy greenery, so I'm assuming that any time they are outside, it will trigger a recording, and the frequency and length of the recordings would kill the battery.

Before I purchase, I was hoping to solicit suggestions. I don't think a wired camera set-up is feasible, but would the solar panel be a wise investment? Are there recording settings so that we can have it only record at night? Or other settings that we could employ? Do I need to consider how to make a wired set-up work? Is the Arlo Pro 4 just not the right camera for us?

Thanks for the help!

[jguerdat]

The distance is an issue for the wireless cameras since they use PIR sensors. That leads to people detection only out to ~25 feet max. I think I'd be more inclined to use a Q or Essential Indoor camera since they use pixel change detection. They're AC powered and designed to be used indoors only but the detection method allows use looking through a window. The distance may still be an issue but you could subscribe to CVR (continuous video recording) which would allow you to see anything regardless of recordings. You could also use the wireless cameras with CVR if you connect them to AC power which may give you a way to get a better view due to different positioning. Note that the use of CVR limits any recording to 1080p which may be an issue.