Pro4 with base station w/hard drive... planned setup....

[kurtataltos]

I would like to buy a Pro 4, 3 camera setup with base station using a USB 1TB hard drive attached to the base station for local storage.  Read: no subscription.  I would be using a Windows PC for viewing video (and set up if possible).    Does anyone know of any inherent flaws with this plan such as....

  -  video stops recording after 3 months because there is no subscription?

  -  is setup dependent on having a cell phone or a MAC ?

  -  I am not interested in receiving alerts, rather, I want crisp video of the area that I can review after the event has occurred.

Insights and thoughts greatly appreciated.

Regards,  

[StephenB]

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@kurtataltos wrote:

I would be using a Windows PC for viewing video (and set up if possible).

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The direct access to local storage feature only works with the app - not a PC browser.  So you'd need to eject the USB drive and connect it to the PC to review the recordings.  Note that direct access also requires a smarthub (VMB4540 or VMB5000) - not the older VMB4000/VMB4500.

The VMB5000 uses microSD, not USB - so if you require a 1 TB hard drive, you can't use that particular base. Though 1 TB holds a lot of recordings - personally I find 128 GBs of local storage to be more than enough.

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@kurtataltos wrote:

  -  video stops recording after 3 months because there is no subscription?

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Cloud recording stops, but not local recording.

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@kurtataltos wrote:

  -  is setup dependent on having a cell phone or a MAC ?

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No, you can set it up by browsing to my.arlo.com in a Windows PC.

You will need to deal with 2 factor authentication - which is messier if you don't have a smart phone:  https://kb.arlo.com/000062288/What-is-two-step-verification-and-how-do-I-set-it-up

[jguerdat]

Personally, a USB thumb drive is a lot easier to deal with than a hard drive. As above, 128GB holds a lot - I tend to use 32-64GB drives.