pro 4 XL - several seconds to connect, activity areas ignore, delayed motion, grainy video, etc.

[Tom_k]

Just installed my PRO4s and I have so many issues. I am really disappointed in the soft, hardware and services offered.

Can someone explain why:

- the system is so slow. It takes several seconds to connect and show live or stored clips

- in standby modes I get notifications, impossible to stop

- activity areas are being completely ignored 

- motion alerts only record after me walking in the picture for 20 seconds, missing half of the recording

- cross triggering between to cameras is being ignored

- video quality is really grainy

these are just a few, beside a software which does not do what you tell it. Please dont come that too far away from the base station, or slow internet or and of these excuses.

I am of the opinion that this "off site" analisis is simply not working or at least the bandwidth procesor power that you apply is insufficient. And all that even for a monthly fee - incredible. Beside all the other bad news that you had lately.

Again, so sad and disapointed, will probably get rid of the system after the trial period and it will be the last Arlo and Netgear product that I have bought.

[StephenB]

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@Tom_k wrote:

it will be the last Arlo and Netgear product that I have bought.

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FYI, nothing to do with Netgear.  They divested Arlo in 2018, and the Pro 4 was launched in 2020.

[jguerdat]

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@Tom_k wrote:

Can someone explain why:

- the system is so slow. It takes several seconds to connect and show live or stored clips

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Remember that this system is cloud-based so all transactions occur over the Internet. In addition, if the signal quality with the camera has issues (strength and/or quality) the camera has to work harder to make things work which slows down the whole process. You can test this by bringing a camera closer to your router or hub.

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- in standby modes I get notifications, impossible to stop

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Check your Standby mode and edit the rules. If you don't want specific cameras to do anything, remove the rule. If you want the cameras to be active but no notifications, edit the rules and disable notifications.

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- activity areas are being completely ignored 

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Reflections of the sun's IR to objects within the zone can cause this. Reducing the camera's view by repositioning as well as reducing the motion sensitivity in either the camera settings or any rules generally is the fix.

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- motion alerts only record after me walking in the picture for 20 seconds, missing half of the recording

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Camera positioning and motion sensitivity, again, are key.  However, so is the distance from the camera (~25 feet max) as well as the direction of motion plays a part since these use PIR sensors which work best when motion is across the FOV.

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- cross triggering between to cameras is being ignored

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This has recently been reported as a bug.

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- video quality is really grainy

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Daytime or night? Lack of lighting at night forces the camera into a B&W mode which is indeed grainy, just like most other devices that use small sensors (few photons hitting any particular photosite increases the noise level). 

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these are just a few, beside a software which does not do what you tell it. Please dont come that too far away from the base station, or slow internet or and of these excuses.

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It all comes down to your particular environment and setup. If you're not willing to take the time to maximize the system we can't help.

[Tom_k]

Many thanks for the hints and ideas and foremost your effort to assist me. Will look into it using your guidelines and do some trial and error test.

My homekit also doesnt work, understand that the token need to be renewed. Requested that in a other thread. 

[Killhippie]

Seriously these are not meant for 24/7 seriouis home security, you can block them with a £20 piece of kit from ebay if on 2.4Ghz . The limitations are camera based I was told the green hue was due to my white porch door and to move the camera, not sure where to as thats where it needed to be and I don't want to record the main road instead! The cameras I have now have code to deal with light reflections, can cope with my white front door with ease mostly and give full colour in the dead of night with a tiny amount of light in the area and are 8MP and record if you want at 30fps although 15fps is fine, a decent turret or bullet camera wont have these issues and are cheaper if you dont want a NVR just get a PoE switch although you will miss out on 24/7 recording and IVS and loitering detection etc, they have better processors, more ram and rom, more importantly important bigger sensors, no Wi-Fi and a NVR recording all the time and all pushed to your phone before you see the person as the cameras are so advanced they can detect movement by sound and filter out animals and not even record them and leave only people and cars if you want. Also as I found out they are cheaper and have more bandwidth. Dont get me wrong wifi cams have there use but you wont get facial details in the dark with the Pro 4 if you ever needed it for the police and most likely the person will be long gone by the time its processed in that cloud, its faster to turn all that off. These are easy to put up basic cameras that cost way to much, have tiny sensors, even at 1080P the image is awful at night, and as for the spotlight its not even worth using. I wish I had tried a wired professional system first, rather than the Arlo Pro 4 or any Arlo camera that they charge and arm and a leg for, they really are basic for the price and offer no detail at night at any distance, or even close up due to awful the compression and lack of bandwidth and the actual camera sensors are just to small for the job. A 2Mp Turret camera with a 1/1.8” sensor with 512mb ram and rom will give crystal clear day and night vision compared with Pro 4 cameras at half the cost, not just arlo, but all the stick up and connect fast wif ones etc that have tiny sensors cheap lenses bad sensors with to many mega pixels, which is only to get you to think they are amazing but also cause the grainy image issue and sensor size is more important than mega pixel count every time.