ARLO PRO VIDEO QUALITY BECOMING INCREASINGLY WORSE.

[HADLEY21]

i purchased an arlo pro this past december mainly to keep an eye on the wildlife in my back yard at night and while i was at work. the camera performed almost flawlessly for the first 3 months that i owned it. the live stream video was always smooth and the video qulaity was exclent. however, over the last few months the video qulity has taken a 180. it’s to the point now where if i cant figure out how to fix it im going to get rid of the camera. the change in quality started slow and has continued to get worse. it started with the video starting to get blocky as i watched the camera. this was especially apparent at night when it was snowing as the snow would no longer fall smoothly to the ground but leave streaks as it fell. this blocky video continued to get worse as time went on to the point where now the video quality is awful. the other big issue that i have started to run into just in the last week or so is that now the colors of everything when the camera is turned on are washed out a lot of the time. to the point where it almost looks like the video is in black and white. this was an issue i never had until about a week ago. on top of these things the live stream video will hardly play at all when trying to watch from a computer. it still seems to work ok on my i phone most of the time and is smooth (still with bad picture quality) but when trying to watch from a computer the video is not smooth at all.
 
now im going to put a few things to rest right now before the obvious questions start coming in.
 
yes, the video quality is turned to (best). i have not moved the camera or the base station since installing the camera in december. the camera always maintains a good 2 to 3 bar conection with the base station. my internet speeds are very good and i have not added any other diveses in the house that use up more of my wifi. literally nothing as changed since installing the camera as far as my internet speed or usage goes. i have tried restting the camera and base station. pulled the battery and even brought the camera in the house and put it right next to the base station and still had the same results. the live stream video has just tanked and from what i can tell there is absolutly no reason for it on my end.
 

[JamesC]

HADLEY21,

After physically relocating the camera and the other troubleshooting steps you've performed, it sounds like the problem could be deeper. I encourage you to contact the Arlo Support Team to further investigate. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link.

JamesC

[Jcamp]

• Wow, I also noticed this the last few days. All of my videos are  starting to show a lot of blocking in the videos. Almost like it is buffering. Mine is also set to best video. Every day it is something new with Arlo. Still waiting for the 2 way audio to be fixed, still can’t hear anything coming from camera.

[HADLEY21]

Arlos customer support is a joke. The fact that you have to pay to talk to someone on the phone after 90 days is rediculous. Emailing them is almost impossible and when you try to live chat with someone they are never there. Basically if your camera goes bad like mine has your just out of luck...

[jguerdat]

You don't have to pay to get support. Try it.

[HADLEY21]

“Give Us a Call

Phone support is free for the first 90 days after any Arlo purchase and is also included with any Arlo subscription. After 90 days, phone support for non-subscribers is available for a small charge to help with advanced features, interfacing non-NETGEAR products, configuring large networks, and more. Local telephone fees may apply. Please check with your phone service provider.

Most Arlo users find that our Support Center has the troubleshooting advice, how-to articles, instructional videos and other answers they’re looking for. You can also start an instant live chat with an Arlo expert anytime”

[KravE]

Having same problems. Video is so blocky and pixelated that it is unusable. They RMA’d my camera and the new one has exact same issues . Camera worked great until update in May. Support is absurd- 1.5 hrs on the phone last Friday and they told me after reviewing my uploaded videos that they would get back to me. Never heard anything. All I have is an expensive paperweight. I want my money back. I share in your frustrations.

[jguerdat]

---

@HADLEY21 wrote:
“Give Us a Call

Phone support is free for the first 90 days after any Arlo purchase and is also included with any Arlo subscription. After 90 days, phone support for non-subscribers is available for a small charge to help with advanced features, interfacing non-NETGEAR products, configuring large networks, and more. Local telephone fees may apply. Please check with your phone service provider.

Most Arlo users find that our Support Center has the troubleshooting advice, how-to articles, instructional videos and other answers they’re looking for. You can also start an instant live chat with an Arlo expert anytime”

---

Again, try it. It will work without cost.

[pc2k17]

---

@HADLEY21 wrote:
“Give Us a Call

Phone support is free for the first 90 days after any Arlo purchase and is also included with any Arlo subscription. After 90 days, phone support for non-subscribers is available for a small charge to help with advanced features, interfacing non-NETGEAR products, configuring large networks, and more. Local telephone fees may apply. Please check with your phone service provider.

Most Arlo users find that our Support Center has the troubleshooting advice, how-to articles, instructional videos and other answers they’re looking for. You can also start an instant live chat with an Arlo expert anytime”

---

You have a subscription. If you have less than 5 cameras you are subscribed to the Basic Plan, which is the 5 cameras for free plan. Support is free since you have a subscription.

[Stevegord]

This has been an ongoing issue for months now.  Netgear is ignoring it.  If it was fixable at the user end, they would be posting work arounds in their knowledgebase - they are not.  It is simply an issue of Netgear infrastructure.   It is not coping and Netgear is making no effort to fix.

So don't waste your time on Netgear support!  They'll blame your internet connection, proximity to the base station, do resets, all the same tech blah blah. 

[jinxman]

Same problem here. I have two Arlo Pro 2 cameras, and both of them record choppy videos. Seeing this discussion, I now know that this appears to be server sided problem on Arlo Netgear's side, and not faulty cameras. I often "donate" such videos for research purpoises. Wondering whether the problem will be solved sometime soon.

[ShayneS]

jinxman,

Does this issue occur with all your videos or an individual recording? Does this choppy video show in the live feed?

[jinxman]

Hi ShayneS,

I have seen this happening on individual recordings and also on live stream, when there is movement. It appears that movement triggers this pixelated choppiness. I am attaching a picture and also the video from which it was extracted from yesterday.

[jinxman]

By the way ShayneS, today for example, the videos are flawless. Yesterday nearly all videos were of bad quality. 

[ShayneS]

jinxman,

Seeing this is on both cameras, how far are they away from the base station? what is your speeds from your ISP?

[jinxman]

---

@ShayneS wrote:

jinxman,

Seeing this is on both cameras, how far are they away from the base station? what is your speeds from your ISP?

---

Speed is pretty good, downstream=424 Mbit/s Upstream=26.5 Mbit/s. I acquire swift internet from my TV cable.

One of the cameras is about 2 metres from the base station, the other some 10 metres or so. The picture/video I posted was from the nearer camera, so distance shouldn't be the issue.

Like I mentioned in my other reply, today the quality is excellent throughout, while yesterday each video was of bad quality. So today I am happy, and I hope it remains like that 🙂

[ShayneS]

jinxman,

It is possible that the closest camera may have had some type of interference issue being close to the wireless traffic. Have you tried to move your base station or router a bit further from each other.

[jinxman]

---

@ShayneS wrote:

jinxman,

It is possible that the closest camera may have had some type of interference issue being close to the wireless traffic. Have you tried to move your base station or router a bit further from each other.

---

I tried your suggestion this morning after facing the problem again, unfortunately it did make a difference. But what I found out is that rebooting the base station appears to help temporarily. 

• before reboot: https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/59B8367917E25834_201811
• after reboot: https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/C13843A67AF0B616_201811

[ShayneS]

jinxman,

Have you tried to remove & re-sync the cameras to your base station and test again?

[Lemondog7]

I've noticed one of my cameras also doing this for the past few months.  Also, the color has gotten worse.  Red rarely shows up anymore.

[Retired_Member]

Ever since I updated the app the video quality is not as sharp as before on my Arlo pro 2.

[Stevegord]

Interestingly ShaneS from Arlo has jumped in to try to fix one isolated incident but has not attempted to address the elephant in the room.  For over 6 months now direct video/audio feeds are not working properly.  You cannot monitor cameras.  Uploaded video capture works fine, but online monitoring won't.  I have 4 separate locations with Fixed wireless, ADSL2 and now 4G wireless using Pro and Pro 2 cameras.   Same monitoring problem everywhere.  Arlo tech support can't fix the problem, but they will waste an inordinate amount of your time rebooting, reseting, resyncing.   The product is flawed at this time and Arlo has no idea/no interest/no capacity to  to fix.

[jinxman]

---

@ShayneS wrote:

jinxman,

Have you tried to remove & re-sync the cameras to your base station and test again?

---

Thanks for that suggestion, which will give a go once I face the problem again. Presently, since my last post, I am enjoying a streak of good quality video recordings 🙂

[jinxman]

So here's an update after some experimenting:

The video quality appears to go bad in areas where objects are moving and the light is very bright. Sunshine seems to bring about this problem. I am attaching such a picture from today.

Restarting the base station appears to help solve the problem most of the time, but only temporarily.

Maybe support can work on a solution with this information. I have also "donated" several such videos for research porposes, so I am hoping that the problem gets identified and solved sometime soon. 

[ShayneS]

jinxman,

Do you have a case with customer support regarding this issue?