Arlo Pro 2 Live Audio Breaking Up. OK on playback

[Qavion]

Hi, folks

I'm having problems with the audio breaking up during live feed on my Arlo Pro 2. It's ok during playback. Video is ok. My internet wifi upload speed is around 0.9Mb/sec (7~9Mb/sec download). The sound breakup is rapid, like fast morse code being superimposed on the audio. My morse listening skills are not so good, but I hear a lot of "f"s (seriously). It happened about 2~3 months after installing the system. I even had a telephone serviceman look at the line to make sure it wasn't a line problem (I have ADSL2+ through copper cables). Anyway, it was working fine before. Something has changed and I can't figure out what it is.

Hope you can help

Best wishes

Q.

[Streak2]

At 0.9 you are really on the lower edge of the range and this could very well be the cause of the problem you are experiencing.

Your ISP will give you an indicative speeds but it can vary quite a bit. When one has lots of bandwidth it wont really make a difference but when you are as low as 0.9 it certainly can.

Use speedtest to test the speed at different times of the day and when you find it faster then see if you still experience the breakup.

[Qavion]

Thanks. Unfortunately, this is the fastest upload speed I've seen. I get less during peak hours. Seems I should have read the fine print

Just seems odd that the cameras were working pretty good for 2~3 months, then went bad. In some situations (now), I lose control of the cameras (can't turn them off after activating them). I have to run home and depower the system completely before I use up my monthly data allowance.

Anyway, thanks again.

[pc2k17]

Minimum requirements for the Arlo support page:

A high-speed Internet connection (minimum 1 Mbps upstream recommended).
Note: Arlo works with the minimum requirements, but the functionality and video quality might be negatively affected. The lower your upstream bandwidth, the greater the possibility of the following performance issues:

• Video quality might be pixelated and unclear.
• You might experience a delay in a live stream.

[Qavion]

Thanks.

I think less than 10% of Australians have more than 1Mb/sec upload speed. Perhaps there should be a greater emphasis on the limitations when this product is being sold here?

[jasonp2737]

Qavion...

I have the same issue with the Arlo Pro. The audio breaking up is your video freezing for a second. Mine started doing it about a week ago. Only when live streaming. I've had the Arlo for about a year. No issues. I've also got fairly slow internet. On a good day I'm running .7Mbps upload speed. I just can't get any better where I live. I knew the speed requirement when I purchased the system, but I figured it was worth a shot. I spoke with someone at Netgear Friday, and they advised me that it was due to my internet speed. They couldn't tell me why it hasn't done it until now. I've got my fingers crossed that it has something to do with this latest crap update that they put out. If not, us slow internet folks will have to get something else.  

[Qavion]

Thanks, Jason. Good to hear I'm not alone. 

The video seems to be ok. It just takes a while to catch up. The motion sensing seems to be ok, too. I get warning that there's someone there, but there's no way I can communicate with them in real time because of the delay.

I think my problems started well after I did the software update, but I live in hope that the next software update will help 🙂

[brentabi]

I am experiencing the same problem. with the Arlo Pro. Audio stream sounds like morse code. I also have DSL 5 meg down and 1 meg up with AT&T. I've had my system for awhile now without any problems at all until about 2 to 3 weeks ago when the stuttering started. I wonder if Netgear pushed a firmware update that is causing this?

[jasonp2737]

Looks like it was due to their last firmware update. Support asked me to post a video showing them the issue last night. I tried, but the recording obviously won't show the delay, and the paused portions of the video don't show up during playback. I recorded a 30 second clip, 16 seconds of the recording were paused or cut out, so the video only ended up being 14 seconds long. So frustrating. 

[eytsics]

I've had the Arlo Pro for a year and never had the breaking up audio.  Noticed the sound became choppy after the firmware update.  Terrible and very annoying when viewing live feed.  Arlo, please fix.

[jasonp2737]

Support was working with me to try and find a fix. I've been updating folks on another thread. Support has quit responding now. Looks like they have no clue what is going on. They break their own product and then have no clue how to fix it. Great. 

[Stevegord]

I am having exactly the same problems with Audio monitoring.  I have 3 sets of cameras at various locations.   For 12 months I haven't had any problems, but for the last 3 to 4 weeks all locations are having the same problem.  If you leave monitoring on for about a minute, the audio stuttering stops and you receive clear and unimpeded sound. Although it will revert back to the stuttering every couple of minutes.   Its got absolutely nothing to do with internet connection speeds.  It is clearly an Arlo server issue as it routes traffic.  Maybe a result of a spiking uptake of the product.  I don't expect Arlo support to be fessing up to their own server issues any time soon.  And hoping that they upgrade, repair their systems in the next weeks.  Lets wait and see.

[jasonp2737]

These folks are unreal. Just can't stay out of their own way. I had a support tech helping me troubleshoot this issue. He offered to send me a new camera to test. Asked for a few additional pieces of information before he did. Then they launched their new my.netgear.com site, and the support case was erased. I can't respond to the tech at all. Incompentence at an amazing level

[DarylDart]

Exactly the same problem others have described, was working fine then recently I have started experiencing the choppy audio and disconnects. Nothing has changed locally on my end. I have faster internet upload speeds scheduled for next week, will report back if that makes an improvement.

[mtmoorestl]

Please tell me Netgear has fixed the sound issue. I installed on May 7th and had good audio for about 10 days then the live feed audio went to crap. I will return the system if they don’t have a fix soon! Does anyone know how to resolve the issue. I’ve already tried to remove each camera then sync them again and that didn’t work.

[jcwrks]

Since the recent Arlo f/w and/or app update (2.5.4) the live playback while using the mic for 2-way audio is extremely choppy on my iPhone w/ iOS 11.3. Both the audio and video start lagging really bad. If I do not engage the mic everything is fine. This happens while I am on LTE with 30 Mbps down / 15 up or using my phone on a wifi hotspot with 90 Mbps down / 90 up. Base station has been rebooted multiple times - no change. This is yet another Netgear bug introduced.

[Esperluette]

I am half glad to see I am not the only one having that problem. Exactly the same symptoms : all was ok for a couple of months, and recently I get a choppy sound and video. I even tried to lower down the Video quality to the "long battery life" setting, but it did not help at all.

I am concerned that no sound is coming from NetGear on that topic (even a little choppy ! ^^). Are they working on a solution or are they just not interested ?
I was contemplating to buy another couple of cameras, but not in that conditions !

T.

France

[brentabi]

After running for nearly a year without any problems with my .9 mb upload speed. Netgear has now broke the streaming capabilities. This has been going on for nearly a month now. You would think they would at least let us go to the previous firmware so we could stream again. I am starting to wonder if anyone is looking at this?

[srahn2660]

Continue to have the same problems as everyone else is describing with Arlo live feed since the mid-May firmware update.  I wonder if this is at all related to the roll out of the new Arlo Smart service/functionality? 

[mtmoorestl]

After multiple attempts to fix the problem, I finally called and switched internet from DSL and the system is working perfectly now. It appears to have been a connection issue. Good luck.

[DarylDart]

After upgrading to VDSL (18Mbit UP) from ADSL (1Mbit UP) everything is good now.  I know that doesn't necessarily rule anything out, but at least it demonstrates the system can provide a good quality result without other changes customer side.  Of course there could have been provider side changes in the meantime.

[Qavion]

Thanks for all the responses, guys.

I'm sure changing to a faster connection will help, but there seems to be quite a few guys who had no problems on 0.9Mb upload speeds, then, after the software (firmware?) update the sound started to break up. Does the new software demand more of our connections?

[Stevegord]

Hi Qavion, There is a significant issue here that Arlo support is not addressing.  Something their end happened in May.  It is a common problem it seems.  It occurs to me from 3 sites at all times of the day/night, 7 days a week i.e. it is not a product of traffic congestion.

Recommending everyone upgrades from ADSL/2 to get a clear audio is completely unrealistic and not helpful.

Arlo support needs to confirm the issue, address it and make recommendations.  If they now suggest that you need a better connection to get one of the key features, they should say so.   It certainly would significantly change the value of the offering.

[shuryje]

Mine started sounding terrible sometime around May.  Something definitely happened.  Very disappointing.  I can stream movies all day long but my live audio sounds like garbage now.  Going to probably look at other manufacturers/products.  The detections doesn't work as well either.  Watched the UPS guy walk past three cameras and none detected him. I didn't make any changes to the settings that used to work.  And YES the system was "Armed" on all cameras.  

[brentabi]

I noticed they have upgraded the Base Station firmware and the Camera firmware has not changed. The Base Station firmware did not change any of the streaming problems. The chopped up streaming is just as bad as it was. The cameras are basically unusable until they fix what they broke. My cameras are on version 1.092.0.13_19715 released May 14th. Looking at the firmware notes they installed a fix for high pixilation of images, Includes backwards error correction to minimize ghosting, Add support for new WiFi codes, Add support for H15 hardware and Bug Fixes. I would bet they added a lot of overhead on the streaming with the backwards error correction and with this it requires a higher speed connection that I wish I had but I am stuck with DSL. I am hopeful that they fix what they broke soon.