Arlo Pro Live Feed Still Lagging Behind and Cutting Out

[jasonp2737]

Netgear.... I have had constant issues with my live play video pausing and lagging about 1 minute behind. Looks like a ton of us have. It started after your last update. I spoke with one of your techs last week and he advised me that it was due to my internet speeds. I’m at the bottom of the required upload speed (1Mbps). I have had the system for over a year and it has never been a problem until this last update. Since speaking with the tech last week, I have seen countless people posting the same problem on the message boards. I have interacted with several, and they have much faster internet speeds than me. I have also taken my base station and one of my cameras to another home with internet upload speeds 10x faster than mine. Same issue. Live feed cuts in and out and lags behind 30 seconds to 1 minute, so this obviously isn't due to internet speeds. I have already tried everything you all suggest. Rebooted the base station multiple times and tried changing the flicker adjustment on the base station, which took 2 of my 4 cameras offline even after I changed it back. Nothing is working. I absolutely love this camaera system and would like to keep it. At this point, it appears that a lot of your customers cannot fully use your product, due to you breaking it. Please fix this. 

[srahn2660]

I am having the same problem since the last update.  Just adding my voice to the others who are still experiencing intermittent audio issues.

[jasonp2737]

Arlo support asked me to send them a video last night to show the pauses and lagging. Obviously, the video wouldn't show the lag, but I figured they would be able to see the pausing. Recorded a 30 second clip that paused constantly. I used my inside camera so they could see my ceiling fan stopping with each pause. Downloaded it and.....the video was only 14 seconds long and all of the paused sections were gone. So only playback everything looks fine, even though 16 seonds of pauses were missing from the video. So frustrating. The problem is only on live stream. 

[jguerdat]

You could use screen capture software to record the live view session to provide to support.

[srahn2660]

Take a short video of your device live-streaming Arlo and send that in. I’m having the same issue since the last system update. I’m running the latest app, unplugged the base, etc...

[jasonp2737]

I took a short video with my phone and sent it to them. I'll let you know what they have to say. 

[Rmando]

Same problem here I have try everything it seems nothing work my upload speed here is 1.5 Mbps and working just fine before but now I’m very disappointed.

[JPC]

Same here.. Hopefully there's a fix in a few months from now. It depends on Arlo's scheduled firmware/App release version or whether they feel like releasing it.. Who knows.. Else, we're out of luck

[jasonp2737]

Just to update you....Support claims to still be working on this issue. They had me reset the base station and set it back up again to erase unnecesarry "cache." Didn't work. I've passed along that information. Just waiting to see what they say next. 

[mfm]

Having similar problem since mid May.  Serious lag time and static in audio. Netgear support not helpful. Has anyone gotten help from Netgear on this?

[tonycap]

Support knows full well the issues that everyone is having and I mean everyone every single person that uses this product is having the exact same problem.. I believe that this is false advertising when they claim you can do all of these things and you can only do a third of them because of the lag the **bleep**ty speaker for two way etc. etc. I have been talking with the law firm about setting up a class action lawsuit against net gear because they have been aware of this for at least two years and have done nothing positive to address every single users issue. If I had done my research and seen the thousands and thousands of complaints I would’ve never purchased this product and I would advise everyone to steer clear of this .
even though the product could be a fantastic security system there programmers And developers are terrible !

[mfm]

So, Jason, what have you been hearing since your last reply (almost two months ago)?   Any new tricks or suggestions from them or anyone?

[chuck159]

I have the same problem. my delay is 35 seconds long

[Theanalyst]

Mine is almost one min. Spoke to helpdesk, said my upload speed is too low. Didn't have this issue until recently and my ISP has always been the same. 

[tonycap]

They blame the issues on users or internet speed but as I’ve said they’re playing games because they know everyone is having this issue and know it’s their issue that they haven’t bother to or been able to resolve.

[tonycap]

Well Jason??????

[JoeCymru]

The audio delay and video lags are usually not a user issue.  It is Arlo’s processing, routing and servers. Facetime, Skype, etc. can do video and audio better than your Arlo cameras simply because that is what they do. Arlo tries to be a jack of all trades comes up short on real-time interconnectivity.

Considering the buffering on start-up of live-view Arlo, it is obvious that along the system there are cascaded latencies due to various things including processing, routing and cloud server capacity, that are not commensurate with two-way communication, or even instant viewing or notification. The delays are there.  This is exacerbated if you have slower upload speeds and / or low signal strength from camera to base.

To be logical here. If you can effectively use Facetime or Skype or other communication systems, it is not your ISP or your routing equipment. The delay problem starts with Arlo and Netgear unless you have seriously slow speeds and / or signal strengths, and then you have the worst of both worlds.

If you could get semi-decent response before on Arlo with minimum upload speed, May / June changes seem to have made that more difficult.

From phone or desktop I have a solid up and down speeds. I have no issue with any other device in real time. Since my purchase five months ago, there has been a noticeable lag in all live actions, including notification, live video, and audio. I can have a nice video call with someone in another country but cannot hold a clear, lag free conversation with someone standing at my front door through Arlo.

For these live lags, it is a matter of management decisions concerning product performance and capital investment. Any fix will need to be on the back end. Even then your Arlo processing hardware is what it is.

[MikeBravo]

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@JoeCymru wrote:

The audio delay and video lags are usually not a user issue.  It is Arlo’s processing, routing and servers. Facetime, Skype, etc. can do video and audio better than your Arlo cameras simply because that is what they do. Arlo tries to be a jack of all trades comes up short on real-time interconnectivity.

Considering the buffering on start-up of live-view Arlo, it is obvious that along the system there are cascaded latencies due to various things including processing, routing and cloud server capacity, that are not commensurate with two-way communication, or even instant viewing or notification. The delays are there.  This is exacerbated if you have slower upload speeds and / or low signal strength from camera to base.

To be logical here. If you can effectively use Facetime or Skype or other communication systems, it is not your ISP or your routing equipment. The delay problem starts with Arlo and Netgear unless you have seriously slow speeds and / or signal strengths, and then you have the worst of both worlds.

If you could get semi-decent response before on Arlo with minimum upload speed, May / June changes seem to have made that more difficult.

From phone or desktop I have a solid up and down speeds. I have no issue with any other device in real time. Since my purchase five months ago, there has been a noticeable lag in all live actions, including notification, live video, and audio. I can have a nice video call with someone in another country but cannot hold a clear, lag free conversation with someone standing at my front door through Arlo.

For these live lags, it is a matter of management decisions concerning product performance and capital investment. Any fix will need to be on the back end. Even then your Arlo processing hardware is what it is.

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Let me add my fuel to the fire. I just finally installed a three pack of Arlo Pro cameras to supplement and replace some fo the older standard arlos. 

First thing I noticed was the lag. It is especially frustrating because in is present in positioning mode as well which makes in damn near useless. The additonal reason why it has become useless is very simple: BUFFERING, BUFFERING, BUFFERING!!!!

I'm not sure if is the update to the Android app or what, but suddenly the new Arlo 'more powerful' base station has apparently sabotaged the whole system. In the past with just the standard arlo base and cameras I could position my cameras pretty easily using my Android Pixel 2 with only a little bit of buffering at the farthest cameras. With the new Arlo Pro base it has become almost impossible.

Recordings are still okay, in fact the improved motoin capture is even better than I expected. Surprisingly, it seems as if the standard arlos are more responsive as well.

While on the subject, it sure would have been nice if Netgear would have sent out a notice telling us not to buy white or light brown skins for the Arlo Pros because they interfere with the IR. Now I have to see if I can send them back.

Finally, one of the Pro cameras which points out into the woods behind our house for some reason is rendering the green foliage as a combination of green, brown, and rust colors. The old standard Arlo rendered them faithfullly as all green.

For what these things cost, I expected better.

[mfm]

I've had this product for over a year and didn't have this problem until it started in mid May (2018). I asked Netgear support about it, but they seem to be unable to respond competently.  I asked if it was possibly a firmware issue and whether I could revert to the previous instatlation.  They denied both, but I am still suspicious that is the problem.

[jasonp2737]

Sorry @tonycap. I gave up and purchased a wired system. I created two separate trouble tickets and was working with two different techs. Initially, they were at least trying to be helpful. When they realized they couldn't fix the issue, they both quit responding. I also sent direct messages to @JamesC hoping that he would help, but didn't get a response. Any company that would break its own product and then leave their customers out to dry, isn't one worth doing business with. Just throw it away and move on. I'm much more happy with the wired system. Lesson learned. 

[Theanalyst]

I have a $45 Xiaomi camera and the lag is 1.5 seconds in HD that i use as a baby monitor and occsionally as a security camera. Never missed a beat. Arlo is telling 1 minute is acceptable. By the time i managed to reply to someone standing at my door, they have already driven home, had their dinner and turned in for the night! Bit of an exagerration but you get what i mean. Ridiculous. 

[montanainc]

Came here looking for answers and found a bunch of other people with the same problems after firmware update my camera system has turned to **bleep**, live stream cutting in and out, lagging, camera's turning off, audio continuing to play even after camera has been turned off and app forced closed, microphone turns off camera whenever I try to use it, couldn't recommend this system to any family or friends now, was a great system before the firmware upgrade. Like everyone else I've wasted time with their online chat just to be told it was my internet speed, funny how before the update the internet speed was fine and I didn't have any issues, now it's easily blamed on the internet speed so they don't have to deal with the situation.

Really poor service for such an expensive system.

[jfprafij]

I have the same problem it started with the last update had mine for about two years I have eight cameras are 2 base stations riddled with bugs net gear please fix this. Seriously it’s a security system !!!

[jfprafij]

Net gear needs to take their security systems a little bit more serious and I’m finding the same problem with a lot of these other electronic companies I look at it this way one of two things either they can’t fix it or they have an agenda a ton of your customers are having problems with their security system yes I said security system this was a superior option to the security system world !
Very disturbing especially when you’ve spent thousands of dollars on a product that has been proclaimed per advertisement to work.

[mfm]

Poor PR. Netgear has had a pretty good reputation., and the lack of a cogent response to this could damage it. My system is behaving marginally better now, without any known changes or fixes. Still not the same as before. No further response from Netgear either.