Thinking of buying - help needed please

[DickyB]

Hello

I've been looking to change/upgrade my home security cameras and I keep coming back to Arlo and Nest. The flexibility of Arlo wire free installation appeals but before I buy I would like some help and advice please?

At present I am using a Foscam IP network of cameras which I have inside of the house pointing outwards. I'm more interested in what goes on in the street and garden, rather than inside the house.

My current cameras are decent quality and I can set zones within the street to capture movement if someone or a car approaches the house. I can change sensiitivity settings and allow a pre record setting of up to five seconds too. This enables me to see car reg plates and people if they approach the house. I can access the live view via a phone app and control the pan and tilt on the camera. The web interface allows me to amend all settings and playback all the files instantly.

My questions for Arlo are:

What is the activation distance of the camera?

Can you set safe zones?

Will the cameras sense motion within the picture (ie a car passing) or just people using (PIR)?

Do the cameras pre record?

Will the camera view work on Android using third party viewers like IP Cam Viewer Pro?

The system I have at the moment is pretty good and ticks all the boxes it's just the instability and security concerns with Foscam that are promptingme to change. I also am keen to futher automate my house and on that basis the Nest system appeals more than Arlo

Hope you can pass on some great tips, help and advice.

Thanks and look forward to your comments 

[steve_t]

Hi DickyB

Arlo detection range is about 20 feet

There's an Arlo Smart service for extra $$ that allows exclusion of zones of the camera. This works by the camera detection the motion and recording and sending the data through to the cloud service where it is analysed and then rejected if outside of your set parameters. So it's kind of a workaround but still will drain the batteries faster over time

Cars have a very large heat signature and often trigger the Arlo cameras more frequently than people do with their small heat signature. Specific camera positioning and fine tuning of the sensitivity settings help avoid false alerts/recordings

There is no pre-record. In fact, there is a bit of lag between detection and recording. The Arlo Pro is significantly better than the original Arlo though. The latter was often complained about that it would record people walking away from the camera after they'd walked towards it and knocked on the door.

I think you'll need to use the Arlo app to view the cameras, though there is smartthings integration if you wanted to use that but it also has some 'idiosyncrasies'