Video Pixelation

[Ordinary1]

Hi All.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and well.

Since the early hours of yesterday morning (25th April) UK time all of my Arlo Pro cameras have been suffering from extreme pixelation in both live view and motion detection recordings. The location of the cameras and base station have not changed for months.

The base station is VMB4000r3 on firmware 1.16.1.1_3348_facf74c

The four cameras are version H8 1.092.0.25_24_986

The pixelated video is also present on local USB storage suggesting a local issue.

I have checked WiFi strength using an analyser and all is good. All cameras have three bars in the Arlo app.

One of the cameras is within ten feet of the base station with no obstructions and is suffering the same.

I have noticed that a camera firmware update was issued in the last few days. Are there any known problems that could have caused such a drastic change in system performance?

[Manolo86]

Here's my doorbell in all it's glory.

[Manolo86]

A beautiful Pro2 capture showing full bars. These are further away from the base/hub than the doorbell.

[silverado44]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@mamarcac wrote:

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We've both been on this forum for a while, so let's have a moment of truth here. Either 1) this firmware release wasn't tested properly (hard to believe they wouldn't have observed the horrible video quality) or, and this is the one people are really getting riled up about, 2) Arlo is intentionally trying to cripple the legacy systems. 

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Personally I think it's a firmware problem, and not an intentional attempt to cripple the legacy systems.  

Clearly Arlo needs people to transition to paid subscription plans in order to be successful.   But crippling the legacy systems wouldn't achieve that.  Plus the people I know who work there are better than that.

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Well I got news for ya people with payed subscription's are having the same problem we are plus I pm'ed  ShayneS and to see if he or she could stop in and give use some kinda update.

[CCNE37]

Stephen

I have not seen any evidence here (and perhaps I have missed it) to indicate that signing up for a subscription would "fix" the pro 2 video quality issue - does it ?

The bizarre thing with this talk of "legacy" systems is that when I bought my Pro 2 camera set (base + 3 cameras) in March 2019, it was very much a "current" system (at least in Australia) - still available of shelves in stores as the current "mainstream" Arlo system (with the Ultra being the "cutting edge" premium system). The Ultra system was still relatively new, and the Pro 3 not released yet. So it is not like we are talking about the original Arlo 720P cameras (which I still have 2 connected and they are currently producing better video than the Pro 2 cameras) that I bought in March 2016. It is like saying that a iPhone XS is a legacy system because it last year's model ?

I am inclined to agree that it is completely bizarre that this problem would not have been spotted by Arlo techs before releasing a firmware update - the difference in pre-update to post-update video quality is just too great for them to have missed it. Perhaps they were under strict time pressures from the "top" to release it to save on data storage costs, and were instructed to release it anyway in spite of the issues ?

Either way Arlo is not doing themselves any favours with this type of behaviour. One of the reasons why I spent the extra in 2016 to get Arlo over some of the competition (like Swann) was for their free 7 day video storage - my use is just home only (not business) and I was trying to avoid ongoing costs. The other reason back then was that I had owned a Netgear router since 2003, and had flawless service from it, so Netgear was highly regarded by me - of course that benefit is now gone, and if the free storage for 7 days disappears as well, then both of my main drivers for Arlo are gone, and I will certainly be looking elsewhere - there are more choices available now that there was in 2016.

[moe300]

Subscription makes no difference. I have a sub and I am having the issues.   I can go back before the time of the update and show perfect videos and still photos.  Soon as the update dropped it became warping and vertical lines galore.  These artifacts are on the storage in 2 bases too.  

My network didn't change.  I have a Ubiquiti enterprise system that runs absolutely perfect.  No neighbors at all (remote area).  Must be a coincidence that all my cams turned to muff cabbage right when the update dropped?  I don't believe in coincidences.

[ralfyguy1]

The mods know the truth, but they would never admit it and besides, they wouldn't know what answer to make up for us, because the standard responses about calling support is beyond beating a dead horse by now. .

[Retired_Member]

Its not only about subscriptions, its about selling hardware, and they made it obvious. You know when i wanted my setup last year i was hesitant of a closed system, but i needed something fast and i wanted wirelesss and I somehow went with the arlo even though i know better, buying something that depends on someone else is ALWAYS A MISTAKE. The only thing that will save these arlos is if someone makes a cross flash for the base stations. Not likely to happen.

[StephenB]

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@CCNE37 wrote:

I have not seen any evidence here (and perhaps I have missed it) to indicate that signing up for a subscription would "fix" the pro 2 video quality issue - does it ?

It doesn't.  I have some Pro2s on a subscription, and others that aren't.  Video quality is the same on all of them.

There appear to be two somewhat different issues being conflated.  

• a lot of people are seeing video corruption after the most recent firmware updates. 
• some people are reporting lower quality video with no corruption.

I'm unclear on whether the second issue is linked specifically to livestreaming or recordings.  

I am seeing more video corruption on all my cameras.  But I am not seeing the second issue.

[Retired_Member]

And thats why im calling an attempt to get ppl to buy their new hardware. They deploy a firmware which pretty much locked all “legacy” products into horrible un usable video mode, magically it only effects legacy devices and rather than acknowledge or even suggest they might fix it they blame peoples wifi. The system doesnt even utilize our wifi. One of my setups is on a network that doesnt even have wifi. Its modem direct to wired router direct to base station. And trust me i know the problem if in my arlo base unit itself. This experience has only done one thing, reminded me to stay away from brands that close their platforms. 14 months ago i spent alot of money to equip 2 locations with arlo products. Got 3 family members to do the same. I honestly wont touch another netgear or arlo product ever again out of just principle alone after this burn.

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:
They deploy a firmware which pretty much locked all “legacy” products into horrible un usable video mode, magically it only effects legacy devices 

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In my own experience that simply isn't true.  I have a mix of cameras, including some Pro-2s that are on a paid subscription and some that aren't.  Plus some ultras, video doorbells, and pro3s.  There are lots of issues at the moment, but they aren't limited to "legacy" products - or even "products without a paid subscription".  They are across the board. Definitely frustrating, and something that needs to be fixed (and I'd be very surprised if Arlo isn't actively investigating). 

But I am not seeing any evidence of a conspiracy theory (and people here who are propagating that rumor generally don't have any cameras on a paid subscription). 

[Retired_Member]

The latest firmware was deployed. The quality setting now has no effect and video degraded like mad, happened on 100% of set ups. Arlo support giving everyone same answer. That its our wifi which isnt even used.

If this is an accident it makes things worse. A security system from a team way too incompetent to deploy one.

[Manolo86]

Careful about saying it's a "security" system. Someone on another thread complained of some issues that I'm having and got flamed for it, because it's reactive and not proactive or something stupid. Silly, considering practically all the competitors called them security cameras and it's irrelevant to the issues.

[Manolo86]

Oh, and this is a list of the Android apps for Arlo and some competitors:

Eufy - 4.6
Nest - 4.3
Netatmo - 4.2
Wyze - 4.0
Ring - 3.8
Blink - 3.7
(Arlo - 3.5)
Canary - 3.2

This was in response to the "other companies have the same issues" comment. Perhaps, but clearly not as bad. I saw the rating for the app go from 3.6 to 3.5 in days following the 5/4/2020 update.

[JPC]

Saw Base firmware got updated but the issue still there.. My cams are back to once again an expensive “Dummy Cameras”..

[alchemist50]

My three Pro and two Pro 2 cameras all exhibit identical behavior - severe pixelation starting a couple of seconds into the recording, lasts until around 10 seconds, then the picture will alternately clear and become fuzzy/pixelated from then on.  It seems like every time there is movement in the field of view the pixelation begins.  I really noticed this when I had taken the cameras down to remove/reboot/re-sync them.  After reattaching the cameras, when I was holding them in my hand, every time I moved them a little bit the picture would just break up terribly.  I'm still seeing the poor picture quality this morning.  Again, first happened in late April right after the firmware update on the cameras and base station.

BTW, I went to check the VMB4000r3 firmware version this morning.  Shouldn't it be under My Devices/[Base Station Name]/Device Info?  All I see is the HW version and Serial Number.

And yes, please, please Arlo, fix this!  Even if you just roll back the firmware on the base station and cameras to the previous version.

[silverado44]

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@alchemist50 wrote:

My three Pro and two Pro 2 cameras all exhibit identical behavior - severe pixelation starting a couple of seconds into the recording, lasts until around 10 seconds, then the picture will alternately clear and become fuzzy/pixelated from then on.  It seems like every time there is movement in the field of view the pixelation begins.  I really noticed this when I had taken the cameras down to remove/reboot/re-sync them.  After reattaching the cameras, when I was holding them in my hand, every time I moved them a little bit the picture would just break up terribly.  I'm still seeing the poor picture quality this morning.  Again, first happened in late April right after the firmware update on the cameras and base station.

BTW, I went to check the VMB4000r3 firmware version this morning.  Shouldn't it be under My Devices/[Base Station Name]/Device Info?  All I see is the HW version and Serial Number.

And yes, please, please Arlo, fix this!  Even if you just roll back the firmware on the base station and cameras to the previous version.

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You have the exact same problem I have on Arlo pro 2 but yes the firmware no. should be at the top of that list mine is 1.16.1.3_3394_1a608c1  I pm'ed ShaneS to come in here and give us an update or something but I see he hasn't. 

What I think is funny is I get emails about upgrading to a pro3 ultra or floodlight cam and they want me to buy into there product and they cant even get this one right, yeah ok iam going to give you more money on a flawed product. I blame all this on the CEO for not getting involved in his product and the clowns he let's program and firmware the product. 

[tibert]

Agreed about doing any sort of upgrade.  My neighbor had her cameras stolen again this morning.  Mine were across the alley.  I had 6 videos to analyze from two cameras: two of the perp's truck going east, 2 double-backing west and then the perps  coming up the alley and running back.  Everything with motion had severely pixelated recordings.  With these cameras within 15 feet, I couldn't make out what was in their truck bed, brand of truck or even the logo on the back of one of the hoodies.  In addition the stream was not 24 frames/second.  Extremely jumpy and this was during the day.  This compression "bug" has rendered these cameras useless.  I can't even make out a decent description to the police.

This has been going on way too long.  I just bought some Arlo flood lights but haven't opened them yet.  I'm going to be returning them.

[jam436]

I've spent my day so far posting reviews on every Arlo, Arlo Pro, and Arlo Pro 2 product page that I can find.
I've posted on Consumer Reports and a few dozen each on Amazon and Best Buy, warning people not to buy these systems, and telling them why.
I find it criminal IMO that Arlo is still selling these legacy systems, even though the CEO himself has made it clear that they are "ending" their line of legacy products. What they're not telling people is that they already "ended" the quality of any cloud recording with these systems, rendering them useless as security cameras.
They may not fix this problem for me, but I can sure as hell do everything in my power to prevent others from buying them.
If only 10 people pass on buying these systems from Arlo based on my reviews, then I will have cost them more money than they're currently stealing from me.
I will continue posting these reviews anywhere I can find them being sold, and since I'm retired, I have plenty of time on my hands and I can keep this up for years.  Don't screw with old people Arlo.

As a side note, I find it funny that the first time I suggested that Arlo was intentionally sabotaging their legacy systems, which was like a year ago, one of the moderators called it a 'conspiracy theory'.
They're strangely silent on this now though... So whattya think now fellas?

[silverado44]

Since none of the employees or mods will not respond I am putting a complaint in to the BBB about this. Since I don't have a twitter account I think people should load up CEO Matt McRae on twitter on the issues we have here.

I can see a lot of these reply's will get deleted soon, as this has happened a lot in the past. If this don't work I will be talking to my lawyer on seeing what can be done. I have plenty of time on my hands and have printed and saved all these reply's for future use. 

Like I said I got almost $2000.00 tied up in this system and don't like being ripped off.

[Retired_Member]

I think everyone should switch to ezviz im happy now, only reason im following this is i got a box full of useless hardware and want to see if a update is coming so i can sell it rather than scrap. $69 cad per cam fixed my problem. And the very little to no lag local is nice.

[Mike1357]

I have had my Arlo products for over a year now. Initially shown them by a friend, I was very impressed with quality and ease of use. Bought a kit and set them up around the house. Perfect for what I needed to use them for.

Recently I haven't been as satisfied. I think the last firmware update was sometime last month (April). I initiated the update on both of my cameras and they finished shortly after. Cool, back to normal. Just a few hours later I received low battery warnings for both cameras when they were fairly recently charged. Thought it may have just had something to do with the update so I brought them both in to charge and then put them back on duty. Both dead within the next day. Normal run time has been several months with just a few clips recorded each day. 

Solution ended up being full reset on the whole system. So I started all over. Set up and relinked the cameras. Was happy to be back to normal use.

It has been super noticeable here recently but the video quality is utterly horrible. A 5 year old webcam looks less pixelated... and these are supposed to be 1080p cameras? I never really questioned them before. My gravel driveway looks like it is moving. Terrible waves of pixelated quality wash all over the video. If anything moves, not only does it look bad itself, but there is a trail of color blur behind it. This takes place in both live view and recorded clips. A truck pulled into my driveway and I was lucky enough to figure out by knowledge that it was the electric company. They screwed up my driveway and I was relying on the video to prove that I needed it fixed.

I really haven't ever had any issues with the cameras operation or recording activity. I like the system but with the 480p or below quality, it doesn't help much in identifying anything you would really want a security camera for. I hope the older camera users aren't being scheduled obsolete. I'm sure the newer ones are nice and clear in 4k but the older system that I've had just over a year and paid quite a bit for shouldn't loose the characteristics that I originally bought it for. If this doesn't get fixed, then fool me once. I was really looking into adding more cameras, but I think I'll wait for a little bit. 

Any help appreciated.

I have attached a recent camera grab from this week. My wife almost 3 feet away from the camera and can barely tell who it is. I have other captures from late last year and they look fine...

[Ozphoenix]

I have made a complaint to Fair Trading in NSW. The product was sold to us with the free cloud storage. It now seems Arlo doesn't want to do that anymore and has made the cameras too pixelated to be used. We paid $600.00 for these. 

Even if that isn't true, no one from Arlo has responded to this thread and the problem has existed for 3 weeks. If users can't see what is happening on their cameras due to the pixelation, if Arlo cared and were alert to this, they would have responded by now, and they haven't. Pretty sure they never will either!

Like just about everyone here, before this happened we were thinking of getting more Arlo cameras and more equipment, but now? No way. 

I'm looking at the eufy wireless cameras, but the font used to spell 'eufy' appears awfully similar to the Arlo font, and the camera looks the same too! Does anyone know if it is the same company? If it is, I won't go near it. 

[Retired_Member]

I went ezviz. Happy as hell.


Still angry at arlo scamming us however. Very angry.

[jam436]

I never heard of this brand Ezviz, but I'm glad you mentioned it. This looks like a solid replacement for this now useless Arlo System. It has a base station that will take an SD card for local storage, and even the cloud storage option is reasonably priced. It also looks like my old Arlo swivel mounts may work, if the threads are the same. I also like the fact that it will record when motion is detected*, rather than 24/7 like Nest cameras. I even like the look of the phone app.
I used to have Nest Cameras, and their video quality was off-the-charts great, but there were three things I didn't like; 1) they required a power cord which made moving them not an option, 2) the only way to mount them as with that magnetic mount - no option for a more secure mount like the Arlo swivel, 3) and lastly, the dealbreaker - Nest cameras record 24/7, with no  option to turn that feature off. Each camera records non-stop in 1080. Now imagine having more than two cameras - it's like every kid in the house is trying to stream an HD movie from the internet, at the same time all day and all night. I even upgraded to a 250Mb/sec internet service and it didn't help.
They were a bandwidth killer in my house. I started with three cameras and wanted to expand, but when I looked over the recording bar graph each morning, you could see where each camera would take turns dropping off the network for long stretches - therefore they were useless.

[tibert]

By the way, has anyone noticed that their 7 day web recordings get trimmed down to 4-5 days max?  I wanted to check something 6 days ago and the online recordings only reflect 5.