Video Pixelation after firmware update Pro/VMB4000r3 (1.16.1.1_3348_facf74c)

[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?

[silverado44]

Arlo is going to do NOTHING for us. I had some old regular pro 720 cameras laying around from when I upgraded to the pro2 1080 and the video is better on the 720 then the 1080 now you tell me? All there worried about is there ultra and pro3 payed subscription service and the older camera systems are doomed it all about the money and not about customer satisfaction.

CEO Matt McRae is going to run this company in the ground and cant believe they are still selling pro2 as 1080 quality when its not even 720 so Arlo pro2 people we just got screwed and we are looked at as trash in the gutter.

I am looking at other brands and will be ditching this system so thank you Arlo for screwing us over and your whole company and products are a joke. 

[MrMarkMan]

Latest from my service request with level 2 ARLO Support...

Thank you so much for your feedback. Please see the response below from our Engineering team as to why the video quality is not entirely the same as before.. "With more than 4.25 million registered accounts serving up more than 144 million video events a day, Arlo has become a massive platform, users rely on every day, one that now also delivers AI and computer vision processing. To maintain a platform of this size, we continually review and adjust our variable video compression, which optimizes the size of videos transmitted to and from our platform. It seems that for some users, particularly those with cameras in high-traffic areas, the dynamic video compression resulted in poor video quality, so we’ve updated the software to improve the variable video compression algorithm".

COMMENTS: My video quality has improved over what it was.  Still not what it should be.  Contrasts between light and dark, zooming, and finer textures such as grass most definitely need fixed. I won't even go into motion detection where cameras sense motion for no apparent reason or don't pick up motion of objects directly in front of the camera.

ARLO it's your job to prepare for growth without sacrificing the needs and wants or your customers who keep you in business.  You think you would want 4.25 million registered accounts but it seems your actions as a company are directly contradictory to the success of your platform.

[conma]

I got the same word for word response on their Facebook page. In other words it’s not going to be fixed. High traffic areas is just an excuse. I live in what you’d call a farming location. Not a chance my yard is a high traffic location. My car sits directly within 10 ft of one camera and you can’t make out any details at all because of pixelation.

[TerryHoss]

So more than 4.25 million registered accounts serving up more than 144 million video events a day will all be lower quality than advertised to the consumer. Pretty sad situation and customer service when you consider the people they ignoring are the same ones that pay the bills.

[simpsonhomer]

"4.25 million registered accounts" means they got money for 4.25 million systems that they sold. They got customers' money and then refused to provide the level of service that they advertised to the consumer.

[MJNL]

So true- the videos from my new pro 2 cameras are worse than ever.

[Patient_Zero]

Ever since my Arlo Pro cameras received firmware update to 1.092.0.25_24_986, my cameras have been absolutely useless. Once the live feed loads, you can’t see anything at all. Nothing but a grey screen. Same thing with recorded videos from motion detection. Nothing seems to fix this. Remove the camera and set it up again. Remove the battery and reset everything...nothing. Has anyone ran into this and if so, were you able to get it fixed? I’m at a total loss here. If the only solution is to replace it, I’ll likely leave Arlo and try something else. I’ve attached a screenshot of what it looks like.

[DHSSREDSTAR]

My Camera is also doing the same thing.  Arlo is really going downhill.   I was thinking of upgrading to their newer models but after seeing all the problems I've had over the past 2 years I'm thinking of getting rid of the entire system and switching to another vendor.

[Ordinary1]

Hi @JessicaP 

It has been over two weeks since the 'fix'.

Still many complaints on here about the picture quality, count me in that camp. I still have dropped frames, terrible resolution and often have blocking behind moving objects. My scenes are not 'complex', this happens when someone moves in a typical home room with no other movement, the exact environment your cameras are supposedly designed to excel in. This is nowhere near 'resolved'.

Silence from Arlo yet again.

Can you confirm if this is as good as it's going to get or if there is another fix in the works please ? At least we will know where we stand.

Over 400 comments and almost 3000 views on this thread cannot be wrong....

[jguerdat]

I'd start with rebooting the base and reinserting camera batteries to get back to a known state. While I don't know why you have this problem (I don't) it may be useful to remove one camera and resync it to see if that helps.

[Macarioc]

Video quality had improved for a week or so but is now heavily pixilated again. Please let us know if there is a permanent fix coming soon, else we will be forced to upgrade to other brands with better support.

[DHSSREDSTAR]

Tried all that already; seems to only affect certain hardware versions.  Arlo needs to fix this.

[NWinston]

I agree. It also hasn’t always been this bad. Even my hard wired video doorbell has poor video quality.

[DHSSREDSTAR]

My Arlo Pro cameras recently received a firmware upgrade to 1.092.0.25_24_986 and now all my cameras have ghosting and lines in the video especially when there is fast movement.   I'm 'this' close to dumping my Arlo system... it's like they do no DEV or TQA testing at all.   Is anyone else having these issues (see attached)

[TerryHoss]

Mine has also gotten worse again over the last two days.

[Mozzer101]

Anyone know whats happening here?

[jguerdat]

That's pixelation. It's frequently caused by weak signal between the base and camera or by 2.4GHz interference. It's also possible that you upload speed is limited - have you tested it with speedtest.net lately?

[Manolo86]

Here Arlo, I found good deals on servers for you:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/deals/poweredge-tower-server-deals?tfcid=50596135&cid=-18426623...

[Leeboy]

My system is STILL on the old firmware.  And STILL sucks .  They are not going to fix this , so the only option is to flood any place you can do a review and keep saying how bad Arlo is and to not buy their brand . $800 in the garbage .... oh well, live and learn . More bigger question , what system to replace them with ? 

[Mozzer101]

Well I have very fast internet. My camera is separated from the base station by a wall. Its the closest camera to the base. Very strange.

[Dadd1o]

ARLO customer service is atrocious. The do not reply email address they send updates to my Issue is BS. When they don’t want to hear back from you that tells you something. I was #16 in line for a chat for an hour. They just don’t care.. It’s a shame it was a great product at 1st. I have had it for 2 years. See this issue from thousands of people and fix the issue or next is R.I..P Arlo . No one will want your expensive paper weights if they do any kind of research. Thanks for the aggravation ARLO!

[silverado44]

Well here it is on 6-12-20 and STILL no fix, my videos are still fuzzy and not sharp anymore like they use to be.

Like I said Arlo does not want us around anymore due to us be a unpaid subscription and they dropped us like a bad habit and want to phase us out. I hope there not thinking we will upgrade to the pro3 or ultra because THATS not going to happen at least for me, this company is one of the worst run company I have ever seen for one they don't care about the quality of there product and two they don't care about the customer. Hey Arlo if it was not for the customer you wouldn't be around.

I think the mods and employees on here are told not to respond to this thread anymore because were done and look at us as a bunch of misfits but they fail on that the Arlo, Arlo pro and pro 2 financed you to build on your product line and you dropped us and that is very low for you to do and extremely bad business.

As far as CEO Matt McRae I think you would screw customers over if you ran a snowball stand.

[TechJohn]

I tried to post a 1-star review about a week ago on Best Buy where I purchased my system and Best Buy never published it. Seems like they are manipulating the reviews. I can't believe people are still posting that Pro 2 has great video quality in the Best Buy reviews. Those reviews must be fake as my video quality is horrendous.

[Macarioc]

I've switched over to Reolink as my main camera.

[Ebnk15]

Arlo Pro. Same firmware update. Same problems as everyone else. Tried everything. So, please see the pasted info below, as this isn't a new phenomenon:

"Apple will pay up to $500 million to end a lawsuit claiming it intentionally slowed down iPhones. ... The class action lawsuit claimed Apple capped performance on older iPhones to encourage consumers to upgrade. Apple said its updates were intended to prevent aging batteries from causing the phones to malfunction."

That was Apple's excuse, but due to the Settlement they didn't have to accept blame. However, the $500 million settlement spoke LOUD AND CLEAR!!

Perhaps it's time to start a Class Action Lawsuit against ARLO. Apparently, the amortized cost of an entire system when spread out over 2-1/2 years is about equivalent to the cost of a monthly subscription (Which, was NOT a mandatory option when I spent all of that money just to buy a working system when new!). Like others, the USB option also doesn't work, and it all started with the same update!

I think a FOIA review of the software, by an expert is in order here. I would sure hate to see ARLO's reputation AND Sales go down the tubes when this information surfaces by an entire class of Customers who are out $1000's after just a short couple of years due to a simple software update. Also, I could only imagine what an out of court settlement would cost the Company, in addition to, the lost Sales and reputation.

ARLO... the ball is in your court (pardon the pun).