Video quality suddenly bad on Arlo Pro 2 cameras

[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?

[Jlew4]

I have removed and re-installed.  Why move them when they have been fine for over a year.  The base hasn't moved, everything is exactly the same except two misbehaving cameras all of a sudden.

[Techsus]

The pixelation problems are happening with my new (1 to 2 month) (4) Ultras and (3) Floodlights, so apparently it is not an older camera issue. Also, none of my cross-camera triggering has worked for me, either through the Armed mode, Custom mode, or using the Bridge to get a camera to record when motion is detected with the Security Light. They all indicate strong connections to the Base. In the app, the connecting times vary from 5 seconds to minutes. When they work, they are great, but we have had many issues so far. Too soon to judge - will try them out for a while before keeping or returning everything. Good luck with yours.

[YannisHBG]

What I still don't get is why the subject still says SOLVED after almost 500 posts. It obviously isn't... 

[Jlew4]

I hope anyone reading the threads will be smart enough to NOT BUY ARLO systems since they are now pretty useless with pixelated videos that are useless across all models.  

[dcfox1]

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@Jlew4 wrote:

I hope anyone reading the threads will be smart enough to NOT BUY ARLO systems since they are now pretty useless with pixelated videos that are useless across all models.  

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I have the Pro 3 and have not had this or any other problems other then activity zones that was fixed.

[Meiko]

I have the same issue.  I have to admit i just noticed as have been trying to fix other issues with the lights and also a faulty camera (sorted now).  Video is fine unless something moves then the moving object and its surrounds are pixelated.  So yes not much point having a camera for security when the person breaking in pixelated like an old 1990s video game

Not sure if you are also getting the same issue along with the  degraded video quality but thought just incase its related:

I have also noticed that the base station keeps loosing connection to my router.  It is connected directly to it.

When connection is lost i can still surf the internet on my phone, tablet, pc, TV etc so def not my internet connection.

I logged into my router and i have an option to wake up a network device via the network.  I select Start device and the light on the base station goes from yellow to blue and i am able to connect again.

So due to the above i have already perfomed the following in the past week various times and in different orders. So doubt that will fix anyone elses but worth a try

Rebooted cameras and base station

Resync'd cameras to base station

Removed batteries on cameras

Removed base station and cameras from account and added.

Deleted app and added. (was clutching at straws here)

I will try a factory reset next to see if that resolves the video and what appears to be the base station going to sleep.

if not then will be logging yet another issue with Arlo.

[Pe4ivko]

Unfortunately video now is so pixelated. If I knew that it would be like that, Id prefer to buy some low price China cameras. Are there any way to add option to save full size video to usb drive? I can't even read the car number if it runs 2m from my camera.

[Pe4ivko]

Correction 5 meters. It was missclick.

[Meiko]

Same here on my ultra cameras. Video is useless as soon as there is a moving object (not just people) the video pixelates and every thing is blurry. These recordings are on SD card and accessing over my wifi. Doesn’t matter if using app or pc with ie, chrome etc. Not much point in having a security camera System when you can’t make out faces or license plates. Arlo products aren’t cheap and you would expect better customer service and software. Had my Arlo cameras and lights going on a year now all was working up to a few months ago. Now lights don’t trigger cameras, one light dead (thrown in bin as not going to pay to return a faulty item) One camera keeps saying it needs to warm up (20 deg c) and blurry video.

[CB74]

Had the same issue. 
Arlo support sucks at best on a good day. 
I ended up removing it from my system, pulling the battery for a few hours. Afterwards I charged it fully, and added it back. Fixed the issue. 

[MJNL]

Same here- very poor video quality and especially worse upon motion. Blocks of footage completely cut out. Also the motion detector seems to be getting worse.

[Pe4ivko]

I would like to see how uncompressed video looks like, but I guess it is impossible:(

[mamarcac]

I forget which thread it's in, heck maybe this one, an Arlo Employee chimed in admitting that Arlo regularly "evaluates" their variable bit-rate compression for the mp4 files. Take that for how you see it, but what I read is that Arlo is basically monitoring their server loads and reducing video quality as needed instead of making the proper hardware upgrades their customers deserve.

We paid a high sticker price for their hardware and shouldn't be held hostage by the company we gave our money to. If your servers can't handle the loads, you need to open up all base stations for direct USB or SD Card access through the app. @JamesC @ShayneS @JessicaP

[DGT79]

"Also the motion detector seems to be getting worse."

In the last 2 weeks this has been getting really bad to the point that these cameras are now becoming even more useless 😞 

Also spoke with two separate Hervey Norman retail stores locally to me and they have no interest in selling the cameras anymore, they just refer people to another brand now, they cannot cope with the level of complaints coming in and one of them showed me their store room with all the returned Arlo cameras.

This **bleep** is getting bad and Arlo should hang their heads in shame, I should have known that once it was spun out from Netgear that everything would go to crap, didn't take long for that to happen.

Well I am now back on the market and looking at equivalent products and using the 60 returns policy, these units will be dumped, I can get cheap and nasty Chinese cameras that are less than 20% of their cost and do better than this over priced expensive nonsense.

[Ozphoenix]

Noticed that ours has been getting even worse over the past few weeks too. Not just pixelated, worse than that, more of a series of big moving blurs. 

Glad to hear that Harvey Norman don't recommend them or sell them anymore! It's used to be a good product, but now destroyed by mismanagement. 

Very disappointed in the Eufy camera (T8831CD3) we bought to replace it too. It is also going pixelated, and numberplates on cars used to be fairly clear, but now its rubbish as well. I even moved it closer to the driveway, so its only 2 metres away but we can't get a good read on plates, which is ridiculous. I'm guessing what the little blurred letters and numbers are as best I can to try and identify them. The sound is also ridiculous - a growling car engine sounds like a series of squeals, squeaks and bubbles (believe it or not!) which is just nonsense.

Having now spent $1200 on cameras ($800 Arlo, $400 Eufy) and being disappointed in both, I don't want to spend any more money. 😞

[Pe4ivko]

Arlo developers please add ability to save full size videos to habit could solve all problems.

[Meiko]

Thanks for the heads up on the Eufy cameras was looking at those to replace my Arlo cameras. Will keep looking but in the mean time . Had brought the Arlo as my last motorbike was stolen. Now they are useless am paying for it to be in storage. (Renting and no garage😔$

[phil01]

I would also like to see a local storage on all Base Stations / Smart Hubs. But I think, that will not happen because than they are not able to sell their abo.

As a result of this behavior, I have switched to eufy for the newly bought cams. I am happy with the E and 2, the 2C I do not own. And with eufy, local storage and a easy-to-use app-usage is possible - without the problems and limitations occurring with arlos local storge.

[CCNE37]

Those Eufy cameras are the older (and significantly cheaper) model 2C cameras. I don't think they were ever a direct competition for the Pro 2. Technically they are also 1080P, but apparently the newer model was a pretty decent upgrade.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone with first hand experience of the latest Eufy HD (2 camera set is code T8801CD2) cameras

I am especially interested in hearing how the Mode & Scheduling "system" works on Eufy - that is one thing that does provide a lot of "customisation" options with Arlo (turning on and off various cameras at specified times of day, changing sensitivity etc between day & night etc etc).

[dcfox1]

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@phil01 wrote:

I would also like to see a local storage on all Base Stations / Smart Hubs. But I think, that will not happen because than they are not able to sell their abo.

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They do have local storage on smart hubs. 

https://kb.arlo.com/000062337/What-is-Direct-Storage-Access-and-how-do-I-use-it

[DGT79]

Here is the thing, local storage should be a default position for Arlo, allow people to connect a HDD via USB and allow them to locally access all recordings, then offer a cloud based solution for a nominal fee, there is no doubt in my mind that a good percentage would choose it to ensure remote backup of their recordings.

Further more, allow the app to do a direct stream to the device once the HTTPS stream has been negotiated and it can do session hand-over, that way all load is removed from the cloud and on to the base station and the device viewing it, this way one can retain full bit-rate and full resolution, denying us the user access to this, is in fact a breach of faith in contract and what is listed on the packaging, and right now that is what is happening.

Cheers,

David.

[phil01]

@dcfox1 Yes, they do have local storage on the smart hubs, but on the one hand not on the base stations and on the other hand the integration and useability is a crap.

When you read this statement, you will find the future of our legacy system... : https://community.arlo.com/t5/Announcements/Video-Compression-Adjustment/td-p/1791350 

Now the possibility to buy the smart abo. No thanks. The arlo hardware is not the cheapest one on the market and the smart abo for up to 5 cams will cost 108 € per year here in Germany. That's to much. I'm happy to held expanding the system because of the the bad video quality.

I now have a other manufacturer found without cloud and without monthly fees. I'm disappointed from arlo and I feel cheated.

[dcfox1]

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@phil01 wrote:

@dcfox1 Yes, they do have local storage on the smart hubs, but on the one hand not on the base stations. 

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Yes I agree local storage is far from idea but you are mistaken about no local storage on base stations. The 4000 and 4500 have USB storage, The older ones do not. You can compare them here.

https://kb.arlo.com/000062284/What-is-the-difference-between-each-Arlo-SmartHub-and-base-station

[phil01]

You can trust me, I know the mainfunctions of the different base stations and smart hubs.

On the base station, the videos stored on the attached USB device have the same poor quality like the ones in the arlo cloud. The implementation on the base stations requires you to remove the USB device and plug it to your computer. I didn't call that local storage.

[alchemist50]

Thanks for the link on video compression adjustment, hadn't seen that.  Has anyone compared video quality when subscribing to Arlo Smart?  Is it really noticeably better than the free subscription plan, or does it simply add the tag features and 30-day storage?

To be fair, I will say that my Pro2 and Pro recording quality is less bad than it has been in the recent past.  I now see some detail in the grass on my lawn, which before had simply been a blurry sea of green.  Still not what I would hope for and expect, but somewhat better.