Video Record While Motion Detected Rules - Not working/Buggy

[relicdavis]

So just hooked these bad boys up. The Iphone app doesn't allow me to adjust rules for record time. So created a new mode to record while movement. Tested only recorded 10 seconds. Created a mode with a rule to record for set time. 60 seconds in front camera, and 2 minutes on the back camera. Worked. I then created a new mode that said again, record on motion. I tested both camera for 20 seconds of motion. the front camera recorded for 59 seconds, 30 seconds no motion (80% sensitiy) and the back camera record for 1 minute and 59 seconds.... Seems pretty buggy to me. I really would like it to record on motion only, but seems like that is impossible.

Update* (Example video) of recording with no motion.

https://arlo.netgear.com/#/viewShared/2A38ADBCB429FDBF_201612

Rule:

Only records on motion, not sound. 

[jguerdat]

What you shared showed distance varying. Sure, the trigger occurs when the subject is in distance but moving around at different distances varies the results. Start at, say, 10 feet and remain there, just going back and forth at that distance. Increase to 15 feet and do the same. Then 20 feet and then 25 feet. At some point the camera won't sense the motion. Moving in circles doesn't prove anything other than that the camera won't sense motion when the distance is too great for the specific environment.

[CDF]

Has the "record until motion ends to a max 300 sec" fixed yet?  Ours only record for a few seconds at a time and then it doesn't pick up again for at least another  half minute or minute.  Please advise how to get the maximun use out of the camera's to ensure as much motion as possible is being captured. 

[jguerdat]

Have you read this (and other similar) thread?

[Scomas]

I keep reading the Arlo Superuser Guru making excuses for how this feature doesn't work saying the problem is that people are just too far away or motion stops for 5 seconds causing the camera to stop.  But I have been trying to use this feature for a few months now and never one time has my camera recorded for more than 16 seconds when it set to record when motion is dected.  It's very frustrating and I can tell you now, this feature does not work properly.  I can have someone walk up to my door, ring, knock, put a flyer on the inside of my door, and walk away and I will have 3 seperate 16 seconds clips all with constant motion.   I have a tree next to my house less than 10 feet away and on a windy day Arlo will pick up the motion from my tree and depending on the angle of the sun, the shadows of the tree on the ground, and even with constant movement, I will have 50-100 clips of waving branches with each clip being 16 seconds. I have another camera in my garage and I can have the garage door open with a car pulling in, and people piling out of the car with kids running around for several minutes and will have 5-10 seperate 16 second clips all with constant motion.  I can give more examples like when the camera in the basement watched me from about 5 feet away putting a bicycle together for my kids birthday and I never had a clip last more than 16 seconds. 

The record while motion is dected is junk and unreliable at this point in time.   The feature simply doesn't work as intended as far as I'm concerned and probably should not be used until Arlo figures it out.  

[ranran]

I must concur.

I very much appreciate that Jguerdat is taking time from his life to help us figure out how best to implement Arlo usage and feature testing.  As a scientist, I agree that it is important to try to control variables and perform experiments to be certain of the data and reproducibility.

That being said, I think there is now overwhelming evidence, both empirical and anecdotal, to strongly suggest this feature is not yet working correctly and requires further attention from Netgear.

[JamesC]

I have escalated this topic to engineering for further investigation. If you have a case open already with support, please provide me with the case number and I will add your case to the escalation for review.

JamesC

[CDF]

I do not have a case # as I just checked the forums to see if there was a solution yet. Please let me know if a case # is assigned to this.

Thank you!

Carolyn

[Myst_1]

This was one of the main reasons I bought the camera. I won't be buying anymore and will be sending this one back.

[JamesC]

Myst_1,

I would like to offer assistance and open a case on the issue. Can you provide more detail on the issue you are experiencing?

JamesC

[CDF]

HI James

I had my camera's set to "record until motion stops" and they would only record for up to 10-17 seconds even though the motion was sitl going and within the motion sensors.  It miss a track hoe being moved from the yard but caught the pick up truck coming in to drop off the driver.  After researching the blogs I see this funtion has not worked properly so I have changed my video recording time to 45 seconds hoping that if there is continuous motion it will record it in 45 sec clips. 

Please advise when the "record until motion stops" feature is working properly.  I see it caps it at 300 seconds which is fine as I am assuming it would just start recording again.

I appreciate your assistance,

Carolyn

[Scomas]

James,

I’ve been looking at this and experimenting with this for the past few days and while I don’t have it all figured out, this is what I have noticed. I still am constantly getting 16 seconds videos with my cameras set to “Record While Motion is Detected”. However, I tried standing directly in front of one of my cameras and walking back and forth moving my arms within 5 feet of a camera and I was able to record video for over a minute before I stopped looking like a fool. So under some circumstances, this feature does seem to work.

Another thing I noticed with this setting. I can open my front door and step out and turn right back around and close my door for a total of 2-5 seconds of motion, yet the camera will continue to record non motion for a full 16 seconds (11 seconds of nothing). Then I tried moving for 10 seconds and coming in and the video would still record for 16 seconds (6 seconds of nothing). Then I went out and moved for 16 seconds before coming back in and the video recorded for 16 seconds (it stopped right when motion stopped).   If I went out and moved right in front of my camera for 16-20 seconds, it would record for about 26 seconds (about 10 seconds of nothing).   So it seems the camera is set to record motion in 10-12 second increments instead of actually recording until it no longer senses motion. I think that is fine, but another thing I have noticed is if I go out and move in front of my camera and then pause for a few seconds and then started moving again, the camera will stop recording at a set increment once it no longer sensed motion even if the motion started again. For example, if someone walks up to my front door, it will start to record. If they ring the doorbell and stand still waiting for an answer, the camera will continue to record for another 10-12 seconds, or until it hits one of those increments, and then stop. But by that time the person will usually be moving again by either knocking, putting a flyer on my door, or walking away. Depending on where the camera is in that 10-12 second increment, it may or may not start back up and record the person as they are walking away. It’s possible to miss the most important part of the motion. Theoretically, someone could walk up to my door, ring the doorbell and wait a few seconds to see if anyone is home, then if they time it right, kick in my front door and walk in without being caught.

Another thing I have noticed is the camera is pretty good at picking up motion from a good distance away, maybe up to 30 feet or so, but seems to do a poor job at continuing the recording while motion is more than 10 feet away.   I have one camera at the back of my garage and it will pick up the motion of my garage door opening 20 + feet away, but will stop after 16 seconds even though a car is pulling in from the same distance and moving closer. I can walk out of my door in my garage in front of the camera and video will start, and then walk around my car and video will stop after 16 seconds even though you can clearly see a person walking and moving the entire time. Since the person is inside the garage, they are obviously closer than the door which gets picked up.

I think clearly the camera is recording motion in increments and not strictly starting on motion and stopping right when motion stops. I think that is probably a good thing since it would be very easy to trick a camera by standing still for a few seconds. So, I think one of the improvements that could be made would be to make it so even if motion stops for a few seconds, instead of stopping the recording a few seconds later at a set increment no matter what, make a rule that says if the camera sees motion again before that increment is up, it would keep recording. Kind of like restarting that internal clock and would continue to record that motion.   So as an example, If I let my dog out, the recording would start. My dogs stops to squat and motion stops which means recording will end in 10-12 seconds (current behavior). However, if my dog goes out, moves for 5 seconds, then squats for 5 seconds, and then moves again, instead of stopping at 16 seconds, the camera should recognize that motion has restarted and keep recording instead of stopping at a set increment after it first stopped seeing motion. Does that make sense?

Thanks,

Scott   

[ranran]

---

 Another thing I have noticed is the camera is pretty good at picking up motion from a good distance away, maybe up to 30 feet or so, but seems to do a poor job at continuing the recording while motion is more than 10 feet away.   I have one camera at the back of my garage and it will pick up the motion of my garage door opening 20 + feet away, but will stop after 16 seconds even though a car is pulling in from the same distance and moving closer. I can walk out of my door in my garage in front of the camera and video will start, and then walk around my car and video will stop after 16 seconds even though you can clearly see a person walking and moving the entire time. Since the person is inside the garage, they are obviously closer than the door which gets picked up.

---

Scott,  first, thanks for taking the time to run this series of tests - it's more information for Netgear to work with.

Second, I highlighted one of your paragraphs above because I think you may have hit upon something, and this also ties into what jguerdat may have been alluding to - is there a difference between sensitivity to *start* recording and sensitivity to *continue* recording?  My naive thinking is no, that if the hardware can detect motion, it can detect motion regardless of the camera starting a recording vs. prolonging a recording..... but perhaps that is wrong?  We'll need JamesC/Netgear to weigh in on this.....

I'd like to get a good resolution for this, considering the significant investment I, and others have made in the system. So, let's keep the dialogue going...and hopefully Netgear can weigh in on this.

Thanks to everyone who is working on this...

Ran

[CDF]

Thank you for all of your testing and insight.  I appreicate your time on this