VMC3040 - When in Live View, Record Button greys out when it detects motion

[aparis99]

I just got the Arlo Q, but my first frustration is it not recording motion/sound even if Live View is going. That's very frustrating in the first place, but the best answer I've seen is manually recording. Well, I've experiemented with this, and it fails. When motion is sensed, the record button immediately greys out. This happens almost instantly, even before the laggy video shows the motion.

Anyone else have this problem?

[jguerdat]

Recording will never happen while live viewing unless you manually initiate it.

What mode are you using? Is the running man black or gray? It might be worth resetting using the reset button until the camera clicks and the LED flashes amber. Sync again as you first did.

[aparis99]

What would be the reason behind this? Just because I'm logged in and live doesn't mean it's up and I'm watching it the entire time.

To answer your question though. It's in armed mode. It's just nice to log in and check in and see what's going on. When I click live, The man is black (active) and the ear is grey (sound off). But, if I'm sitting there watching it, and I have someone walk in front of it, the "man" turns orange within a second (so the signal is getting back thru to the website quickly, and right after that, the RECORD and SNAPSHOT buttons grey out. By this time, the person enters the frame and walks around, still unable to initiate recording or snapshot. They leave the frame, and about 10 seconds later, the buttons turn white again.

I can upload a screen video if need be. 

[jguerdat]

I'm not clear on your description of "live" - do you mean that you simply have the interface loaded or that you're using live view?  The answer depends on the exact scenario.

Edit: Assuming you mean live viewing, I haven't tested operation lately so I suppose it's possible that a firmware update has changed how recording during live view works.  Maybe now recording takes precedence over live viewing while it was the reverse previously. @JamesC any comments?

[aparis99]

Yes, I'm using "live" as I'm on the web interface watching and listening live (with a delay). 
When I'm watching the live feed from arlo.netgear.com, The man shows us black b/c motion is enabled. The ear is grey b/c I had audio disabled. 
I can have someone walk right in front of it, the man will turn orange since it senses motion, and since the video feed is delayed, I don't see the person for a couple of seconds. But, like I say, the record button and snapshop button at those times go grey. My thought was that it was b/c it was still auto-recording due to motion. 

So, auto-recording doesnt work when it's being viewed live, and I can't manually start a recording b/c it greys out when it sees motion.

[jguerdat]

I'll have to try this out when I get a chance to see if there's a difference.  In the meantime, anyone else wanna chime in?

[jguerdat]

OK, tried this out on both a Q and Pro camera. Yer right - with a Q, live view does NOT interrupt motion detection and recording. I have no idea when that may have been put into place or even if it's always been so. The Pro camera is exactly the opposite - live view prevents detection and recording.

Personally, I see this as a flaw. I think all Arlo cameras should work the same in this aspect. @JamesC, can you check into this? Hopefully it doesn't come back as another "it's by design" answer.

[aparis99]

Did you mis-type your two different models or are we having opposite problems, jguerdat?

On my ArloQ, when in Live View, it does NOT record at all, even if motion is detected. The "official answer" is to manually record, but my manual recording buttons grey out and are not clickable when the camera sees motion.

[jguerdat]

My Q definitely recorded while I was live viewing.  I just tried a second time with 2 tests - first, live view and then trigger motion and the second was trigger motion and then live view while recording.  In both cases, recording happened for the full duration I have set. The record/snapshot icons were unavailable in both cases.

So, it would seem that one of us has a problem. I'd suspect it's you since the icons were not available to manually record anything, seemingly meaning motion was detected but not recorded.  Was your running man amber during these times?  Mine was.

[JamesC]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I have tested this and I too am seeing the same behavior. I have escalated this topic for further investigation and will post an update as soon as possible.

JamesC

[aparis99]

Thanks, JamesC. So what would be the ideal way of handling this?
Even though I'm in LiveView, would you all have this still record when audio and/or motion is detected? Or, would it be where if in LiveView, manual recording is the only way? I'm not sure why the 2nd option would be beneficial, as you aren't always sitting and staring at the feed during live view mode, and I'd think you'd still want it to record as normal.

I have another issue with the zones not working, but I'll make another post on that.

[JamesC]

aparis99,

When live viewing you must initiate a manual recording if you want to capture the live stream. Outside of live view, the camera will follow whatever mode you have set. So for example, if your camera is set to "Armed", while not live streaming, motion detection will produce recordings.

JamesC

[aparis99]

Though I'm undecided yet if I'm going to return the camera, is there any work being done to fix the LiveView "record" and "snapshot" buttons from being greyed out when motion is detected? This seems to be a big hinderence since this is your official answer on the only way to record while in Live View.

I know I've said this before, but I think others would agree: I still feel like the camera should record on motion regardless in LiveView or not, but that's where I'll have to compare this feature to competitors.

[JamesC]

aparis99,

I have escalated this concern and will provide an update as soon as I have more information.

JamesC