Arlo Capabilities Before Purchasing System

[neilcooley]

Hi
I am hoping some can help as i can not do the "chat with technical support".  

I am considering purchasing either the Ultra 2 or the Pro 4 but I want to check a few things before purchasing.  

1.  Can the cameras record 24/7 as well when the camera triggers?

2.  Is the trigger done by AI or PIR ?

3.  For night vision, is the video colour?  Does it use infra red or LED light?

4.  If the camera is 24/7 recording, is it better to use the cloud service or the hub?  

5.  Obviously battery live of the camera will be less if 24/7 recording, how long approximately will ther battery last (normal or the XL)?

6.  If we go with a hub, can you FTP the files to a FTP server?  Does the cloud system allow FTP to other storage locations?

7.  Can you pre-select a time when you record continously and when you operate using triggers?  

8. If the camera triggers can you save a time before the event and after, is this selectable in the software?

Thanks

Neil C

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

1) With a CVR (continuous video recording) subscription, yes. 

2) PIR only

3) Typically you use the LED spotlight which gives you color. There are also IR LEDs  which can be used if desired. The settings for the camera allow to select both, neither or individually.

4) I believe CVR requires the use of a hub instead of connecting to WiFi. The Pro 4 can connect either way but not the Ultra which uses a hub.

5) CVR requires use of AC power so battery life isn't an issue. If Arlo allowed battery-only CVR, it would deplete the battery in short order.

6) No. You would have to download videos to then copy to another location. Use of the hub allows you to also use local recording to a USB drive (VMB4540) or micro-SD card (VMB5000). The app then allows you to view those recordings although not in the same way as the cloud recordings. You can also eject the drive for viewing/copying on a computer.

7) No. CVR is simply continuous. Motion triggers can be scheduled if desired.

😎 No. A camera plugged into AC power has a 3 second look-back so you can see that part but post recording is only selectable by using a timed recording that's "long enough" to allow this. There's also a "record until motion stops" feature but many folks have issues understanding that the camera has to be able to detect that motion, even if your eyes say it's still happening. A timed recording usually works better.

[neilcooley]

Thank you thats great.

One last question (sorry) - on the Arlo Pro 4 is the LED light on all the time during darkness or is it just when it detects motion from the PIR?   What is the distance that the PIR picks up?

Neil

[jguerdat]

That depends on which LED you're referring to. There's a blue LED that normally simply indicates that the battery is full. You can turn that off in the camera settings. Then there's the spotlight which only turns on when recording or when manually turned on during live viewing. Finally, the IR LEDs also only light up when recording. Both the spotlight and IR LEDs (also known as Night Vision) can be individually enabled, as desired (I leave both on).

The PIR distance for people is like most other PIR detection devices, up to about 25 feet +/- depending on subject size and motion direction, side to side being the best way to detect.