New user trying to like it

[Charles2022]

A friend of mine has Arlo Pro3 cameras and I was impressed while visiting his house. 

I went out and bought Arlo Pro4 XL (w/ 3 cameras) for a xmas present, and Arlo Ultra 2 (w/ 4x 4K cameras) for myself.

Then went back and ordered 3 more Ultra Cameras, a charger, and 2 more extra batteries. 

Needless to say it's been an expensive week.

I received the Ultra 2 kit yesterday and had it set up quickly which was nice.

In the first day these are the issues I'm having, 

1. 4K doesn't even come close to 4K so you can't make out license plates, or wouldn't ever be able to get a face if something actually did go wrong. So spending the extra on the 4K seems to have been a waste. After Arlo uses H265 compression the quality is less than my iPhone.
2. Huge delay in the motion trigger renders the mic/speakers on the cameras useless because by the time you get notified the person is at the front door they're gone. 
3. Only 1 camera can be set for package delivery?, that's my issue is one package delivery will go to the side door while others go to the front door (as their delivery instructions actually say). So I need notified either way,  I'm sure person detection will suffice on the second location but why?
4. Motion trigger only up to 10,20,25ft depending on which article you read.  Which is now the reason for 3 more cameras, I thought I could be notified of a car in the driveway from the camera on the side of the house.  Even at the closest location it doesn't trigger.
5. No way to see the cameras on my TV
6. And now, what might actually be causing me to return all of this stuff. 10 cameras, charger, extra batteries, and two base stations.  -  I can see my library on my PC but no windows browser can play them. Safari is not longer available for download on windows, It's my work computer so I couldn't install it anyway without some creative way to get it in to the PC.  Therefore, I have to download each clip and use a third party app to play it.

Has anyone ever overcome the PC/browser issue?  I see articles that say solved but are actually not a solution they just point at using a browser that supports HEVC (which is only safari and not an option for windows users). IE11 might have been an option but company group policy redirects all URL's to use edge. So my options are Edge, Chrome, or FF.

Anyone have any ideas on why the image is so pixelated when it's supposed to be 4k?  

I really want to like this system but for $1500+ and this many issues in the first day, I'm wondering if I made a mistake.

[StephenB]

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@Charles2022 wrote:

Has anyone ever overcome the PC/browser issue?  I see articles that say solved but are actually not a solution they just point at using a browser that supports HEVC (which is only safari and not an option for windows users). IE11 might have been an option but company group policy redirects all URL's to use edge. So my options are Edge, Chrome, or FF.

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Edge works on my Windows PCs.  There is a caveat - you need a 6th generation (or later) AMD or Intel processor because the rendering depends on hardware acceleration. These processors were introduced in 2015.

You also need the HEVC windows extension from the Microsoft store ($.99).  Some have reported they didn't need that extension, but my PCs did.  Some vendors might be pre-installing it.

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@Charles2022 wrote:

4K doesn't even come close to 4K so you can't make out license plates

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You need about 100 pixels horizontally on the license plate to see it clearly.  Even with a 4K sensor, that means the license needs to be quite close to the camera.  The wide field of view also factors into this.  There are a couple of other barriers here - motion blur when the car is moving, and lighting (glare from the car headlights for example).

Camera systems intended for license capture are custom-designed for that application, and also are carefully placed.

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@Charles2022 wrote: After Arlo uses H265 compression the quality is less than my iPhone.

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True.  The bitrate they are using is much lower than an iPhone video.  I wish there was a option for a higher bitrate.  I'd happily give up retention time to get that.

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@Charles2022 wrote: Motion trigger only up to 10,20,25ft depending on which article you read.  

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Not sure where you saw 10 ft, the articles I've seen are all in the 20-25 foot range.  But the range is definitely limited.

Motion is triggered by passive infrared (PIR) sensors, and that is the range those sensors can handle. Size of the sensors makes a difference here, so one constraint is the amount of space available on the front of the camera.  The sensors used in Arlo cameras are arranged so they are most sensitive to motion across the field of view, and they are most sensitive at the bottom of the field of view than they are at the top. 

The reason they use PIR sensors is that using image processing would use far too much power for a battery-powered camera.

Note that the actual range depends on the size of the object being detected, the amount of IR (heat) it is producing, and the ambient temperature.  My own cameras will detect some vehicles that are much further away (particularly fire trucks and ambulances).  FWIW, I wish they wouldn't.

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@Charles2022 wrote: No way to see the cameras on my TV

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Actually you can see the livefeed with Amazon Fire TV (and echo show) and Apple TV if you use the partner integration features.  

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@Charles2022 wrote: Huge delay in the motion trigger renders the mic/speakers on the cameras useless because by the time you get notified the person is at the front door they're gone. 

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I agree the delay can be too long (particularly for 2-way communication).  Though I think generally the two Arlo doorbells are a better approach than using cameras for this.

How much delay are you seeing when livestreaming?  (Not the lag to connect, I'm asking how far behind the video is once it does stream).

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@Charles2022 wrote: Only 1 camera can be set for package delivery?,

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I agree that is an odd restriction.

[Charles2022]

First off, thank you very much for your knowledge and the time you took to respond @StephenB .

I had a long response written but when I hit post it had an authentication mismatch error and it's now gone.  The autosave was from right when I started.  But, that's about what I expect.

I'll just re-write my final part.

If I had it to do over:

I would have saved myself $1000

$899 Ultra 2 4 camera set on Amazon + $750 3 4K ultra add-on cameras + $50 Charger/2 batteries (which don't work since they are missing the notch in the side to click into the cameras) NOT ARLO's FAULT since they're not Arlo brand batteries.

In the end I spent $1700 on a 7 camera Ultra 2 set up,

1 Camera in my shop approx. 65-70' from the base won't stay connected and barely gets 1 red dot of wifi unless I open the garage door then it's 2 bars or full "strong bandwidth". I realize line of site is important, but we're talking 25% of the advertised range of the wifi of Ultra 2 - it should work even through the 2" thick garage door.

4k clips are not any better than the Pro4 XL 2K cameras I installed at my Dad's on any of the clips. You can't read license plates from 10-15' or even the entire side window of a car unless it stops in front of the camera in broad daylight (after it was moving to trigger the camera to start recording then stop so it can focus).

Loss of USB from Pro4 to Ultra base station.

So I should have just also bought the 3 camera Pro 4 XL set from Costco for myself as well for $350 +  Arlo - Pro 4 Spotlight Camera Security 3 camera Bundle with charger ($399)

I would have only spent $750 total and ended up with the same thing apparently.

I'm impressed with some things about the Arlo set up, maybe cause I never had any cameras before. But I'm just thoroughly disappointed with the clip quality of the double priced 4k, lack of browser support, lack of USB storage.

Then the last thing I'm scratching my head about. 

I granted access to my Dad's cameras to myself. Now they're in my Devices list same as my own cameras.

I can't toggle to another home, or another base, I can't mute notification for just his cameras. I just get an alert from "front door" and have to go watch the clip to figure out who's front door.  If they're going to treated as 1 my app, then maybe I'll just register them all under myself and grant him access to the 3 cameras that are physically at his house?... 

I think I could then cover them all under the unlimited cameras for $15/mo instead of paying it twice. Based on what I'm experiencing, it would be easier for him to mute all (the 3 shared with him) that I control all of than me trying to mute 3 I have no control over from my end. 

I'm still working out the logistics of this but if anyone has any experience with something like this let me know how you handled it.

I'm thinking I need to go back over there and at least rename his cameras so I can tell they're his. 

If I just added his base & cameras to my account and granted him access, can he switch them off via using Mode on just the devices shared with him? 

All being in the same camera list isn't that big of an issue, just unexpected to get someone else's cameras shared with you and you having no ability to control anything such has name in your app for their cameras, or silencing the notifications coming from cameras shared with you.

[StephenB]

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@Charles2022 wrote:

I granted access to my Dad's cameras to myself. Now they're in my Devices list same as my own cameras.

I can't toggle to another home, or another base, I can't mute notification for just his cameras. I just get an alert from "front door" and have to go watch the clip to figure out who's front door. 

Did you also grant access rights?

https://kb.arlo.com/1103229/What-privileges-do-my-friends-have-when-I-grant-them-access-rights-in-my... 

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@Charles2022 wrote:

If they're going to treated as 1 my app, then maybe I'll just register them all under myself and grant him access to the 3 cameras that are physically at his house?... 

That will work, though it might violate the terms of service.

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@Charles2022 wrote:

All being in the same camera list isn't that big of an issue, just unexpected to get someone else's cameras shared with you and you having no ability to control anything such has name in your app for their cameras, or silencing the notifications coming from cameras shared with you.

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FWIW, I think the main use case Arlo has in mind is sharing camera access with other people in the same household (spouse, teens, etc).  Since they only allow one login at a time for an account, that also requires "friend" access.

I agree it doesn't work as well for extended family and other friends.

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@Charles2022 wrote:

4k clips are not any better than the Pro4 XL 2K cameras I installed at my Dad's on any of the clips. 

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I wouldn't say there is no improvement with the Ultra.  But I do think the benefits of higher resolution is often overrated, especially at the bitrates the cameras are using.  IMO, the Pro 4 is the best option for most people.

None of the Arlo cameras are suitable for reading license plates.  Sometimes you might be able to make them out, but generally not.

[Charles2022]

@StephenB you sir are defiantly a superuser!  I am fumbling around with pretty decent success (thanks to Arlo).  Due to the ease of installation and getting everything up and going I will keep it at least for now and I've continued to give the other set I bought to my Dad and installed it for him. 

I'm in a new system finding the quirks and things I thought should be better.

Overall, I like the set up, just some odd quirks I am learning and to me the 4k is a bit of a let down especially for double the price. 

Thank you very much for your time to read through my issues and provide the feedback!