What's up with quality of my ultra 2

[jabujakan]

Hi all, I've had arlo for a while now. I was using the pro 2's for the longest time but decided to upgrade. I'm on a smart hub now, and everything is setup such that I should be recording in 4k, and it says it is, but the quality is not 4k. I searched but couldn't find anything that fixed the problem. Here is a grab from my driveway, my car is not that far, yet can't even make out license plate.

[StephenB]

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@jabujakan wrote:

 Here is a grab from my driveway, my car is not that far, yet can't even make out license plate.

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You didn't actually post a screenshot.

There are cameras specifically designed for license plate capture  (LPR cameras) - regular surveillance cameras don't work very well for that.  To read the letters and numbers clearly requires about 100 pixels across the license plate (about 100 pixels per foot, since most license plates are about a foot across).  The Ultra has a very wide field of view, so the the pixels per foot are much less than that at even modest distances from the camera. Other factors are motion blur (assuming the car is moving), and lighting (glare at night for example).

That said, the Ultra picture quality is limited by the low bitrates that Arlo uses.  Personally I'd like to have an option to increase the bitrate (while reducing the retention).  For example, 3x the bitrate with 10 days retention instead of 30.

[jguerdat]

"Quality" is a relative thing due to expectations, exact recording conditions, compression, etc. If you check the video properties by downloading to a computer to view the details of the recording? It's also possible that some of your settings have forced the resolution to be reduced, specifically Auto Zoom and Tracking in the camera Video Settings. In addition , I believe the trial subscription that comes with the camera is a 2K version while there's a 4K paid sub.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

> That said, the Ultra picture quality is limited by the low bitrates that Arlo uses.  Personally I'd like to have an option to increase the bitrate (while reducing the retention).  For example, 3x the bitrate with 10 days retention instead of 30.

This is an excellent idea!

[TUKhS5Ays4Ez]

Did you turn off auto zoom and tracking?  I also think it may help to have best video for power management and full instead of wider video modes.  The wider video modes might lower resolution.  I've never been able to capture license plates yet, but I have been able to read the word Jeep on a car that trespassed recently.