what is the biggest micro card I can use on the arlo ultra 2 base?

[Sinisamandrapa]

Hi fellow arlo community,

I have a question- what is the biggest micro card I can use on the arlo ultra 2 base ?

I would like to get the biggest one so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

If you can leave an answer here or contact me I would really appreciate it.

Look forward to your advise.

Thank you 

[StephenB]

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@Sinisamandrapa wrote:

I have a question- what is the biggest micro card I can use on the arlo ultra 2 base ?

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Posters have reported success with a 512 GB micro SD card.  I haven't seen anyone report success with a size bigger than that, and I have seen some reports of failure.

As a practical matter, I find 128 GB to be more than enough (giving over 300 hours worth of recordings).

[corneileous]

So what card do you use and what type? I know its micro SD but according to the several Arlo representatives I chatted with last night, they said the SanDisk Extreme Pro microSDXC, A2, U3, UHS-1, V30 512GB SD card that I found on Amazon that I asked them about wouldn't work. They said it had to be a card that was microSDHC or microSDXC up to class 10 UHS-3 V90. I don't know about the other stuff but they said it had to be V90 whatever that is. The only V90 microSD cards I can find are only up to 64GB and so far Ive only been able to find two, a Delkin brand and an integral brand. 

[StephenB]

I use a Samsung EVO Select card in mine.

• https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-microSDXC-Expanded-MB-ME128KA-AM-dp-B09B1JFY24/dp/B09B1JFY24

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@corneileous wrote:

They said it had to be a card that was microSDHC or microSDXC up to class 10 UHS-3 V90. 

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"up to" is important here.  The minimum specs are in here: https://kb.arlo.com/000062124/How-do-I-record-4K-videos-to-a-local-storage-device

VMB5000 accepts microSD cards, microSDHC, or microSDXC. Arlo recommends that you use a microSD card with a minimum of 16 GB capacity, Speed Class 10, UHS1, V10

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@corneileous wrote:

but according to the several Arlo representatives I chatted with last night, they said the SanDisk Extreme Pro microSDXC, A2, U3, UHS-1, V30 512GB SD card that I found on Amazon that I asked them about wouldn't work. 

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This card exceeds the specs above, so I think they gave you the wrong information when they said it wouldn't work.

[corneileous]

I don’t know, the only thing I can think of is because it’s the weekend and I guess I was chatting with someone from another country. I don’t know why that would matter but it wasn’t just one out—of-country rep, it was a couple. I dont think they were in the US. Also the one guy said I could use up to a 2TB card as well. 

But just despite if I wanted that 512GB card I mentioned or not, would that work in my system? BTW, I have two Arlo Ultra 2’s, an Arlo Essentials XL that’s set to best picture quality and my base unit that came with the two Arlo Ultra 2’s is the VMB5000. 

But yeah, I thought their recommendation meant “up to” as you said but they said it had to be V90, I dunno. So do you have the VMB5000 as well? According to the Amazon link, the 128GB you use only stores 7.5 hours of 4K content. I take it you’re aware of this? The Samsung 512GB card stores 30 hours. I cant find anything that says how many hours of 4k video the SanDisk will hold. 

[StephenB]

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@corneileous wrote:

I don’t know, the only thing I can think of is because it’s the weekend and I guess I was chatting with someone from another country. I don’t know why that would matter but it wasn’t just one out—of-country rep, it was a couple. I dont think they were in the US.

But yeah, I thought their recommendation meant “up to” as you said but they said it had to be V90, I dunno. So do you have the VMB5000 as well? 

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Unfortunately, not the first time tier-1 support has given out the wrong information.  Generally they are pretty good, but there are several cases where folks in the forum have needed to correct them.

I have two VMB5000s that are using the same microSD card I linked above.

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@corneileous wrote:

According to the Amazon link, the 128GB you use only stores 7.5 hours of 4K content. I take it you’re aware of this? 

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The amount of storage depends on the video bitrate, not the resolution.  The Amazon link is assuming about 40 megabits per second, which is a massively higher bitrate than Arlo uses. 

But I did make a mistake in my original comment  - accidently forgot to divide by 3 megabits.  The storage is actually about 100 hours. A 512 GB card would give you about 400 hours.

Arlo says you need 3 megabits per second of internet bandwidth per Ultra.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062043/What-are-the-minimum-requirements-for-installing-and-using-my-Arlo-sys....

This number is conservative - I just checked one of my recordings, and it was actually about 2.8 megabits.

You can compute the storage in hours from the card capacity and the 3 megabits per second bit rate.

• 128 gigabytes -> 128*1000*8 megabits = 1024000 megabits of storage.
• 1024000/(3*3600) seconds per hour gives ~95 hours of storage.  

Since the 3 megabits is conservative, it is safe to round up to 100 hours.

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@corneileous wrote:

Also the one guy said I could use up to a 2TB card as well. 

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The other bases use USB drives, and not microSD.  They do support 2 TB.  Since the card is formatted identically, the theoretical ceiling is 2 TB.  But I've never seen a legit 2 TB card for sale - the biggest I've seen is 1 TB.  So this is not something Arlo has actually tested.

However, several folks who have tried 1 TB cards have found that they didn't work in practice.  This was reported some time ago, so it is possible that something has changed.  Still, I haven't seen anyone claiming success.  

You do need to be careful with off-brand microSD cards (and off-brand USB flash drives).  Some are scams, and don't actually provide the capacity they claim.  It's not easy to test this, as they do report the advertised capacity in Windows, Android, etc.  But they don't actually hold that much.  There actually is one off-brand 2 TB card you can currently find on Amazon - the price is suspiciously low, as are the ratings.  It has to be fake, as no reputable manufacturer sells a card at that capacity.

Sandisk of course is a reputable brand.  

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@corneileous wrote:

But just despite if I wanted that 512GB card I mentioned or not, would that work in my system?

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As I tried to say in my earlier post, it should work in your system - giving about 400 hours of storage.

[corneileous]

@StephenB 
I honestly had no idea what the bitrate was on these recordings nor did I know what the bitrate Samsung was using to tell you how many hours of 4K recording you get on their cards but thank you for clarifying.

But if that’s the case, I’m thinkin’ a 128 gig or 256 gig is all I’ll probably ever need because even if my cameras are pretty active, I highly doubt they’re going to record more than an hour‘s worth of content a day which at 400 hours on a 512GB card, that would be well over well one year’s worth of backed up videos and I don’t think I need that much storage… Lol. 

But you’re right, you gotta be careful about SD cards on Amazon and eBay. That’s why I probably will be going through walmart.com or Sam’s or something like that I don’t know. I may just go on that westerndigital.com and buy my card off of there just so I know I’m getting a legit card. 

but thank you for your help man, I really appreciate it.

[corneileous]

@StephenB 

well, after making a phone call to B&H Photo, I decided on a card. They advised me to use the SanDisk 256GB MAX ENDURANCE UHS-I microSDXC Memory Card with SD Adapter being that this card is designed to have data written to it and taken away from it on a constant basis. Says it’s 
UHS-I / V30 / U3 / Class 10, Max Read Speed: 100 MB/s, Max Write Speed: 40 MB/s, Min Write Speed: 30 MB/s, Records Full HD and 4K Video. Water, Shock, and X-Ray Proof. Resistant to Temperature Extremes. It says it’s also designed for home, security cameras and dash cams so we’ll see. 

Thanks for your help.