Arlo ultra not recording in 4k local

[LandJS]

JamesC an explanation please on why 4K live is now only 2K live ?

[LandJS]

The question I have on the 3 sec. is why.  If it can do it when on power then why not on battery or solar unless it's purpose is to save on battery.  If so, it should be a user controlled option but then knowing arlo it's probably built into the hardware.

[dcfox1]

I am not  a tech but yes I imagine it would kill the battery fast. 

[LandJS]

No recording in 4K to the SD doesn't kill the battery much if any faster.  Haven't noticed any difference myself with 2K since they stole my 4K from me.

[dcfox1]

@LandJS 

I was replying to your post  about 3 second look back about effecting the battery. 

[LandJS]

OK sorry about that, I had been reading previous posts and this thread kind of jumps about from where it started.  However I would be curious why an extra 3 sec would cause drain.  I use to have all 7 of mine set to 45 seconds without a drain until a firmware caused a permanent setting to have large 10  to 25 second drops in video at the start of many recordings, only showing the last 3 to 10 seconds.  There have been a couple more firmware updates but I haven't tried it again.  Perhaps the cameras can't record the first 3 seconds unless plugged in, just curious is all.

[trinatron]

The 3 second look back feature requires the camera to always be on and therefore requires a constant power source.

On battery the camera would be dead in less than a week. Solar is not a constant power source as it's off during the evening/nights and not the best on cloudy/rainy days

[trinatron]

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@n11 wrote:

I originally thought I would use solar but changed my mind immediately after discovering one feature would be missing. When you are on wired power (not solar) there is a 3 second rollback on the video when an event is triggered. Without that 3 second look-back you often miss the action that triggered the event making it useless in many cases. The 3 seconds is not enough but it's better than nothing. This is just one of a long list of frustrations with the Arlo Ultra system.

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Don't forget about the local activity zones when wired. With cloud activity zones the camera still records all motions in and out of the set activity zones and sends to the cloud for processing. Arlo will then only alert you on the events which occurred in activity zone and delete the recording in the cloud. The recording on the SD card still remains. With local activity zones the camera itself determines if it occurred in the activity zone and only records those events.

[trinatron]

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@trinatron wrote:

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@n11 wrote:

I originally thought I would use solar but changed my mind immediately after discovering one feature would be missing. When you are on wired power (not solar) there is a 3 second rollback on the video when an event is triggered. Without that 3 second look-back you often miss the action that triggered the event making it useless in many cases. The 3 seconds is not enough but it's better than nothing. This is just one of a long list of frustrations with the Arlo Ultra system.

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Don't forget about the local activity zones when wired. With cloud activity zones the camera still records all motions in and out of the set activity zones and sends it to the cloud for processing. Arlo will then only alert you on the events which occurred in the activity zone and delete the recording for the events which occurred outside of the activity zone (in the cloud). The recording on the SD card still remains therefore filling it up with unnecessary clips. With local activity zones the camera itself determines if it occurred in the activity zone and only records those events.

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[LandJS]

Thanks for the info Trinatron, that's answers my curiosity and adds to reasons to change to another system.  If it has to be hardwired to fully function, it might as well be a hardwired system without all the issues.  Those 3 secs make a real difference and explains why videos are often missing the triggers.

[silverado44]

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@LandJS wrote:

No recording in 4K to the SD doesn't kill the battery much if any faster.  Haven't noticed any difference myself with 2K since they stole my 4K from me.

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Your lucky you have 2K I have the pro2 system and they stole 1080P from us and were not even getting 720P. 

Bottom line is Arlo is screwing the customers and they could care a less, hear that Matt McRae mister CEO man and I bet you don't even own your own system in your house.

I wish I had a twitter, facebook account because he is on there only to post how his company is ripping people off on his product but iam not going to sign up just to do that so you people who have the account post your issues there so everyone can see them including him because he will not come to his own forum product site. 

[trinatron]

@LandJS
I agree. If you’re prepared to run the cable, PoE is 100% the way to go.

What is currently working for me, is I have the two front yard cameras, which are monitoring high traffic areas, hard wired and two back yard cameras, which see less traffic, on solar panels.

If it weren’t for the following three ridiculous issues, I would be totally satisfied with the system

1. No local 4K recordings with the standard subscription
2. Terrible lag with local 4K live view
3. Significant lag with local 1080p live view even though Apple HomeKit doesn’t suffer from this

[michele5389]

@LandJS Well said (...if it has to be hardwired...)!  I feel the same way, hence my journey to find another system. 

[michele5389]

As an FYI, I purchased my cameras one year ago from Best Buy. I just submitted a detailed review which should post in a couple of days warning potential buyers about these issues. 

Maybe this will get Arlo’s attention seeing Best Buy’s reach. 

[trinatron]

What's even worse...... Apparently Arlo has released an Ultra 2 which may be exclusive to Costco. It lists dual-band WiFi (adds 2.4GHz) and greater range as the main differences from the original Ultra. I have a sneaky suspicion it's exactly the same as the original model, as I have a camera around 20m away from the Smarthub and through two brick walls which has good signal. It has to be using 2.4GHz not 5GHz for that camera.

So why would they release a new version (which is probably just a new name) before fixing these issues?

[michele5389]

@trinatron I just read a couple of reviews on Costco’s website and one was pretty startling. One guys said it was amazing how the camera picked up a cat walking across his driveway, but did not record someone breaking in his truck!

I concur - these things are not reliable.  

[LandJS]

The original ultra was only 2.4 to start with and it was a couple months before they turned on 5 GHz making it dual band so not seeing a difference unless I missed something

[Spike13]

My guess is they can’t fix these issues so they changed something unspecified with the hardware and came out with V2. I’m taking a chance on the V2 system since I was able to return my original Ultra system. I’ll let you guys know how it goes. As bad as the original Ultra was for me, I just don’t want to run wires through my house.

[LandJS]

Wishing you luck but not betting on it.  From everything I can find on V2 not much has change.  They claim better range but that may be an improved hub, I know it's not the same hub that came with the original and they have some new mounts that lock.  The thing is much of the issues are service related and greed so.  Many of the issues didn't exist originally.  Wishing you well and let us know.

[Spike13]

Will do. The only safe bet here is that Costco has a great return policy. Unlike Arlo who’s corporate policy has become obfuscation to avoid any impacts to their bottom line from this disastrous product release. Have you seen the sword age thread where someone claims to have spoken to their CEO who said he knew nothing of these issues with the Ultra systems? This is just disgustingly insulting...

[trinatron]

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@Spike13 wrote:
My guess is they can’t fix these issues so they changed something unspecified with the hardware and came out with V2. I’m taking a chance on the V2 system since I was able to return my original Ultra system. I’ll let you guys know how it goes. As bad as the original Ultra was for me, I just don’t want to run wires through my house.

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@Spike13 yes please let us know how it goes. I'm in a Australia and so the V2 is not even available. I've read it's just a Costco exclusive so whether it becomes available via Arlo directly or any other country remains to be seen. I still believe not much has changed (if anything) from the currently available V1 models with the latest hardware versions. My cameras are hardware version H7 and H8 and my Smarthub is the VMB5000. I'll be interested to know what versions you get with the V2 as the V2 documentation still only mentions compatibility the currently available Smarthubs.

[LandJS]

No haven't seen that page. The pissed customer page has 100's of complaints as does any that aren't arlo controlled. Reviewer sites rate them well enough but there is a difference between trying one and owning one for a while. I actually wouldn't be surprised if the CEO hadn't heard (but I doubt it). There was originally a major delay notification issue with android (like 20 to 30 mins) after four months of fighting with them I got to a engineer who said he never heard of it and it was fixed in less than a week.

[Boscht]

Got 4k local to record on SD! And 4k live works too. OK, so what I did was unpair both cameras, unplugged the smart hub, plugged back in and re-paired. Now they both record to SD in 4k! finally! I get the icon on the smart hub when viewing local recordings and everything. I'm on the free 1yr subscription.
The other issue I'm having though, is one of my cameras constantly has motion alerts like every 3-5 mins, when there is absolutely no motion, I set sensitivity to 40% and a smallest activity zone, keep saying theirs motion, anyone else have this issue? Will probably return this one camera at this point. One problem solved, one more to go.

[GrantLeffler]

You can't trust the CEO.  

Google Search:  This TV company was spying on you until it was called out

Matthew McRae, Arlo’s CEO is pictured front and center.   He's not what you want in a CEO and it helps explain all the BS that goes on at Arlo.  There's gonna be a lot of crappy people underneath Matty Boy.  How else does your Stock go from $22 a Share to $2 a Share in 1 Year.      

[michele5389]

As an FYI. It seems my Best Buy negative review got some traction. Of course they want me to send an email and they will assist me....

I replied to their post and directed them to this forum and ultimately, but politely, dismissed their attempt to minimize my comments, including pixs. 

I told them if they really wanted to make things right, come over to the 4K forum and address our concerns. 

Let’s see what happens....

[LandJS]

Your lucky lol a bad review on Amazon didn't get their attention but I only bought one extra there, the first 6 came from BestBuy, maybe I should go on there 6 times.  It wasn't for their attention anyway but rather to inform others.  Hope they get back to you with a solution real soon now.