Arlo Ultra 4 K streaming

[Sheppeyboy]

I have an Arlo Smart Elite Subscription.

BT my broadband provider is complaining that its my 8 x Ultra cameras over 2  x VMB 5000 base stations that are slowing down my broadband speed. I did have Fibre 250 (fibre to the cabinet, copper to my home) when I first reported the initial slow broadband fault but eventually persuaded by BT that they couldn’t sustain the 250 speed as I was over the distance limit from the street cabinet so very reluctantly, I agreed to downgrade to Fibre 100 but this speed still can’t be maintained. What they are saying is that after exhaustive testing the 4K streaming over several weeks with me, its the Ultra cameras that are  causing the broadband to slow down, the broadband dynamically  slows itself down so it doesn’t actually drop the connection. They said I am the biggest user  terabytes of data upload each month they have ever seen!

My normal download speed is about 150-160 Mbps and upload speed about 30-35 Mbps, when the Ultra cameras are 4K streaming to cloud my download speed drops to about 60Mbs but upload seems not to change (measured using the Administration tools on the BT Smart Hub 2).

If I disarm the eight Ultra cameras (detect motion off so no 4K streaming) or if I simply turn off 4K within the camera settings, within a few minutes’ broadband speed returns to normal about 150-160 Mbps and upload speed about 30-35 Mbps so it appears the cameras are causing the problem.

I would have thought that turning off 4K on each camera they would only be streaming HD1080 etc to the cloud but that doesn't seem to be the case as I can still see videos in 4K in the library?

Is there an upload 4K stream / Mbs per camera published anywhere?

Any advice, suggestions,  anyone else suffering the same problem in the UK, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[ShayneS]

Hi @Sheppeyboy

  Please contact the Support Team regarding this inquiry. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link. Arlo Tech Support

[Sheppeyboy]

I have contacted Support but no response?

[demannu]

unfortunately that is all but common with Arlo support. 

[ShayneS]

@Sheppeyboy

Did you happen to receive a case number I can review?

[Sheppeyboy]

I received a case number today after my last post  - 42109771.

The point is I have been monitoring the speed for last 8 weeks and when I don't have any ARMED on the broadband returns to normal, I would like to know why when I turn off 4K on each camera via the APP, and the cameras are armed why do I still see 4K in the library videos ?  Thanks

[ShayneS]

You may have turned off the 4k local live streaming which only affects live streaming. If you want to turn down the video quality you can adjust the Power Management settings. You can find this under Video > Power Management and select either Best, Optimized or Best battery life.

[Sheppeyboy]

ShayneS

Thanks, if I turn off 4K why am I still seeing 4K in the library, See screenshot with 4K turned off?

[dcfox1]

As ShayneS said it only effects 4k streaming not library recordings. If you have pan and zoom enabled it will default to 1080. (at least on my Pro3) Not sure If that will help your problem though. 

[Sheppeyboy]

Thanks

Just to clarify – the Ultra camera uses its PIR motion sensor to detect movement and then 4K video is streamed to the cloud which is displayed in the library?

I understand the minimum upload requirement is 3 mbps of upload for each Ultra camera at 4k per camera, so if all my 8 cameras detected movement at the same time (which they don’t), so 24-32 mbps would be required as a minimum.