Local 4K Recording

[srandall25]

1) Does the Arlo Smart Elite plan also record in 4K to the local SD card?

2) Does the CVR plan include 4K recording to the local SD card for motion triggered recordings?

[JessicaP]

Hi srandall25,

1. The Arlo Smart Elite Plan can record in 4K with local storage. You can read more about Arlo Smart subscriptions here: What are the available Arlo subscription plans and how much cloud recording is available?
2. Arlo does not currently support downloading CVR videos; you can only watch them from the cloud. 

[srandall25]

Hello Jessica,

1) This doesn't really answer my question. With the Arlo Smart Eline Plan, is the video in 4K with both cloud and local storage or is the 4K recording only on the cloud video? If the 4K is only on the cloud video, then what resolution is the video being recorded on the local SD card?

2) This also doesn't really answer my question. I fully understand that Arlo doesn't support downloading CVR videos, which is why I asked specifically about the motion triggered recordings which is different than the CVR cloud recordings. If I have the CVR plan, will the motion triggered recordings to the local SD card be in 4K? Apparently, even under the CVR plan, motion triggered recordings are still accessible via the App Library and also downloadable. All motion triggered recordings under all the other plans are also recorded to the local SD card. So the question still remains, will motion triggered recordings, under the CVR plan, be recorded to the SD card in 4K?

Thanks.

[dcfox1]

@JessicaP  did answer question 1 Local is the SD card. As for question 2 you did clear it up so mabey she will respond to that but I always got the motion recordings  with CVR  per my sub at least on my Pro3. 

[srandall25]

My question for #1 wasn't whether local is the SD card. It was if the local recording is in 4K. There was a time when we use to get local SD recording in 4K with the Premiere plan. Now they changed it so that the Premier plan local recording is 2K (not 4K) but the cloud recording is now 2K instead of 1080p. Arlo now advertises their Elite Plan as 4K video recording, but they do not specifically say if that applies to the local SD recording as well, hence my question. Their CVR plan also does not address the 'motion triggered' recording resolution for the local SD card.

Let's say you already had the Elite plan with 4K recording. Let's also assume that your local motion triggered recordings under this plan were 4K. It's entirely possible that switching to the CVR plan would cause you to lose your better quality local 4K motion triggered recordings. This is what I'm trying to figure out, in addition to the resolution of local SD recordings for the Elite plan. I really wish Arlo did a better job of addressing these features on their website. People care about access to higher resolution videos, whether that be in the cloud or on the local SD card. We want to know what we're paying for.

[jguerdat]

What's on local recordings is exactly the same as the cloud.

CVR operates separately from motion detection recordings. If motion is detected, a video will be recorded normally for both local and cloud storage. CVR will note when that recording happened by placing a bar over the timeline so you can scroll through and see what happened before and after the recording. However, I believe that CVR is only in 1080p which will also reduce your recording resolution (there's no way to record different resolutions at the same time).

[srandall25]

Thank you for your response. Actually, before Arlo changed their pricing model back in April I believe, under the Premiere plan, we use to get local 4K recordings on our SD card, while receiving Cloud recordings in 1080p. So apparently it is entirely possible to record two different resolutions, one to the cloud and one to local SD, at the same time. When Arlo switched to both cloud and local SD recording to 2K under the Premiere plan and people complained, Arlo said that they could not provide local 4K recordings while also providing 2K recordings to the cloud due to bandwidth limitations on the hardware. But as you just mentioned, under the Elite plan, Arlo is now providing 4K recordings to both the cloud and local SD. Apparently providing local 4K recording to the SD card while providing 2K recording to the cloud, would not be a hardware limitation and it was already proven under the old Premiere plan that two different resolution recordings at the same time is possible.

[srandall25]

As many of you know, if you want 4K recording, you can give up on Continuous Video Recording (CVR). I think most of us can accept that the CVR recording is only 1080p due to bandwidth limitations on the hardware, but what I don't personally get is why we can't still have 4K recordings of those 'motion triggered recordings' to our local SD card?

Before I go on to my main point of this post, let me provide a little background first. When Arlo first announced their Premiere Plan, we all had local 4K recordings to our SD card with 1080p recordings to the cloud. This was perfect because we could still see our cloud recordings in decent resolution with the option to go back and view any of our cloud recordings in 4K from the SD card if we chose to. A while back, Arlo decided to change this up so that with the Premiere Plan, we no longer get 4K recordings to our local SD card. They decided to make both local and cloud recording in 2K. I think most of us would have preferred the Premiere Plan the way it was, but this forces people to upgrade to the more expensive Elite plan if they want to maintain the ability to see their motion triggered recordings in 4K.

So now on to my main point... Arlo has proven that they can simultaneously record in two different resolutions, specifically 4K to the local SD card, and 1080p to the cloud (previously done under the former Premiere Plan). While Arlo's CVR plan doesn't allow for download of its full CVR recording, it does treat the 'motion triggered' recordings differently and these recordings can be downloaded as they are both stored in the app cloud library and also the local SD card. What I don't understand is why Arlo can't simultaneously record these 'motion triggered' recordings in the higher 4K resolution? They've proven the ability to record 1080p cloud video while recording 4K to the local SD card in the past, so why can't this be implemented with the CVR plan? Why must we be restricted to 1080p motion triggered recordings on the SD card?

Lastly, if the cloud CVR option can't also provide 'motion triggered' 4K recordings to the local SD card for some technical reason I'm not aware of, then I'd like to propose another option that I think most of us would probably prefer. I don't need access to CVR recordings via the cloud as long as I have access to the video somewhere. I'd much prefer local SD continuous video recording in 4K, while only providing the motion triggered recordings via the cloud and if that means in order to have local CVR recordings in 4K, that we have to settle for cloud 'motion triggered' recordings in 1080p, I'll take it! It's more important for me to be able to access the video I want, in the higher resolution, while only seeing the cloud video in the lower resolution. The cloud video shows me what's important and alerts me to something that is important, and in enough detail to know it's something that I may need to see in even more detail. If this latter option was available, then we could see that video in more 4K detail from the SD card. The way the CVR option is provided today, we only have the option to see the same video in 1080p only.

Arlo, please give us the option for 'motion triggered' recordings in 4K under the CVR plan. We don't need the full CVR in 4K, just the 'already saved motion triggered recordings' in 4K or give us the option for 4K CVR to the local SD card while still providing cloud 'motion triggered' recordings, in whatever resolution possible. Thank you.

[JessicaP]

Since CVR recording is in 1080p, the Ultra camera should be recording in 4K locally.

[srandall25]

Does Arlo advertise 4K recording to the local SD card for motion triggered recordings while under the CVR subscription plan? I haven't seen this in writing anywhere and I would like to know for sure that this is the case before changing my plan. Thank you.

[Vanjaap]

So, good news and bad news. It does record events locally and in the cloud in 4K. The bad news is that you can't live view and the CVR doesn't work. You get a nice message saying "The device failed to connect. Please try again." However it is recording events just fine. CVR should actually be called RLV - "Remove live view".

[LandJS]

After reading through this let me add just a bit.  I believe (at least 2 1/2 years ago) that the original plan for the first 12 months was called the premium plan.  Also it was as said 1080p to the cloud and 4K to the SD and so the can't send in 2 resolutions is indeed BS.  Then came the plans premiere and elite that Arlo wanted you to pay for and you were supposed to be able to keep the premium plan as long as you didn't change plans.  What Arlo did was not notify people when premium ran out (guess you were suppose to track it) you just lost capabilities and when you looked the only offer being made was premier and elite.  Some thought they had no choice, some confused premium with premier and clicked on it and the minute they did they changed plans and Arlo said that invalidated your ability to keep or get back your premium plan.  They maybe can't send 2K and 4K at the same time but they damned sure did send 1080P and 4K at the same time and anyone saying different is full of a word they won't let me post.

[Harold_Bien]

I also don't understand why if I'm not on any plan local videos are just 2k resolution? I've paid for the cameras and now you want a subscription (they most expensive ones too) in order to use ours features? Doesn't make any sense to me.

[Vanjaap]

I found the answer. No subscription and works perfectly. Integrates with Apple, Google and Alexa out of the box as well.