Its a 4K camera... but if you want 4k you have to pay more?

[mauijer]

Feeling pretty ripped off by the Ultra lineup.

Its a 4K camera... but if you want 4k you have to pay more???

Its like selling you my beach house then saying its not really on the beach but has the potential if you pay a service to have the land excavated... Um, no

"Color night Vision" lol. you mean regular night vision with a light.

"Crystal clear".. nope, pixelated, distorted, and not recorded

"180 view" ... what good is a view if your motion detection doesn't work at the edges or within the view. My cameras are only detecting motion 5-10 feet in front of the dead center of the camera.

Even on your advertisement page you state all images are simulations... So you cant even show your actual results? That should have been a red flag.

[LarryQwest]

Couldn't agree more, and so do all the other on-line reviews now popping up over the internet. They all have come to the same conclusion: product failure and bad business plan by removing the 7 day cloud feature from the Ultra. You have a chance to quickly correct the ship Arlo, but it will require immediate action.

[BestBuyGuy]

---

@LarryQwest wrote:

Couldn't agree more, and so do all the other on-line reviews now popping up over the internet. They all have come to the same conclusion: product failure and bad business plan by removing the 7 day cloud feature from the Ultra. You have a chance to quickly correct the ship Arlo, but it will require immediate action.

---

Yup, pretty easy to own up to this and immediately correct the ship as you say. Restore the basic plan, offer early victims some sort of benefit for beta testing this failure, and pull the product until it is ready. Do that and you can eventually recover from this. Keep going as you are and this time next year most of you at Arlo won't have a job.

[zincyellowcobra]

I feel the same. I was absolutely unaware of the additional cost to record 4K to the cloud. With that said, maybe my online research fell short.  Maybe, Arlo should do a better job disclosing this material fact to it’s consumers. Not just what is included, but full disclosure of what isn’t included. You are purchasing a 4k camera with 30 days cloud storage, free for the first year.  Zero disclosure that cloud recording is not 4K. A disclosure outside the box would be nice but definitely inside the box should be mandatory. I spent several days not understanding why the vid quality was so poor. No where on or inside the box did I find instructions to upgrade subscription to include PVR 4K add-on.

Arlo does have a disclosure on sure on the box stating Arlo Smart service requires a paid subscription after 1 year. THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PERFECT PLCE TO MENTION 4K CLOUD RECORDING REQUIRES A PAID SUBCRIPTION, IMMEDIATELY. 

[JPC]

To really enjoy 4k, there are requirements and its going to cost you more.. Just like buying a 4k TV.. It supports 4k but in order to experience 4k you need to buy/rent/stream a 4k compatible device player, 4k capable Hdmi cable, Streaming services such as Netflix premium that supports 4k and of course a media 4k/bluray.. I'm pretty sure the idea is almost the same as Arlo Ultra with their requirements to view 4k.. Sadly, Arlo release this without disclosing properly about the requirements.. 

[LarryQwest]

This is nothing like buying a 4k tv. A 4k camera should be able to operate without having to pay any additional and confusing fees. A 4k tv should be able to operate (and they can) without paying an additional usage fee. Imagine buying a new tv and hooking up your bluray player only to find out you have to pay to watch your movie in 4k on the tv and another fee on the disc player to output 4k. This is almost extotion and nickle & diming your customers to the fullest, and people have caught on. If Arlo didn't take away the free 7 day plan then I can see it going over much better. Right now there is severe customer backlash that any competent project manager should have seen coming.

[mauijer]

I can kind of see that analogy, but really what it feels like is purchasing your new shiney 4K TV then turning it on and only seeing 1080p with a message that says if you actually want 4k then you have to pay the TV company another fee every month... and then also worry about all the secondary equipment you mentioned. If a TV is advertised as 4k, when you turn it on it should be 4K. If a video camera security company sells a 4k camera and boasts about its 4k capabilities it should do so out of the box. 

[Notrab]

I haven't seen one video example and review that shows anything that looks like 4K. So are you telling me that the camera doesn't do 4K out of the box at all? Or it does 4K or a year for free?

If that's the case, the "4K" looks like my Arlo Pro video quality on high.

[SteveDoes]

I really want to like these cameras. I was so excited when i found out about them that i rushed out to BestBuy and set them up right away. A week of headacks and several youtube postings later, i can't take anymore. The negatives are just too overwhelming. IF these really are a good product i want Arlo to own all these issue. Admit this first wave was junk and ensure us it's being fixed and will be re-released in a few months. By not admitting there is a problem i assume this is as good as they get. TIme to look for a company that takes pride it's its products and cares about the customer experience. 

[Bigjames83]

I honestly can’t call this 4K at all. I have the arlo ultra setup right next to my nest outdoor IQ and it is not much better at all. Also if you dream of catching car plates. Forget that unless they are super close to the camera.

[JAEBR]

I am considering to by the Arlo Ultra, but is now unsure if I should go for the arlo Pro 2 instead...

What about local recording will that be in 4K without subscription?

[JamesC]

Bigjames83,

Do your video recordings in your library have the 4K badge showing on the thumbnail?

JAEBR,

Local recording to a microSD card is available in 4K without a subscription.

[Bigjames83]

Yup they sure do. The arlo id say is just a little bit bitter than the nest. I am very underwhelmed.

[ChefJeff]

I received my Ultras on Monday and have been watching this community. This is my first set of cameras of any brand, so I did not have a comparison to other cameras. Yesterday, I purchased a Nest IQ and the following are the results of max zoom of both (Arlo in 4K,  plugged in). The picture is 28 feet away. Nest wins if you ask me. 

I am not sure what to do with these....wait it out or return. I really want to like them, but the lack of peripherals is mind boggling. A single three foot charge cable for four cameras?!

[Comiotmoto]

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@JAEBR wrote:

I am considering to by the Arlo Ultra, but is now unsure if I should go for the arlo Pro 2 instead...

What about local recording will that be in 4K without subscription?

---

I was just in this situation. Had the Ultra for a week and tried working with the incompetent customer support every day. Literally. Returned to Best Buy and replaced with a Pro 2 set. Much, much better picture quality and the system works beautifully! My recordings on the memory card were in 4k and local network live streaming were in 4k. Picture quality in either 4k or 1080p was inferior to the Pro 2. The problems I had are too numerous to list, but if you can stomach giving Netgear/Arlo another shot the Pro 2 system will probably be perfect for you. I may still end up returning the Pro 2 as well because I am quickly loosing trust in this company as a whole. They are not stepping up and correcting things that can be easily corrected (some form of free cloud recording after a year and not charging extra for 4k), and I am positive that they let this system go out fully aware of the multitude of problems. Even basic real world testing by a 12 year old would have revealed endless flaws. Other users have stated it took a very long time to correct the issues the Pro 2 had, but it was no where near the failure the Ultra is.

[mauijer]

It seems to me that if they had called it an Arlo Pro3 and simply claimed 1080p with advanced features to include built-in spotlight and charged a slightly higher fee for the setup and continued 7day cloud storage there would be very little upset in the community. Honestly I feel like facial recognition and tracking should be a standard feature in the evolution of the product to distinguish them from competitors and not require a monthly membership but that that just my opinion as a consumer. 

I really hate when a company markets its advanced features but then has to qualify them with a giant asterix/footnote stating that those features are not really included unless you upgrade or pay a fee. Furthermore to not be clear about this is even worse. This is where the Ultra 4K loses it for me. Call it what it is and I would have been happy, but when you tack on $100/camera and call it an upgrade we expect more. 

[JAEBR]

Thanks.

I mostly considered the Ultra because of the hubs possibility to expand with the new security products (sensors, siren and remote control) and of course the 4K would be nice but not mandatory for me.

Based on all the posts about the Ultra version I think I will go for the Pro 2 and then take it from there and go for a new hub when the new security products is testet and work properly.

[Mavrrick]

You can do all of the home automation stuff with Smartthings and as of now all of the other arlo's integrate with it. It also has a fairly robust alarm setup as well between the ADT Smartthings panel and the regular Smartthings hub with Smart Home Monotir.

[JamesC]

We've heard your concerns and have an exciting announcement based on your feedback. Take a look here for more information: Local and Remote Access to Local Storage for Arlo Ultra via Arlo App Expected in Second Half of 2019

JamesC

[zincyellowcobra]

@JamesC 

That is welcomed news! This announcement is huge. Arlo making this change is a direct result of listening to consumer feedback.  This goes a long way to reassure me that not only does Arlo listen, they care about the customer.  

I had been pretty frustrated early on, however, having JamesC as a conduit to the engineering team via the Arlo community is a huge benefit and glad to see announcements like this coming out. This is confirmation that Arlo does care what the end user experience is or is not...... 

[addertay]

Great News about the local storage. I would also love the ability for manual clips to also record at 4K

[ChefJeff]

@JamesC 

What does this announcement have to do with the performance of the 4K cameras?

I could honestly care less about not having to pay because I expected to pay for advanced features. I don't really like the fact that I have to pay to record in 4k, but if I want higher end services with other products, I have to pay for them, so it is similar.

I just want to have a camera that records the way it is supposed to and does not have the issues that we are still experiencing...not close to 4k image, zoom and track, live view in 4k is washing out, etc.

This announcement just seems like it is covering up the fact that there are issues with the product now by making the people that want free storage happy.

[JamesC]

ChefJeff,

We're working hard to address these issues and concerns as well. The engineering team is working with many users currently on firmware releases that should address many of the concerns you're noting here. I'll keep these threads updated with the latest information I have available.

JamesC

[eshutter]

Any updates yet James?

Are the issues users have been experiencing close to being resolved?

Considering pre-ordering the Ultra Kit but a lack of updates regarding progress is a little disheartening. 

Joe

[CekItalian]

Hallo Everybody,

first i will excuse me for my poor english .

I have some Logitech Circle Cam working great and without issues, I have also 2 Ring cam but they have some issues with interruption of internet connection.. After temporarely stop of connection Cams become unusables and I replaced four with Ring...

I have also one Arlo Q that's work great , really .

I will now buy Arlo Ultra just because they have 180 degrees angle of view and Light buili-in for night vision in color...

I'm really happy now for this announced amazing product ( according to Arlo and advertising) but after having read somes customers reviews...I became wary and undecided.

I knew that there are too much issues with Arlo Ultra i.e firmware, software and maybe hardware... and more issue due to fees for protect plan and 4k recording...

mhhh.. not sure to buy at now !!!

I 'l wait when reviews become better and major issues will be solved from Arlo !

I dont' like the ready-made answer from customer care or support service I like true answer from customers, and at now 

i'm aware that device isn't ready to work well, and it cost lot of money, like an good holiday.

please let me know if this product could improve and justify buy..

Have great day to all