Question about moving from Ultra cameras from VMB5000 to direct to my WiFi router

[n1976jmk]

Good afternoon all!

I had a question about my two Ultra cameras that are presently connected to my VMB5000 smart hub.

Can I remove/reset them from Smart Hub then when I add them back instead go DACP, connecting directly to my home WiFi. Understanding my local SD recording won’t work anymore.

My only question before I do that will my Arlo audio doorbell and Arlo door chime continue to pop up my front yard Ultra camera when the doorbell is pressed and ring the chime even though those will continue to be connected to the VMB5000 Smart Hub.

FYI my production setup:
qty 2 ultra cameras
qty 1 audio doorbell battery powered (no home chime)
qty 1 plug in 110v Arlo door chime

[jguerdat]

The Ultra cameras don't connect your WiFi - they require the hub as does the Arlo chime.

[n1976jmk]

Thanks @jguerdat.

 Question, have you ever experienced the issue of gray colored thumbnails for the motion detection videos in your library or heard of the issue of someone’s else’s system doing it?

If so, do you know the fix possibly?

the thumbnails have solid gray color on them so you don’t get to see from the lock screen who or what it is causing the motion detection recordings.  So it forces me to open the app and look at the videos in the library, which also have the gray color on the thumb now but when you play the videos they play completely normal without any gray color.

this issue started about a month ago on both my ultra cameras even though I’ve made no changes at home and they’ve worked fine without gray color thumbnails for the last year and four months.

Any of your wisdom would be greatly appreciated

[jguerdat]

Wisdom? Surely you jest.  🙂

I do occasionally get "imperfect" thumbnails, whether gray, streaked, or otherwise distorted. Seems to me I always have in the years I've had these cameras. I expect that this is due to the selection of the frame to display - it's apparently not specifically about the subject causing the recording but may well be counting a certain number of frames into the video. That could be the first , 10th or whatever. I have no way of knowing. All I can say is that when I view that video, it's not always apparent why that frame was used.

[n1976jmk]

Thanks for the reply @jguerdat 

Out of desperation I went to the store yesterday and bought a WiFi extender with one Ethernet port built in.

I moved the Smart Hub from the 1st floor to second floor so now the Hub is two floors away from the FIOS G3100 router.

Before I moved the Smart Hub about every 2 or 3 out of 10 thumbnails were solid gray in my my video library.  Since I’ve moved it now every 1 or 2 out of 30 thumbnails are gray.  So moving the Hub has definitely made a difference.

But what I don’t understand as well is I didn’t have this issue for almost 16 months until 4 weeks ago.

Such as life figuring out tech issues, not everything can have answers I’ve learned over the years.....

But today I have an in-line power Ethernet extender arriving from Amazon which I’m going to swap out from the WiFi extender (since my FIOS G311 is great at giving us full WiFi at home from all rooms so I don’t need the this WiFi extender and it was temporary purchased as a test only).

And when install the power Ethernet extender later today I’m going to move the Hub another room over upstairs so it’s even further away from the G3100.

I’m also continuing to research/troubleshoot more and now questioning to disable DFS on my G3100 since it has to do with the same 5ghz antenna and changes the channels to ‘optimize’ but I’ve read not all 5ghz equipment is happy with DFS enabled, maybe the Arlo smart hub is one of those unhappy pieces of equipment.......

thanks sir again for your time and wisdom!

[jguerdat]

There's a difference in my mind between a gray thumbnail and base/hub positioning. The thumbnail is apparently just a frame from the recording but the hub location relative to other wireless devices (such as your router) may well cause that frame to be gray but also can lead to video corruption such as a gray frame. I recently had an issue with video quality that turned out to be my hub being right next to my router with an RSSI of -8dB - basically on top of each other although this is how the system has run for years. I moved it ~3 feet or so away and the corruption went away for the most part (I still get occasional corruption but not as bad). So, your moving your hub away is a good start to hopefully resolving the issue.

[n1976jmk]

Thanks @jguerdat 

@attached is an example of my ‘gray thumbnails’ for you to see.

thanks again for your time sir!

[jguerdat]

Ah, it is indeed video corruption (the image isn't completely gray but shows remnants of the subject or some object). If moving the hub resolves the issue, you found the problem, although it could be either the relative position of the hub to the router or the exact signal strength/quality between the camera and hub. Sometimes repositioning the hub is all that's needed, regardless of the reason.