Arlo video latency is not normal

[RobDec]

I have 3 arlo 3 cameras. I recently bought the doorbell. I had it installed by professional electricians. While installing I noticed the latency. I looked into and moved my base station downstairs and it improved from 8s to 4s. Then I realized it happens on the cameras too. Then I started reading the forums and apparently this is solved by Arlo saying this is normal. It has to go to the cloud first. THIS IS NOT NORMAL. I can talk on Messenger, FaceTime etc to people in other states through the cloud and have no latency. I can talk to people at work all day on Teams and have no latency. I can watch movies on multiple devices and no latency. But I have "security" cameras and a dumbbell that can't even close the circuit to ring my bell.
What this is is false advertising. This is not a security camera. It's not a doorbell because by the time it notifies you someone is at the door they left. So stop the BS with the "this is normal". Fix it or stop ripping people off by selling a product that does not work as adversative. At least put on the advertising

"SIGNIFICANT LATANCY IS NORMAL WITH OUR PRODUCTS. DO NOT USE FOR SECURITY. DOORBELL AND CAMERAS NOT ABLE TO BE USED FOR COMMUNICATION AT ANY TIME."

[JamesC]

A slight delay (3-4 seconds) is normal behavior. When initiating a live stream, the camera must connect to the Arlo cloud, the delay seen is due to the time it takes to maintain that connection.

JamesC

[RobDec]

The video needs to go to the cloud to search for motions and send notifications. But when the user is watching they can see the motions. You can send the video to the cloud in a background thread, search for motions and send notifications with latency. Send the video/audio in real time to the user so they can see it and interact with it. The priority is the user. Secondary is that my barbecue is driving on my deck.

[Dannybear]

I don’t believe it is normal to have such a long latency.

Testing my pro2 cameras on two way mode I get 3 seconds delay from the camera and half second delay from my phone microphone back to the camera speaker.
Changing the distance between camera and base should not alter the latency unless there is wifi quality or interference issues.
Additionally latency can occur if the wifi is cluttered with other devices using up the bandwidth at the same time.

[RobDec]

The only device that connects to my network is the base station. The cameras and doorbell connect to that through whatever protocol arlo uses. Camera/Doorbell -> base station -> cloud -> arlo app. Some cameras may even go through other cameras because arlo says so.

[Dannybear]

You could also have a faulty doorbell, test the latency delay of the other cameras with the doorbell powered off and compare.
The doorbell should also be able to connect via the base station or directly to the local wifi router. Might be worth comparing this configuration.

[RobDec]

I would guess how it works with my setup. Backdoor -> base station -> cloud -> arlo app. That's how I know when my barbecue is driving on my deck or becomes sentient and is a person. Doorbell -> base station -> cloud -> arlo app. And it still doesn't ring my bell. Front door camera -> doorbell -> base station -> cloud -> arlo app. Garage -> front door -> doorbell -> base station -> cloud -> arlo app. 
If all the cameras went to the base station and to the app first the latency would be negligible. If they connected to my network and went to the app on my wifi connect phone they would rock.

[RobDec]

If I connect the doorbell directly to wifi I can't use the cloud to detect motions. I suppose I could save $10 a month not subscribing to arlo and using my connected NAS. But I don't get the advantage of arlo detecting motions. I'm not even sure how to do that.

[Dannybear]

It was intended for testing the latency delay to the other cameras.

Regards the doorbell, it can operate via the base or via the internet wifi router. The smart detection feature depends on the subscription plan although without one you don’t get motion recordings to the cloud.

Have you access to the user manual? There are links for these at the head of the forum board for this model. Also FAQs etc.

[KennyBroh]

I just bought this product and installed it. The video delay is HORRIBLE. I have other cameras which do not have this problem. The Wi-Fi signal is strong where it is and unless someone can suggest a solution it’s going back asap.

It’s totally useless like this.

[JamesC]

KennyBroh,

Could you provide more details? How long is the delay you're experiencing?

JamesC

[KennyBroh]

At least 3-4 seconds and I have almost 1gb wireless speed.

[JamesC]

A slight delay (3-4 seconds) is normal behavior. When initiating a live stream, the camera must connect to the Arlo cloud, the delay seen is due to the time it takes to maintain that connection.

JamesC

[RobDec]

Arlo needs to make it known that Arlo considers latency in doorbell cameras normal. I've seen videos on America's Funniest Home videos where people have been speaking to the pets in real time on a Furbo with no noticeable latency. I've seen others where people are talking to their kids. No noticeable delay. 

3-4 seconds is so noticeable that you can't have a conversation with someone. All these other devices go to the cloud. Messenger, FaceTime, Duo, Teams, Zoom. I never noticed a delay and I use them daily talking to people at work and family in other states. But I can stand in front of my doorbell with the Arlo app connected to it on my phone and when I move it takes 4 seconds to show it. If I'm talking it 4 seconds to hear it. 

You need to put on your advertising that there is a noticeable 3-4 second delay so people don't waste their time buying it only to find about the delay. Then you can say it's normal. But that's not what Arlo advertises.

"Normal for Arlo : 3-4 seconds delays"

[KennyBroh]

That's exactly my experience. Standing in front of the doorbell, iPhone in hand, if I wave it takes at least 3-4 seconds before I see it on the screen.  I just installed the doorbell and I have another camera which covers the same area and captures motion events, and I had an Amazon delivery today which the other camera captured while the motion event on the Arlo only captured the person's back as they were walking away going down the front steps.

'    .  

[KennyBroh]

I could accept a 3-4 second delay in establishing the initial connection, but saying a continuing 3-4 second delay is "normal" is totally preposterous for a product specifically promoted for interactive communication with someone who rings the bell or appears at the door.  A 3-4 second delay makes that real time communication totally impossible and it is borderline offensive for you expect anyone to accept that as "normal".  

You cannot possibly believe that.

[bmccle]

You are lucky.  My wireless doorbell is absolutely horrible.  About 15 second delay.  Someone can walk all the way down my sidewalk - about 50 feet and it won't pick them up until they are right at the doorbell.   Sometimes it won't pick up at all.  It's borderline useless.

[bmccle]

Ditto.

[bmccle]

And to make it worse, it's priced like it is a premium product.  My doorbell delay is much worse the 3-4 seconds.   Closer to 7-10 seconds.  Total trash.

[Shadowy]

For me the latency is 3-4 seconds when things are working really well. I say really well...because it can be 10-15 seconds. Or even timeout. This is to setup the connection. After that, the delay vary from 

I have Nest doorcam as well. The Nest doorbell cam is pretty quick at 1-2 seconds when working well. And, when not, more like 3-5. I test the Nest and Arlo at the same time. So, I know the network is decent shape when comparing. 

I have 2 Ultras, 1 flood and 1 Arlo 4. 

I used to have the 4K cloud service from Arlo. But, I went to 2K thinking that maybe the latency would decrease. Nope. Didn't help. But, also, I can really tell the different in 4K. I was hoping 2K would use less bandwidth and improve the performance. But, didn't seem to help. 

I don't believe 3-4 is acceptable during live video. Sorry. Sure, when the network is congested, you can have blimps or out of sync stuff. But, when not, I expect 1 to 2 seconds with a good solid connection. And that is not even great for audio.  At 4 seconds,  you can't have a 2 way audio call. I worked for a big telephony company and been doing VOIP for 15 years. The threshold we use for a poor audio call is 250ms (jitter) delay. Well under a second.  But, we also do video conference as well and that is more challenging and can have larger delays at times. And, our service is cloud hosted.  Our customers would leave us if we have this sort of performance. To give you example, our customers do conferences all over the world. No way we can sell our service with 4 second delay. Keep in mind, there is setup speed of getting first video...and, there is delay when video is streaming. 1-2 when live streaming is pretty good when not getting video directly on the same network. But, 8 seconds kills the experience from doorbell perspective. 

I'll have to do some packet captures to see where Arlo sends it data to. I assume AWS. But, if so, most tings to send to AWS from my house have a latency of 20-30ms on average. Round trip this, means 60ms. Of course, there is much more in invovled in setting up the secure connection and video.  Also, to be fair, Arlo can't control the routing to their service. You provider might be give you really good bandwidth. But, maybe not to Arlo servers. Not using that as an excuse.  Just point out that you can do these speed tests and they give a high number. But, they stink going to their service. No, if Arlo was smart, they would have speed test to their service built into the product so you can test from your house. Although, maybe they don't want this as it show that it's good...and, the issue is really them.  

That said, 10-15 seconds is terrible. 8 seconds is also not good. Again, assuming your internet connection is good.  And, to say that your doorbell can have that sort of delay is not something they should tell customers.  What's the point if it's that delayed. 

I really thinks Arlo needs to look at their architecture.  When someone is paying premium prices, you expect premium experience. My Nest doorbell cam is an original Nest (not Google) one and it performs better than the newer Arlo equipment. I think the Arlo product could be an amazing solution if Arlo took a hard look at the most important feature of the product. Video.  

P.S. At least let me send my video to a NAS or Apple HomeKit Secure Video. Paying for your service that doesn't work well is killing me.  And, sorry for long post. I feel your pain. 

[mrbiz]

Wouldn't Arlo doorbells get less latency if Netgear moved their servers from the moon back to earth since the round trip is causing 5.2 seconds of latency.

[StephenB]

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@mrbiz wrote:

if Netgear

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FWIW, Netgear divested Arlo in 2018, and no longer has any stake in the company.

[Dannybear]

I can only guess the causes for the delay, if using a Base station try power cycling it to see if the delay improves.

What is delay cause, likely due to heavy server traffic and buffering is required to manage the stream so you maintain fluid video.

I think what would be useful is for the arlo live stream player to give the ability to skip ahead playback at the users control to the current time to eliminate the buffered data.

Although this should be automatic it is not achieved as the data is likely buffered at the customers equipment.

I imagine there is a trade off between how long your willing to wait for the video stream to start and what you get away with by buffering it instead. 

[DanC77]

If we had known about the latency, we wouldn't have bought the system. There have been times when the latency is so bad it is between 5 and 10 second delay, and that is just for the cameras right near base unit, and we don't use the cloud. The cost of the subscription doesn't match the system performance  😒 

We have Arlo 2 and 3 cams at the house. I've stopped looking at them it gets that bad. 

[DanC77]

3 to 4 seconds latency is normal? That's a cop out if I have ever heard one. You guys might want to look into getting that fixed. 

[Rujiroj]

I have the same issue. It takes 7+ seconds to connect and then when I’m watching “live”, the lag is about 10 seconds. I have no base station but the wired doorbell is near the modem and I have 1.5G, strong wifi. People leave the door before I can even see/talk to them.  This is a garbage product. I wish I could get my money back.