Lots of issues with video doorbell: lag and artifacts, activity zones only with monthly fee etc.

[hastalavista]

I just bought this Arlo Video Doorbell and I have to say that I'm regretting it already. Installation was quite laborious. I had to run new wires and actually I also had to buy a new chime because the old one was only good for 8 V and Arlo doesn't support that, box didn't include any chime and Arlo's own chime is not even compatible with this. You must be joking 🙂

There's a horrible delay and lag in live view. It's impossible to try to have any conversation with anyone on the door. Picture quality is ok in live view, if I start it myself, but if someone presses the doorbell then there are lots of quality issues and strange artifacts in the picture.

And maybe the biggest issue: is it really so that I cannot define activity zones without paying a monthly fee? You must be kidding! It's so basic and simple functionality! I can do that with my previous Arlo camera and of course I thought that it's also possible with this one.  With my previous camera, I can also have one week of recording history without any extra money.  Would I need to pay for that also? If I cannot use activity zones then this camera is pretty useless as it would trigger all the time (there's a road in front of the camera).

I also thought that I could record my own answer if I'm not at home, but it seems that I can only select some predefined English phrases. I'm living in a country where English is not the native language, so this feature is also useless.

My previous Arlo camera has been really good. That's why I also bought this, but now it doesn't look good for the money that I already paid. Have I just misunderstood something or is this product really this bad?

[JamesC]

hastalavista,

Activity Zones and cloud storage on the Arlo Video Doorbell require an active subscription to Arlo Smart. Without a subscription, content cannot be saved to the cloud library and Activity Zones will not work.

The issues you're experiencing with lag and artifacting could be related to poor signal strength. How far from your router is the doorbell? What does the signal strength icon show for the doorbell?

JamesC

[hastalavista]

Hi and thanks for your answer. Signal strength is full, so that shouldn't be the cause. That mandatory subscription really sucks. My other Arlo camera doesn't require that. I'm not going to pay monthly subscription for a door bell. Come on, it's a doorbell! If I would be paying monthly fees for every little device, the overall sum would be huge in yearly level. In my opinion, this has not been advertised properly. I wouldn't have bought any Arlo devices, if I had to pay anything more than the device itself. Seven days of recordings included that are available in my previous camera are ok. Even one day would be ok, but nothing included is a joke. Fortunately there are alternatives. Too bad I didn't understand this before buying this device. Thought that I can count on Arlo as before, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

I also have issue that I cannot create other account for my wife and for home automation purposes.  When I try to create a new account, I get "Invalid email address" although address is a valid gmail address wihout any special characters etc. No email address seem to be valid according to Arlo.