New Video Doorbell has terrible video live and recorded

[TiffanieH]

We just installed the video doorbell about a month ago, and immediately the video was great.  Glitchy once in a while, but overall fantastic.  Now, basically all video is so glitchy that either you cannot see a person there, or cannot distinguish anything but a human form outline.  This is true for a person ringing the device up close, or just a neighbor walking down the sidewalk.  The video will also freeze and only show part of the screen, kind of like old-school internet downloading an image from top to bottom, and it gets stuck on the top 1/3 of the image.  Parts of the video work just fine, so it's not all parts of every clip - that tells me the camera is working ok, at least part of the time.

So far,  I've reset and reinstalled the device on the app, with no immediate improvement.  A search of the forums didn't seem to indicate others are having this problem.

Please help! Thanks!

[JamesC]

TiffanieH,

The symptoms you're describing sound like interference or poor signal strength. What does the signal strength icon show for the doorbell? How far away from your router is the doorbell?

JamesC

[Manolo86]

You didn't search very well. A lot of people have this problem - myself included. I've tried everything from upgrading the transformer to buying a new doorbell. The problem is most likely the app. Everything is fine when cache memory is deleted, the app reinstalled, or the phone rebooted. However, that doesn't last long. I have good upload speed and full signal on all my cameras. Don't let them tell you it's your fault. Their app is broken.

[Manolo86]

Oh, I have no VPN on my home network. They like to blame it on that too.

[JCornejo]

Hi,

I had the video doorbell alone connected to my WiFI and everything was perfect (i was super impressed that it captured the audio from people walking across the road), decided to bite the bullet and get the VMB5000, re-registered the doorbell and it is part of the chain - but the video has now turned terrible. The VMB5000 is closer than the NetGear WiFi router to the doorbell, but the signal is now weaker (2 bars v 3 bars) than what it showed before. According to the app all devices are on their latest firmware.

A lot of the videos are garbage, some are a few frames with the audio ... rubbish! 

[JamesC]

JCornejo,

The issues you're experiencing could be due to interference. Try moving your SmartHub as far away from your router (and any other WiFi devices) as you can to improve signal strength.

JamesC

[JCornejo]

I did some tests and moved the VM5000 before posting earlier. Not sure how to test if there is any interference - the doorbell is in a straight line (except that is outside the house at around 4 m) from the VM5000 with no device in the middle, and shows the same signal as the chime (which is going across the WiFi router and should show interference) in the opposite direction.

[JCornejo]

I'm donating the videos (I assume they are used to find bugs) as they are unusable.

[JCornejo]

For example:

[JamesC]

JCornejo,

If you still experience the same behavior after relocating your SmartHub, please contact the Arlo Support Team to further investigate this issue. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link.

JamesC

[JCornejo]

Already tried that ... I even have a useless case number ...

45 minutes on a webchat that was abruptly closed by Arlo (after i had unregistered all devices and was restarting).

20 minutes waiting on my first queue to have a guy that had no idea and put me on a second queue.

25 minutes as #3 on this 2nd queue without any offer to be called when anyone was free. 

I think you would agree than 1:30 hrs of a customer's time is sufficient.

I have 2 possible root causes for my issue - sadly i don't have time to narrow it down -.

1) Arlo has a CODEC problem in the app (when I log to the portal, my video experience is different, still not good, but a slight  improvement)

2) the app is trying to pull the video through the VM5000 and there is some network problem. When the doorbell was connected directly to my WiFi router, I had no issue. But more significant: if I am connected on 4G and bypass my entire network, the video experience is way better - similar to the web portal, although still under par. I've moved the VM5000 and the signal detected is still the same, I literally need to have the chime in the same location to have full signal.

Without more tools, I can't tell if it is interference, a defect on the VM5000 or something else. I can't think it is the video doorbell (as it was working fine, had latest firmware, etc).

Also when I try to log in via the web portal (not phone) it never remembers my last attempt ... I get the "We don't recognize this device. We sent a push notification to  iphone to verify your identity." ... never arrives.

Anyway, Arlo's customer service is a joke.