Night time pixelation

[GordonScot]

For a while now, my night time video recordings have shown severe pixelation. Mostly with vehicles (see attached picture) but also with people walking by if they walk fast. 
Version is 3.5.8 released Oct. 12 2021. According to my app, no updates available.
Motion is set at 80. 

Motion sensitivity is set at 90.

Flicker adjustment is set to “auto”. 
Brightness is set to 0.

Video Settings: 

Auto HDR “on”

Night Vision “on”.  NOTE, turning this OFF made no difference.

Video quality 1536sq. 
This is a wired video doorbell.

Thanks for any help you can provide! 

[JamesC]

The firmware that should resolve this issue has finished testing and we expect it will be available this week. I will provide more information as it becomes available.

JamesC

[JamesC]

The development team is currently testing a firmware fix that should alleviate the symptoms being discussed here. Once that testing is complete, the fix will be made available to all users. I will provide another update once I have more information to share.

JamesC

[JamesC]

We're currently reviewing a possible solution for these reports. I'm not able to provide an exact timeline for release but this will likely be available in a future (within the coming weeks) firmware update.

I will post new information as it becomes available.

JamesC

[GordonScot]

Typical that they make you take repetitive steps. 
I’d like to open a ticket as well for this issue but sounds like many people already have. Plus I can’t find a link here to submit one…..

Sure feel for the person who’s package was grabbed by porch pirates and they can’t make out a face or anything. Arlo should reimburse them for the cost of their loss. Yes, sarcasm. 😞

[jguerdat]

Since it appears to be only in the area where motion occurs, it could be increased network traffic causing this. Have you tried reducing the doorbell's resolution to see if that helps?  Is there a difference in network traffic between day and night? Are there any wireless devices near the doorbell that may be interfering with the signal?

[NewProvSS]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only person encountering this issue, but def annoying to hear its caused so many problems for others too.

Changing the resolution doesn't work for me unfortunately - and no new objects or items have been put near the doorbell since I installed it that would cause any interference.

I do find a hard reset, the blurred motion will stop temporarily, but it always comes back within a day or so.

[GordonScot]

I did change the resolution (lowest setting 720x720) and as others have stated, didn’t make a difference. 
I also did a reset but likewise, the issue returns. No network issues and no other devices nearby that might cause interference. 

This morning while viewing the night time videos, it appears that any motion, slow or fast will be blurry now. Case n point, a opossum walked about 10’ from the camera. Not the fastest creature in the world and somewhat blurry (pixelated), that is until it stopped to eat something. 

[JPav80]

I heard back on my support ticket and finally have a rep that is stating that this now a known issue on Arlo end of things and they are aware of it. I am going to be sending them logs to help troubleshoot. Might finally be getting somewhere!

[GordonScot]

JPav, thanks and good to know that Arlo is finally recognizing that they have a problem with this issue.

Hopefully soon we’ll have a resolution! 

[Exia7891]

I haven't received any updates on my case, but glad to hear you did on yours and Arlo (Netgear) has FINALLY acknowledged the issue is on their end and not on the user front. Hoping the patch/fix is rolled out soon.

[JPav80]

I sent them the logs yesterday from my camera. The support escalation team says their engineers are looking at it and again confirmed it is on their end. I will send updates once they get back to me again.

[SpaMG]

Wow, finally ARLO confirmed it. I had my video doorbell for almost a year already. Everything was perfect till summer. Thought that I am the only one with such problem. I was reading replies to similar previous threads related to pixelation and always the answer was that its most probably WIFI problem. But then why day light videos are perfectly fine with exactly the same setup?

This summer I did some testing on my own.

- I connected doorbell directly to base station. SAME

- I connected it directly to the router. SAME

- Change distance between router/base and doorbell. SAME

- I reduced resolution to the lowest possible. SAME

- Turned off HDR. SAME.

- I recorded my local network activity to see if there is no some crazy activity going on at night. NOTHING

It happens always between ~ 9pm to 5am. Exactly at the hours I need this camera most.

Looking forward for update from ARLO team

[GordonScot]

I really hope Arlo gets this resolved soon, too many people are experiencing this problem. 

[GordonScot]

Has anyone heard from Arlo regarding this issue? A fix/update would be nice!!!

[SpaMG]

Nope.

[JPav80]

I asked for an update to my case and was informed this morning that the engineering team is still working on a resolution to the known issue. Hopefully there will be something soon.

[kingpro61]

I have also had the same issue on EVERY night time recording singing to purchase and installation of my wired doorbell camera in Dec of 2021.
Frustrating as I bought for security purposes and have already had people lurking on my porch at 3am. Video recording is useless.

[JPav80]

In the meantime, one of things I have done is leave my porch light on all night which keeps the camera from going into night vision.  It seems like it works better.   Not fun being a beta tester for their product after going through tech support for months and also having to physically swap out the the device.   Hopefully they can get their act together on this one.   

[DudeMac17]

Bump!

Been dealing w this for months now. Absolute trash. I had doorbell for a year w zero issues loved it and all the sudden unusable and yet they don’t know what they did to mess up their own product?!

I’m giving them till the end of the month to get this figured out or I’m finally making move to Ring.

I’m so deep in Arlo ecosystem i really hate to do it but this **bleep** is totally unreliable in so many ways.

[SpaMG]

My guess is that they messed up their video compression algorithms. And its not going to be easy to fix.

[GordonScot]

Noticed today that my apps have a update for Arlo, here’s the details;

January 9 2022

Improvements in Arlo App 3.5.12 include;

-General stability and performance improvements

-General bug fixes

Version 3.5.12 * 222.5 MB

I'll update my app and provide any changes. It’s  just a “app” update, not firmware, I’m not holding my breath but at this point, willing to try anything. 

[DudeMac17]

I updated. Same crappy pixelation.

It would be nice if someone somewhere in this planet of Arlo users could have a meaningful discussion with the dev team and push out an email to at least acknowledge the issue. But of course they wouldn’t admit fault.

Ring, ring here i come.

[SpaMG]

As Gordon wrote above its just app update not firmware. We still need to wait.

[GordonScot]

Ok, here’s what Arlo DIDN’T do…..no bug fixes or improvements on their latest app update. They made it worse! 
*On the app, I use to get a red bubble with a number of new recorded events. No more! 
*Not picking up every vehicle/motion that drives/moves by. 
*If you delete videos in your library for a specific day and those videos are all deleted, it will start deleting those for the next day without you knowing.

I did a reset as it was showing people as “motion”, not people. The reset did resolve that issue but this update is soooo flawed! DON’T UPDATE TO THIS LATEST VERSION! 
Arlo, come on! Release a update that works!

[GordonScot]

Am I the only one that now (after updating the app) doesn’t get the “red” bubble on the app that shows a number of new recorded activity? 
I can have multiple recordings in my library but don’t know it till I view my library. 😞

[PurpleSavage]

I have had this video doorbell since it came out. Glad to see it's not just my issue. I don't know when it started. I noticed if I had a recording around 1am CT it would be pixelated. Now it's all night videos like other day cars moving or a cat on my door step. This is product is effectively worthless now. Virtually every video has this issue at night. In past I was able to easily zoom in on a vehicle at night and easily read the city's name on the side of the police car now I am almost guessing as to whether it was a police car. They had to turn on some compression algorithm to save space their bottom line. As another person said time to go look for another product.

[GordonScot]

Sad, really sad. A company like this shouldn’t take this long to provide a solution.

I received a email from Arlo stating my complimentary subscription is ending soon.

This was my reply;

You still haven’t fixed the night time pixelation issue and you want me to subscribe? 

I don’t think so! If/when you do issue a firmware update, I may reconsider.

[DudeMac17]

Yep.

Pathetic. It’s so frustrating that no one can get this high enough up the food chain to get a response or an answer or an acknowledgment of their malfunctioning product.