Why does the doorbell need to run in lower resolution to work with Echo Show devices?

[JeffRand]

I recently purchased an Arlo Video Doorbell after having used two competitor's products. After successfully installing the doorbell, I could not figure out why my Amazon Echo Show and Amazon Echo Spot would not display the video from the camera. Searching these forums, I discovered that I must run the doorbell at a LOWER resolution (1080x1080) than it is capable of . This wasn't made clear in any of the documentation that came with the product and was very frustrating for a user that has used other video doorbells with no such restriction. 

My questions are:

1) When will this work at the FULL resolution of the doorbell (1536x1536)? 

2) Why isn't this mentioned in the documentation or product spec's?

Thanks,

Jeff Randall

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

JeffRand,

Echo devices cannot support the 1536x1536 Arlo Doorbell. This is a limitation with Echo devices. For more information, take a look here: Why Can’t I View Videos From My Arlo Video Doorbell On My Smart Home Device? Why can’t I view videos...

JamesC

[JeffRand]

Sounds like a poor design decision by Arlo. One of the main purposes, for me, is to be able to view the video from the doorbell on my Amazon Echo devices. So, you are saying that in order for me to do this, I must permanently run the Arlo doorbell at 1080x1080 resolution or less, 100% of the time. This is nearly half the resolution of my Zmodo and Ring doorbells running at 1920x1080, and it shows. Yuck!

As a software engineer myself, I would like to see Arlo address this problem. I can think of a couple of possible solutions:
1) Allow the user to cloud record and view the doorbell in its full resolution of 1536x1536 when using the phone apps. But, use a lower resolution when sending the video to an echo device.
2) Down convert the video when sending the video to an echo device, to something the echo can handle. Even if it means clipping the video to 1536x1080 or possibly making a 1920x1080 video stream with black bars on the side to make up for the missing 384 pixels horizontally.

In the mean time, I will communicate with Amazon to see if they can do anything with the firmware on the echo devices to handle the odd 1536x1536 resolution on their devices. At this point the only thing I like about the Arlo doorbell is the audio, which is much better than the other two. But, come on Arlo, make this the best doorbell on the market!

[jguerdat]

Really?? A limitation of a 3rd party device is an Arlo fault?