Amount of cameras/doorbells supported for SmartHub + remotely accessing local recordings

[DaPadrePedro]

Hi,

I'm considering buying Arlo Ultra 2 cameras + some indoor cameras (and perhaps a smart Arlo Video Doorbell), but I have a few questions:
1) How many cameras can be used with 1 Arlo SmartHub (recent model)? I've read numbers like 5, 15, 20 and even unlimited. Soruce no 1: https://kb.arlo.com/nl_NL/000039111/What-are-the-available-Arlo-subscription-plans-and-how-much-clou... => see the table with "Number of cameras supported". It says "Unlimited" for "Ultra Series", but I'm not sure it this refers to the connection with an Arlo SmartHub, an Arlo account or even something else.
Other source: https://www.arlo.com/en_fi/support/faq/1179521/How-many-Arlo-cameras-can-I-view-at-the-same-time => this seems to refer to simultaneous streaming, but that's just how many streams you can see in the app or web client simulteanously, right? On the Net some people think this is also the limit for the amount of cameras on 1 SmartHub.
Source no 3: https://www.arlo.com/en_be/support/faq/1108731/How-many-cameras-does-Arlo-support-if-I-don-t-have-an... => 5. But perhaps this doesn't deal with Ultra cameras (but only Pro?)?
2) Same question for an Arlo account.
Otherwise stated, I would like to know how many cameras I can connect to an Arlo SmartHub, an Arlo account, for simultaneous local recording and for simultaneous cloud recording. Which limits are in place?
3) Is it possible to see the images/footage from local recording (USB drive or SD card) without connecting this drive or card to a PC/laptop/...? At the end of 2019 Arlo has announced this: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Ultra/Local-and-Remote-Access-to-Local-Storage-for-Arlo-Ultra-via... Is it already in place (and if so, is it true it doesn't require a subscription plan?)? Or is this feature canceled? I don't find any information about this right now.

Thanks!

[jguerdat]

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@DaPadrePedro wrote:

1) How many cameras can be used with 1 Arlo SmartHub (recent model)? I've read numbers like 5, 15, 20 and even unlimited.

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It's been suggested that 15-ish cameras per base/hub would be a max but that's based on hardware capabilities. Newer hubs may well support more comfortably but you'd have to try it to see if there was a problem. AFAIK, there's no limit as to how many cameras can be logically connected to a hub, just a potential degradation of response. It's also been said that a max of 5 cameras per base/hub can stream at once but I don't know for sure if that is true for the newer hubs since they have different hardware. Maybe @JamesC or @ShayneS  can get some clarification to be sure.

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2) Same question for an Arlo account.
Otherwise stated, I would like to know how many cameras I can connect to an Arlo SmartHub, an Arlo account, for simultaneous local recording and for simultaneous cloud recording. Which limits are in place?

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There are no such limitations for the app or web client since those are simply viewers. However, the above limitations in hardware (and/or firmware) would still apply.

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3) Is it possible to see the images/footage from local recording (USB drive or SD card) without connecting this drive or card to a PC/laptop/...?

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Using the app (NOT the web client) allows for this as long as you have local recording enabled with a SmartHub. That means only the VMB4540 and VMB5000 support direct viewing of local recordings. the VMB4500 and older 4xxx models support local recordings but the drive would have to be safely ejected for viewing on a computer. The VMB3xxx bases simply don't support local recordings at all.

[DaPadrePedro]

Hi,

Thank you for your quick reply! This is all good news to me, although it would be great if, as yoiu've stated as well, this could indeed be confirmed by Arlo engineers.

Regards,

Pedro