Degraded/Pixelated Video quality

[mgbnet]

Looks like JamesC posted on the big thread about the firmware issues, saying there was a new update and then locked the thread from further replies.

I have two questions:

1 - Why don't I see this update? I still only see 1.12.2.1_2798 from April as the available update for my base station. See attached image.

2 - The relase notes for the new firmware (1.3.319 - weird numbering, looks like a step backwards number-wise) say that it fixes the pixelation issue, but nothing that says it fixes the failure to update firmware issue that many of us are seeing with the 1.12.2.1_2798 firmware update.

[Fun-Girl]

I saw posted here that the updare to 1.3.319 was for Arlo-Netgear cameras only (VMC3030) . I have one of those and the pixelation problems us resolved in THAT camera.

[mamarcac]

@dsiu2902 I got the _2754 this morning. Funny enough, they can't even push a firmware update properly. Pressed Update in the app, nothing. Used laptop via web browser, nothing. Had to power off, wait, power back up, then it updated.

They are hilariously bad at software. It's really sad honestly.

[dsiu2902]

@mamarcac, mine was upgraded already by the time I woke up. I don't have to do anything.

HD from _2798 was fine,  but with _2754, the moving object still slightly blurred and jerky motion.

Surrounding is seems fine with moving object.

I will do factory reset to see any improvement? We are their labortory mice.

I was told by chat support, only VMB4000 get _2754, VMB3000 and VMB3500 get _2798. 

Arlo, why do we need a camera when you can't see the moving object. Does that make sense to you?

[MikeBravo]

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@dsiu2902 wrote:

@mamarcac, mine was upgraded already by the time I woke up. I don't have to do anything.

HD from _2798 was fine,  but with _2754, the moving object still slightly blurred and jerky motion.

Surrounding is seems fine with moving object.

I will do factory reset to see any improvement? We are their labortory mice.

I was told by chat support, only VMB4000 get _2754, VMB3000 and VMB3500 get _2798. 

Arlo, why do we need a camera when you can't see the moving object. Does that make sense to you?

Tried to sign in for the past five minutes and kept getting a big red box telling me "ACCESS DENIED" then I finally got in. 

Hmmmm....

Anyway, I got the update as well and my recording still have a bit of the herky-jerky blurriness.

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[dsiu2902]

@JamesC and @ShayneS, my base firmware was forced to upgrade to 1.12.2.2_2754 last night.

I have performed a factory reset, resync all my cameras, and my recording still have a bit of the herky-jerky blurriness, or unstable video when moving objects are present.

But when there is no moving object, the video seems to be fine.

@JamesC and @ShayneS, my explanation for this:

The video has 24 frames per second, some of the frames may be  pixelated, you need a special software to perform frame by frame, and then you can check it precisely.

My question to your engineering team, have they changed the compression decoding software (third party) when the whole issue started on May 22, 2019.

[GaryBoisseau]

Watching live video with a new Pro 2 camera causes the video to freeze at times. Whatever occurs during that time speeds by when the camera reconnects. I also get disconnected from the live video/audio when any camera detects motion.

[parsrgood]

@MikeBravo  I agree and I feel that Arlo should not have considered the issue resolved. There is a improvement since the camera update we waited three weeks for, but the video quality is nowhere near what it used to be no matter where you have the settings. Best for Battery is no different that Best Video. I have tried to stay out of this hoping they would have resolved it by now. I'll wait to hear from JamesC on the 11th. If nothing has been resolved by the end of the day I'll jump back in and be a pain in the rear once again. 

[dsiu2902]

@parsrgood welcome back.

I agree with your point of view and the video quality has improved, however, it is not as good as used to be.

Today, approx 12.16 PM (EST), two of my video went down again for no reason, it dropped to 16 frames instead of 24 frames, and the data rate/total bitrate also dropped from 721 kbps to 255 kbps, pixelation also appeared in the video.

Then, it returns to normal again.

As you can see, the compression software is unstable.

This is a daily or an adventure, I have to check what they have done to us and what changes they have made on my system. It just take too much of my own time. I just don't trust them anymore.

[parsrgood]

@ShayneS  @JamesP I'm reluctant to give you my devise and firmware info again. I don't feel we should have to continue to jump through your hoops when we have provided you our info on several other posts and threads. Threads  by the way that you closed and considered resolved. Every one of my posts indicates what cameras and base I am using. Every firmware update is forced so you already know what version I am running. I am responding to this thread so common sense should tell you I am experiencing the same issues as everyone else involved in this forum. But....... if you insist on further upsetting those of us consumers dealing with your broken product. Here we go again.....

Base= Hardware Version VMB3010r2 Firmware 1.12.2.1 2798

Cameras= 3@ Hardware Version H11 2@ Hardware Versio H7 all five with Firmware 1.3.319

Windows 10 with Google Chrome

iPhone 6s iOS 12.2 Arlo app 2.7.10

iPad Gen 6 iOS12.3.1 Arlo app 2.7.10

AND.........I have a perfectly good Gen 4 iPad which apple does'nt update past iOS 10.3.3 that was compatible with my cameras until you updated your app and no longer supported any iOS version lower than 11.  I'm pretty sure there are others that question how your engineers can put out a update that renders your product useless on perfectly good devices. There's some people at Arlo that need to wake up. This can't be good for a company selling security. 

[ShayneS · Accepted solution]

Our team resolved the issue in which videos were being recorded in low resolution when “Best Video” setting was selected. Your video image quality should now reflect the battery optimization selection.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

Thank you,

Arlo Team

[mamarcac]

@ShayneS We're running out of patience and sick of being inconvenienced.

[dsiu2902]

@ShayneS, Did the Arlo team really fix the problem/bug?

Let me repeat the options for your team,  in case they forget their feature/software.

Here are the options: 

Best Video: May reduce battery life

Optimized: Balances video quality and battery life 

Best Battery Life: May reduce video quality

Here are my test results:

Best Video: 1280 x 720, Data Rate/Total bitrate-720 kbps, 24 frames

Optimized: 640 x 352, Data Rate/Total bitrate-514 kbps, 24 frames

Best Battery Life: 640 x 352, Data Rate/Total bitrate-510 kbps, 24 frames

What did the Arlo team do or fix by reviewing the data above? Another lie. 

[MikeBravo]

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@mgbnet wrote:

Looks like JamesC posted on the big thread about the firmware issues, saying there was a new update and then locked the thread from further replies.

I have two questions:

1 - Why don't I see this update? I still only see 1.12.2.1_2798 from April as the available update for my base station. See attached image.

2 - The relase notes for the new firmware (1.3.319 - weird numbering, looks like a step backwards number-wise) say that it fixes the pixelation issue, but nothing that says it fixes the failure to update firmware issue that many of us are seeing with the 1.12.2.1_2798 firmware update.

---

I didn't see the thread you mention and frankly I no longer have the patience to track down all these clearly disingenuous replies from Arlo reps.

All I know is that our experience after the two updates were pushed by Arlo is that ALL our recordings still are substandard----even the Pro ones. ALL start out blurry, sharpen somewhat and then go into their herky-jerky motion with grainy video for the length of the recordings.

So, as far as we are concered, they may have solved a narrow problem, but not the overall one. 

If they are now going to just ignore our issues from now on, what they will find out is that we'll have no incentive to invest any further in Arlo products. 

[parsrgood]

@MikeBravo I agree. We are at the point now that all we can do is hope that Arlo stumbles into a fix for the products they crippled. As for myself, I have filed a complaint to the BBB in the past and I recently left a very negative review on Amazon titled “Buyer Beware” I explained how over the last year on several occasions Arlo has reduced their cameras to decoy status by putting out faulty updates. My live view continues to stutter with jerky motion and the quality of my recordings are a crapshoot. I’m tired of Arlo’s staff insulting my intelligence by asking the same generic questions and giving the same generic advise. It’s unbelievable that they deem these issues resolved when my system isn’t even 75 % as good as it was on 5/21/19. Make this right Arlo.

[mamarcac]

Same thing for me. Crappy video quality.

@JamesC James are you listening? Our video quality is trash. Can you please facilitate a solution instead of you or @ShayneS telling us to provide our base station model, firmware versions, etc.? This has shown to be useless, and insignificant.

Fix. The. Issue.

[dsiu2902]

@JamesC and  @ShayneS, the compression decoding software is very unstable. please provide this information to your engineering team, which may be related to all the issues that everyone is currently experiencing.

I have set all 4 cameras to "best video", but yesterday and today, I noticed that all my videos "data rate and total bitrate" reduced from 720 to 539 between 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (EST) without any reason, also pixelated fluctuations.

After 1:30 PM, everything went back to normal.

The question is "Why" and "How",

"Did Arlo change their compression decoding software?

[menrey]

I have a base station VMB3000  (ver.2.7.2) , and 4 H7  (ver.1.3.319) cameras.  They now produce blurry images, and gets worse when zooming in.  I have done (1) a reset of Base,  (2) removed batteries and reinstalled, (3) synced each camera,  as when I was first installing it when system was New...  and it still persists.   Any advice as to how to regain the clear images and zooming in with crystal clear quality as before would be appreciated.  

[TomMac]

There are a couple of long threads re this... Check / search to read

[dsiu2902]

@JamesC and  @ShayneS, the compression decoding software is again unstable. please provide this information to your engineering team, which may be related to all the issues that everyone is currently experiencing.

Today (June 13, 2019), I noticed that pixelation started earlier than yesterday, all my videos "data rate and total bitrate" decreased from 713 kbps, 24 frames to 334 kbps, 18 frames at 10:30 AM instead of yesterday 12:00 PM (EST) for no reason.

The question to your engineering team "why" and "how",

FYI, my base and camera firmware remain unchanged.

I definitely want my refund.

[GaryBoisseau]

I am also seeing the same. The resolution is poor and I am also now missing motion detection events. Come on, Arlo, fix this!

[MikeBravo]

---

@dsiu2902 wrote:

@JamesC and  @ShayneS, the compression decoding software is again unstable. please provide this information to your engineering team, which may be related to all the issues that everyone is currently experiencing.

Today (June 13, 2019), I noticed that pixelation started earlier than yesterday, all my videos "data rate and total bitrate" decreased from 713 kbps, 24 frames to 334 kbps, 18 frames at 10:30 AM instead of yesterday 12:00 PM (EST) for no reason.

The question to your engineering team "why" and "how",

FYI, my base and camera firmware remain unchanged.

I definitely want my refund.

---

 

 I suppose its all of us. All my basic arlo recordings start out very blurry, clear up to about 75% clarity of what they were before, and then began to suffer this faint swirling, grainy look that degrades the picture enough that details are nearly impossible to make out.

Worse yet, our three Arlo Pros are suffering degraded videos as well which is even more aggravating considering what they cost.

Come on Arlo, talk to us.

[mamarcac]

@TomMac Why the attitude? We bought systems that aren't performing as they are supposed to.  Maybe you should search/read and understand what we're going through and that Arlo has still not resolved it instead of leaving a useless snarky comment?

[jguerdat]

A few of us read every dang message posted here and having multiple threads of the same thing can make keeping troubleshooting, workarounds and solutions hard to keep track of who did what.

Sometimes a new thread is useful but not always.

[dsiu2902]

@JamesC and  @ShayneS, Are you paying attention?

If the base and camera firmware did not change, why suddenly the video has pixelation starting at 10:30 AM (EST)  without warming?

One explanation to this:

Arlo secretly or sneakily updates my firmare with the same version number.

That's why this "automatic firmware update" must be completely removed from the software.

 Does Arlo have a "bulit in timer" in the software that can constantly change the data rate and total bitrate?

If not, then this reduction of data rate and total bitrate must be changed by your Arlo internally .

[mamarcac]

@jguerdat Yeah understood, and thank you for helping on the forums, I see your posts on a bunch of threads. I specifically didn't see the point of his post, we are all here trying to find solutions and need to stay focused on that. Arlo has bumbled several firmwares in a row and our patience/tempers are running short...