Arlo camera alert sounds but no person appears in the video

[sunluvr5]

Hoping someone can help with this issue. Just installed Arlo, the positioning mode looks great, and you can see me  in that mode, but when in regular mode it shows the field of vision, that looks good,  the arlert sounds but no person appears in the video.

 I can walk up to camera and it doesn't record me, but when I walk away from camera it records me and the surrounding area. 

[manfredz]

Because the Arlo is battery powered, it takes 20-30 sec from time it detects motion until it actually starts recording.  Better positioning sometimes helps, or if you have two or more cameras you can, for example set up cam A on the walkway to start recording on cam B which watches the door.

[steve_t]

20-30s is a bit of an exaggeration. It's more like 5-10

[manfredz]

That surprises me and will have (and others?) rethinking why we're missing missing things.

Can someone from Netgear comfirm that the wakeup to start recording from time the Motion detector notes movement is only 5-10 sec?

[TomMac]

I would also say def less than 10 secs... a couple of my inside Arlo cams respond in about 3 seconds and outside cams a bit longer ( tho i do find the Pro cameras are quicker overall prob closer to <2 due to the better dual PIR and buffer )

Key things that dictate time for reponse can be  interent speeds, signal to/from camera, interference, proper locations and sense levels .....

Placement on some cameras is critical... for my front door, I moved the camera from the door to about 10 away so a person entering triggers the camera and the delay becomes less important as it captures them walking up the step to door and then leaving ( always showing faces )

[jguerdat]

Just to throw anothe data point in, my lag is 2-3 seconds for most videos.  All outside.

[manfredz]

I'm having to take that back.  Just checked all 4 of my cams and in each case recording started within a few sec of me moving into cam.  Don't know why I concluded 20-30 sec.

[sunluvr5]

well shouldn't the camera pick you up as soon as you get into field of vision, not when you are face to face with the camera? I'm thinking of taking these back to store and buying different ones. Anyone use a different brand of camera??

[TomMac]

On the Arlo cameras, the PIR device which detects motion covers the entire field of view...but the PIR detects people at only about 20ft max. (and cars further as they reflect a lot of IR which the detector uses)

Most of mine are set from hi 80s to low 90s and work well...but then my coverage range is anywhere from 6 to 15+ ft ( not that the cameras don't show more, but my 'planned' detection zone is below 20ft )

For a larger area, I use a Q camera thru a window and that detects people and cars further out ( uses pixel based detection ). This covers my entire driveway for anything that moves there.

[manfredz]

Wired cameras don't have to worry about conserving power so can use a different motion detection technology and don't have these limitations.  So that might be the direction you need to look if a battery operated cam isn't important to you.

[steve_t]

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sunluvr5 wrote:

well shouldn't the camera pick you up as soon as you get into field of vision, not when you are face to face with the camera? I'm thinking of taking these back to store and buying different ones. Anyone use a different brand of camera??

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Most of the problems occur with positioning of the cameras. The way PIR works best is by IR signals going across the FOV. If you walk in a straight line towards any PIR, it will have a hard time detecting you