Outside Recording Delay

[paintguy]

Is anyone else having a problem with the delay in long it takes motion to detect and the start of recording? I have found that outside the delay is too much to see anyone who is approaching my house. I have looked at videos and the recording shows the very end of someone in my family opening my door if at all. I have played around with the sensitivity also to get it to record earlier. This and the battery issue are the biggest problems so far. Does anyone have ideas how they got theirs to not have so much of a delay?

Thanks

[DRGinLBC]

It's no secret why Netgear isn't addressing this issue.  They know they have a bad product.  They are just trying to squeeze out as many sales as possible at this point.

I have some really good video of a moth flying in front of my camera from last night.  However, it didn't capture anyone entering or exiting out house all day long.

Great product!

[Paul_FCCL]

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DRGinLBC wrote:

It's no secret why Netgear isn't addressing this issue.  They know they have a bad product.  They are just trying to squeeze out as many sales as possible at this point.

I have some really good video of a moth flying in front of my camera from last night.  However, it didn't capture anyone entering or exiting out house all day long.

Great product!

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Yes it is a shame that Netgear still advertises/mostly brags about this product, they know it's flawed and they just try selling as many as they can. However, there aren't enough servers around capable of handling the extremely large volume of connections.

Instead of focusing on the unresolved issues, they just moved on with the introduction of a new product Arlo-Q. Why would anyone who tried Arlo even consider buying anything else made by this company?

It's a joke, we all got fooled by their complete misrepresentation of their product.

Live and learn.....

Regards,

Paul

[Cckeys]

Must admit that when I purchased this system in 2014 it worked a lot better. Now, it has gotten progressively worse with the delayed recordings. It is now 6-10-16. Never heard if anything is being done to address the problem. Started off very good...now, not so much.

[Hula_Rock]

It gotten way worse !!!! Just this afternoon, One of my cameras missed my wifes' Explorer driving up the driveway opening the garage, then driving into the garage.  Camera is mounted 7 feet high, car has to drive accross the field of view, mounted no more that 10 feet from the driveway.....

[Paul_FCCL]

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Hula_Rock wrote:

It gotten way worse !!!! Just this afternoon, One of my cameras missed my wifes' Explorer driving up the driveway opening the garage, then driving into the garage.  Camera is mounted 7 feet high, car has to drive accross the field of view, mounted no more that 10 feet from the driveway.....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

H_R

I can certainly relate to that......happens to me a lot. Netgear servers' availability and speed is most likely the reason for this. Think about it, how people are saying things used to be better before. Of course, with the increasing number of Arlo users and larger number of cameras out there, it just means the servers aren't keeping up with current demand. Slower or missing servers aren't capable of handling the consistently growing number of connection requests.

That is my take on this ......may be wrong, however it certainly isn't getting any better any time soon.

Regards,

Paul

[rgt]

Yes, delay is getting worse... not better. 

[mirthful1]

Here's a few examples from my cameras of delays. 

Taking the trash out... already well into frame by the time recording starts...

Pulling into the driveway... I'm 3/4's up the driveway before it starts recording

My daughter's teammate's mother picking up my kid... Already ringing the doorbell by the time it sta...

Pool guy completely walking across frame and we catch a bit at the end

Critter cam.... Hold still rabbit or we'll miss you

Whether these kinds of delays make the camera unfunctional raises the question of what is the camera for?  Security or recording things...

I'm too lazy to ask for my money back.  I wouldn't have bought the 9 camers (6 for me 3 for inlaws) had I known that this delay aspect was there. 

g

[Paul_FCCL]

Mirthful1

Actually that's not so bad......delays I'm getting with my cameras are much worse, many times videos don't  even show the person, recording started after they moved out of camera view.

Regards,

Paul

[DRGinLBC]

This happens to me all the time.  I get video about 5 seconds after they move out of frame.  Pointless.

Love how Netgear just sits on their hands and doesn't respond to this.  A simple "we are working on it" would make me feel so much better.

[Gunner1966]

Delay is a big problem. Renders system almost useless. I'm send this crap back!!

[Gunner1966]

Delay is a big problem. Renders system almost useless. I'm send this crap back!!

[nngnng]

I am having the same issues- Not a security cameras if it is missing recording. Its a hit-or-miss. I am going to get rid of it and start looking into Foscam and Lorex cameras. I should have know better- Netgear never makes good product- Router, Switches, Cameras, etc......... The reason why it was rated so high is simple to setup/wireless but when it comes to security cameras no way can you trust it.

[jguerdat]

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Gunner1966 wrote:
Delay is a big problem. Renders system almost useless. I'm send this crap back!!

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Have you properly positioned the cameras according to the FAQs and articles found under the Support link above? Improper positioning is the biggest cause of issues. Don't go for the big picture but just the actual area of interest. Motion should be across the FOV, notbat the camera. Screenshots could help for useful suggestions.

[aaronjh]

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jguerdat wrote:

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Gunner1966 wrote:
Delay is a big problem. Renders system almost useless. I'm send this crap back!!

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Have you properly positioned the cameras according to the FAQs and articles found under the Support link above? Improper positioning is the biggest cause of issues.

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Based on actual, empirical measurements using WireShark, the main cause of the 4-5s delay in recording is due to delays in connecting to the cloud service.

If you can find a position where you can safely lose 4-5s of recording while still capturing the detected person in the FoV, then the system works. However, in the case of walkways, this is impossible, and the only solution is often to "sacrifice" a camera by having it trigger recording, which is then captured on a secondary camera.

However, if you need to capture video on a branching walkway, with multiple entry/exit points, this pretty quickly becomes infeasible. The only option is to hope that the person is walking slow enough that they are still in frame after the 4-5s of overhead in terms of beginning recording.

[aaronjh]

Duplicate

[Paul_FCCL]

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jguerdat wrote:

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Gunner1966 wrote:
Delay is a big problem. Renders system almost useless. I'm send this crap back!!

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Have you properly positioned the cameras according to the FAQs and articles found under the Support link above? Improper positioning is the biggest cause of issues. Don't go for the big picture but just the actual area of interest. Motion should be across the FOV, notbat the camera. Screenshots could help for useful suggestions.

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We should stop assuming that frustrated users voicing their (very same) problems over and over again haven't done their homework already. Many of us (likely everyone) has spent countless hours trying all the tips and tricks to get these useless toys to do what they're supposed to.

When we talk about "delay" we're usually way past the camera positioning, angle and all that stuff. Motion triggering is not the problem itself, but the delays experienced with video recording are the issue.

Camera connection to base station and its instant relay to available servers are the biggest factors and most users around here would agree, they're not working the way they should. I have "never" experienced an Arlo recording without at least 4-5 secs. delay (often even longer). Even with a "trigger" camera in place, I get to see people's backs or more often just a blank video showing the "after" view with no one there.

It is what it is.......I can assure everyone that my cameras are perfectly positioned, perfect height and angle. One camera is dedicated as the trigger, the others are well positioned to see and record any motion. Ironically they actually do that, but ever so rarely. Ordinarily I will get either nothing at all or someone at the very edge of the frame quickly disappearing.

Regards,

Paul

[jguerdat]

I agree with you with an observation - there's no way to know whether the user has gone throught the process.  I also agree that the delay is due to the whole need to wake the camera which involves creating the connection to the servers and the whole round-trip thing.  I don't agree that more than 2 seconds (-ish) is the best you can do since I happen to have that.  However, due to the architecture of the system, there's nothing we, as users, can do about it other than to get the best WiFi signal possible and position the cameras to maximize detection.  Just my opinion, not necessarily fact.

The catch is that with a wireless system that relies on cloud servers likely can't be much better.  If someone knows of such a system, let us all know.

[Hula_Rock]

Great post Paul !

Short of placing a sign in your yard saying "SLOW WALKING ZONE, ARLO CAMERAS IN USE" these WEBCAMS are a FLOP.

Whats frustrating is that this system is being marketed as "PLACE IT ANYWHERE".  Look at the @ARLO twitter account.  They have them placed in hollowed out fence polls, behind a glass window, in trees clearly behind a branch with leaves in the FOV, etc.

Now add Cloud connection/storage....... what a FARCE !  I have run many wireshark traces and seen the latency connection, it is short of being called DoS.  What a minute, isn't Netgear in the business of NETWORKING ??????????  

RANT OVER

[Schorschi]

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jguerdat wrote:

The catch is that with a wireless system that relies on cloud servers likely can't be much better.  If someone knows of such a system, let us all know.

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A hybrid system with local storage should be able to easily remedy the reaction delays mentioned.

Upon detecting motion, footage would be first stored to local storage avoding any delay issues caused by poor cloud connectivity. As soon as a cloud connection is established, the footage is uploaded, possibly even while still recording. This is akin to a DVR where you watch a TV program with a delay while it is still being recorded.

If local storage is dimensioned appropriately, one could even record more material locally, for instance, if the Internet connection is down, possibly even for days. As soon as the connection to the Internet is reestablished, footage would be uploaded to the cloud and deleted locally. A memory card in each camera should be able to provide that functionality.

I know that the new Arlo Q Plus camera features local storage via an SD card, but I don't know if it can be utilized in the above described way.

[nngnng]

We should all stop complaining and really think about a Class action lawsuit. Netgear misrespent the product..... 

[Hula_Rock]

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Schorschi wrote:

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jguerdat wrote:

The catch is that with a wireless system that relies on cloud servers likely can't be much better.  If someone knows of such a system, let us all know.

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A hybrid system with local storage should be able to easily remedy the reaction delays mentioned.

Upon detecting motion, footage would be first stored to local storage avoding any delay issues caused by poor cloud connectivity. As soon as a cloud connection is established, the footage is uploaded, possibly even while still recording. This is akin to a DVR where you watch a TV program with a delay while it is still being recorded.

If local storage is dimensioned appropriately, one could even record more material locally, for instance, if the Internet connection is down, possibly even for days. As soon as the connection to the Internet is reestablished, footage would be uploaded to the cloud and deleted locally. A memory card in each camera should be able to provide that functionality.

I know that the new Arlo Q Plus camera features local storage via an SD card, but I don't know if it can be utilized in the above described way.

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That is a GREAT IDEA,  I think you should submit it.  It is simular to my idea of giving us the ability to attach a USB thumb drive to the base station.  When the base station detects no internet connection, it routes the video capture to the Thumb Drive.

-OR-

Give us an option to PAY to terminate cloud starage and open up the USB port for local storage...

[jguerdat]

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Schorschi wrote:

A hybrid system with local storage should be able to easily remedy the reaction delays mentioned.

Upon detecting motion, footage would be first stored to local storage avoding any delay issues caused by poor cloud connectivity. As soon as a cloud connection is established, the footage is uploaded, possibly even while still recording. This is akin to a DVR where you watch a TV program with a delay while it is still being recorded.

If local storage is dimensioned appropriately, one could even record more material locally, for instance, if the Internet connection is down, possibly even for days. As soon as the connection to the Internet is reestablished, footage would be uploaded to the cloud and deleted locally. A memory card in each camera should be able to provide that functionality.

I know that the new Arlo Q Plus camera features local storage via an SD card, but I don't know if it can be utilized in the above described way.

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The catch is that's nog what we have. Preferred? Absolutely but until that's available, it doesn't matter. The need for the Internet connection was spelled out all along. It has never been a mystery.

From what JamesC has said, the Q+ stores locally bug doesn't upload to the cloud upon resumption of the Internet connection.

And good luck with that lawsuit. 

[aaronjh]

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jguerdat wrote:

I agree with you with an observation - there's no way to know whether the user has gone throught the process.  I also agree that the delay is due to the whole need to wake the camera which involves creating the connection to the servers and the whole round-trip thing.  I don't agree that more than 2 seconds (-ish) is the best you can do since I happen to have that.

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There's an easy way to tell how much of the delay is due to comms wake time and cloud server responsiveness, and how much is due to motion sensing delays due to poor positioning.

Set the recording time to 20s. Let the system sit idle for a while to go into sleep state and terminate any active connnections. Then walk past.

If the initial recording is 16s in length, then the delay in terms of comms is 4s. The camera was woken up and ready to stream 4s before the actual recording could be saved to the cloud storage. As a result, 4s was lost.

As for it being possible to reduce the delay on the user side, that all depends on local factors. My cameras are installed at my house back in Australia. Latency to the cloud servers means that 4s is an absolute baseline. That can't be improved other than relocating my house to another country with less latency.

This problem can only be solved on Netgear's end. I work for an IoT company as a software architect developing IP video solutions in the industrial space. There is no concieveable way that this could not rectified via a firmware add-on. Even if there is not enough memory in the base station to buffer the video, a small USB stick could do the job.

This would all require a re-work of the comms stack for the product, but there are no insurmountable technical hurdles. It's just a case that Netgear evidently deems such engineering effort to not be worth the time and cost.

[Hula_Rock]

 Another fine example of the DELAY.  Subject walk up the driveway to my door which was TOTALLY MISSED

[DRGinLBC]

Netgear employee...