Smearing videos?

[TomMac]

Anyone else notice an increase in the videos smearing at times?  Not browser ( as tested 2 ) and d/ls show the same.

My lag is still fairly short in the range of 1-2 seconds ( or about 3-4 ft ) but smearing has increased.

 I don't really care about slight lag problem as an open floor plan allows multiple cams to trigger each other and second cams always get face shots but this smearing just ruins the video.

Data speeds 28Mbs+ down, 6Mbs up, with pings around 10-12ms

[KLG]

I saved a post from yesterday with the "perfect smear".  I called the phenomena "ghosting" for lack of a better descriptor and was directed to this thread.  However I'm new to Arlo (5 days) and don't know how to send the file from my library to you.  I also contacted the "chat" help line today and the following recommendations were made:  1.  Change quality of video to "best" (already was my setting).  2.  Change lenght or record time to 20 seconds, up from my 10.  3.  In modem setting, change the "flicker" setting from 60 hz to 50 hz (don't know if that is exactly correct).  Results:  Made the smearing dynamic much worse!  Changed settings back! At first I thought I just had a problem with 1 camera, but now it's smearing on both cameras.

Please let me know how to get my saved file from my library to you...and the community....thanks....

[Showguy]

Ok Netgear it's time to step up instead of posting these canned responses that make no sense. Here are the facts. :

1- This problem is effecting many if not all users. 

2- This problem has just started so that totally rules out blaming your customers environment. It's your **bleep** environment (as usual) that's causing this issue. 

3- It's not firmware and you know it. As buggy as all your firmware upgrades are this issue has appeared well after your latest system crippling garbage was released. 

4- When you combine horrible recording lag time ( which has gotten worse over time), the lack of ability to connect to live view quickly or at all and your latest and greatest smearing issues, you get a useless system that puts your customers security at risk. At this point if you add the normal recording lag time to the amount of video taken up by smearing you get a useless video. 

5- All the false marketing you have done in regard to your products capabilities resulted in larger than anticipated sales which has crippled your under capable server field. 

6- The fact that you are still collecting your full monthly serving fee while you are experiencing all these issues is disgusting. 

Step up, stop the politically correct posts and give your customers what they paid for. 

[JamesC]

Showguy,

I understand your frustration. We are still trying to find out what is causing this issue. If you don't mind my inquiry do you happen to notice this on some cameras more than others i.e. outside, inside, cameras with more activity, less signal etc. I am not blaming your environment I am just trying to establish if there are any consistencies. Is there a time frame where this occurs more often, for example do you notice this happening more on your recordings that occur at 2:00 a.m. but not at all or as often on recordings at 6:00 p.m. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thank you!

JamesC

[Showguy]

It seems to be happening all the time on outside cameras and most of the time inside. My wifi is full bars on all 10 cameras and at the camera farest from the base a internet speed test is showing at least 25mb up / and 25 mb down. As far as time frame it consistent at all times.

[KLG]

I have a 2 camera system. I get the "smearing" (I call it ghosting) on both cameras (equal opportunity problem). The "smearing' occurs about 40% to all motion recordings. My cameras are placed outside in warm desert environment of lately 104 F. I have only had the system 6 days now. The first 3 days...no "smearing" on either camera. The last 3 days...regular "smearing". The internet strength relects all bars full. Both cameras are set on best quality, 90% motion sensitivity (few triggers from moving branches and bugs), at 10 second recordings. The "smearing" occurs both day and night. The nights lighting in my area has background streetlight (not completly dark).

[Geoff]

I have already reported my issues with 'Smearing Videos'.

I reduced the brightness setting to 60% on the camera concerned and the 'smearing' issue reduced to practically nothing.

Yesterday I increased the brightness to 100% and the first detection produced the video I have posted.

I have now reduced the brightness setting to 60% and all is well again.

If Arlo are reading this subject, this information may be helpful in finding a resolution. 

http://www48.zippyshare.com/v/Ldo2nZC1/file.html

[woseyjales]

I had all these issues and even though I also showed four bar signal strenth, I believe it's wifi and I cured it with a range extender so I could get the base station away from my cable modem/router and into another room. y'all can check out the thread I started on "Had all these issues".

[KLG]

I purchased a new 2 camera system which worked w/o smearing videos for aprox. 1 week.  Then smearing took place with almost every recording.  I tried most of the suggestions and the situation only got worse.  Then I switched back to my original settings and the problem has mostly self corrected (I still get some smearing).

My theory (I don't know much about this type of thing) is that NeTGears's servers were overloaded, and they have fixed the problem on their end.  Just a theory.

[Showguy]

It's all about Netgears equipment. And don't let them tell you any different or waste your time with their lame suggestions. I had a flawless video system ( picture quality wise) for 6 months than this suddenly started and continues. There was absolutely no change in my environment or the hundreds of others suffering from this latest Netgears servers disease. And if they think they fixed it they have not.

[JPC]

---

KLG wrote:

My theory (I don't know much about this type of thing) is that NeTGears's servers were overloaded, and they have fixed the problem on their end.  Just a theory.

---

As more people are convinced of buying the system and connecting to the Netgear's Server..There's indeed a chance it gets overloaded and we get all these glitches such as smearing.. especially when all of us customers accessing the server all at once.. It's also one of the reasons why the system is very inconsistent.. Some people claiming their systems work well and some of us are crippled big time.. If only Local Storage was implemented, then there's a chance we won't suffer this smearing issue.. If there is, then at least the issue is narrowed down to firmware or interference.. Ultimately, this will help ease up the issues between us and Arlo.. Local Storage has been discussed here for a while now but there's no update of when it will be implemented.. Sad.. Netgear is sure listening.. just that.. 

[woseyjales]

I'm fairly convinced that this smearing video and most of the other issues with the arlo sytem are all wifi related. The base station struggles to keep communication back and forth to the camera's, even though, each camera show 3 or 4 bars on the little radar icon. Without solid communication between the base station and the camera's, all sorts of issues will showup.

I've relocated my base station, using a range extender, to another room, well away from my cable router and I'm on my 3rd week of absolutley no issues at all, when before, I had every single possible issue stated on these forums.

It was a struggle figuring this out, at least for me it was, but I'm just hoping this information, helps some of the other folks out there, that are having issues. This really is a pretty sweet little system if you can get it funtioning properly and I can relate to how frustrating it can be when you can't get it working.

[RobertRosal]

I don't think it's wifi and more their server(s).

Haven't done a thing but smearing has mysteriously gone away.  Go figure!

[KLG]

I have a new 2 camera system. I have had it online the past 2 weeks. How do you explain it worked w/o "smearing" the first week, then suffered severe "smearing" starting the second week, w/o any change in settings, with the same wifi setup? Now "magically" the "smearing" seems to be improving (still happens but less so). I read a lot of reviews prior to purchasing my system. I'll bet many others have recently purchased Arlo, and now Arlo servers are suffering "OVERLOAD"! I don't know much about these things but that is only my possible explanation!

[woseyjales]

I still think it's wifi, as wifi isn't static, it's constantly changing due to the enviroment around it. Your router, cordless phone, cell phone, baby monitor, television internet access, even your neighbors devices, not to mention certain other common household appliances.

I went through the whole 9 yards with support and chat sessions. I had every single issue y'all have pointed out on this forum. I finally got a 50 foot ethernet cable and an extension cord and I moved the base station around, just like the old rabbit ears from a 1960's television. When I got it just right, all 5 of my camera's would go from not connected to connected, I'd move just a fraction of an inch and I lose some, or all the camera's.

The little green light on the base station for the camera's, doesn't mean all your camera's are communicating.

I'll end with, the camera's and base station must communicate flawlessly, the exchange of information, if they don't, if you lose a digital "I" or an "O", during transmission, it's gonna show up on the final video. Once the motion activated video's are uploaded to the cloud/server and you have problems reviewing, that is a seperate issue, as you aren't even using the camera or base station. It's the communication, wirelessly between the camera's and the base station that's critical and any flaw in communication, will show up on the motion actvated video sent to the cloud, your camera will be delayed in live streaming and the base station may not even be able to tell if your camera is online or not.

Just trying to help.

[RobertRosal]

Sorry I don't buy the wifi thing.

I work for a large company in the IT field.  A lot of things can affect wifi but trust me when I say if a box of shoes in the garage can affect the Arlo base, where mine is far away from anything that would disrupt the signal, then Netgear better get back on the drawing board and make a design change.

I would most likely believe server overload, which points to infrastructure problems, that can be fixed.

I'll end with this, troubleshooting 101

1)  Has anything changed in your configuration. . .NO

2)  Has anything changed in your environment. . .NO

3)  Did you have this problem before. . . . . . . . . . . . .. .NO

4)  Do you know what NETGEAR is doing on the backend. . . . . .THAT'S A BIG NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Showguy]

woseyjales Your post is insightful and I'm sure the community respects your thoughts. And probably to a large degree you are correct. However there is one very large hole in your concept and that is how dozens of people on this board had good video service on their systems and suddenly and unilaterally we all started to experience this smearing issue. 

Sorry this his is just another Netgear server and / or design issue. And what makes it worse is they are doing their usual orstrech imitation. 

[woseyjales]

Netgear hasn't done a durn thing on their end, they just keep makin y'all jump through the same hoops.

Now to your troubleshooting 101

Once your video is uploaded, your accessing a separate server with an entirely different address, your not even using the base station or camera's!!! Any flaw, any camera showing offline or not connected, or whatever it says, means the base station and the box of shoes aren't communicating!!! If it works for awhile and then doesn't, or it takes too long to activate the camera for live streaming, or the session times out on you, guess what, if your Internet is up, it's most likely the camera and base station aren't communicating.

You don't have to believe me, mines been working for 3 weeks without any issues that I had before, simply by getting the base station well away from my cable router and centralized for my cameras locations, with the use of a range extender, which by the way, I wasn't too thrilled, about throwing more cash at this durn thing, that seemed like a temperamental piece of junk, after burning up 3 sets of batteries troubleshooting with all the netgear frontline support and on my own!!!

Good luck!!!

[woseyjales]

I've also had the video smearing, but I still believe it's wifi!!!  Garbage in, garbage out!!! If you drop even one digital "I" or one "O", it's going to affect the final video, now they may have software that fills in the missing "I's" and "O's" and I would suggest that this is the smearing. What's on Netgears server, is just exactly what was uploaded.

I haven't had an issue at all in 3 weeks, I'm pretty sure I'm on to something and believe me, it wasn't pretty around here while I was going through all this!!!

[woseyjales]

Re: Smearing videos?

• ---

  Showguy wrote:
  

  woseyjales Your post is insightful and I'm sure the community respects your thoughts. And probably to a large degree you are correct. However there is one very large hole in your concept and that is how dozens of people on this board had good video service on their systems and suddenly and unilaterally we all started to experience this smearing issue. 

  Sorry this his is just another Netgear server and / or design issue. And what makes it worse is they are doing their usual orstrech imitation. 

  ---

I just figured out how to do the quote thing here and I'm sure you've already seen my previous reply, but I thought I would add, that this is definitely and engineering issue with netgear.

The 4 or 6 foot ethernet cable, however long it is, will not allow you much movement of your base station and wifi is basically a radio wave or band and enviromental issues can interfere with these radio waves. Apparently, the output of the cameras and base station is not strong enough to overcome being so close to your router, that's working most likely on the same frequency and at least for me, was preventing the base station from locking on to all 5 of my cameras.

It's definitely a netgear issue though, because you won't be able to get this thing to work, as intended, right out of the box!!!

[RobertRosal]

Who told you one's and zero's, nothing against you man but please do a little bit more reading.  Data transfer/communication are done by packet transfers.  I'll leave at that.  Ask a networking guru and you will see that one's and zero's is only partial of it.

I myself deal more with Servers and have many video conferencing setups all over the world, if you have problems with your server where it can't handle all the connections to it, you will have problems.  I don't know how to make you understand that as I better just quit.  I'm glad your system is working fine now for 3 weeks.  Mine has been fine for 6 months and started having problems same time as others.  Now all is good again.  I did not make any changes!

Unless you are cisco certified or you have your degree in network engineering than I will stand corrected. Peace!

[woseyjales]

Well, aren't you just a piece of work an smart too!!!

Gud Lawd!!! I was just tryin to help!!!

Like I said, I've had all the issues, every durn one of em and unless your live streaming, all the issues brought up here regarding the arlo system, is wifi related!!! I mean really, once you've had the sytem for awhile, or it's in a commercial setting, how many of us are gonna sit around all day and view cloud based video of cars goin by.

Oh, and by the way, your issues will return, you can take that to the bank!!!

[KLG]

I am new to security systems (this is my first). I bought Arlo after reading many articles, reviews, etc. I wanted a system that was easy to install (no drilling holes in my house running wires, and no electric hook up). My theory is that many have recently purchased this system and it has overloaded their servers. I have had the system up and running the past 2 weeks. I have basic security needs. I want to know who is approaching my house, and who is at my front door. I want to be alerted when someone is coming and to be able to live view after the alert. I need to know who is at the door before I open it! The first week I had what appears to be "normal" problems with the system. Lag time in recording motion (about 6 seconds which is significant), and a delay transitioning between camera recording and live view. The second week the "smearing" problem started! So I had a delayed recording that was often significantly smeared! Then the past say 2 days the "smearing" seems to have magically improved! Note: The system was fine, then worsened, now improved, w/o any changes in my settings. I'm a psychologist and bought this "security" system because I work with sometimes dangerous people. Now I can't even log into the system! This new problem started today. My first thought was Netgear is "punishing" me for complaining so much about the smearing and other system problems! That is a paranoid thought if ever I had one! Quess it's time to either retire or get another security system....or perhaps both!

[woseyjales]

Where's your router and base station? Within 6 foot of each other would be my guess. If you have the where withall, get your hands on a 25 to 50 foot ethernet cable and an extension cord  and try relocating the base station. It's a fairly easy and cheap experiment, if you have the time and energy. I had the very same thing going on with my system and 5 camera's and I've found an inconspicuous spot for my new range extender and my base station. I haven't had a smeared video in 3 months, or any camera offline issues since. It oughta be worth a try and I wasn't happy about having to do this very same experiment, but so far so good.

[woseyjales]

Sorry, that's no issues for 3 weeks, not months. My camera's come right up when I want to stream live, very little delay.

[RobertRosal]

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woseyjales wrote:

Well, aren't you just a piece of work an smart too!!!

Gud Lawd!!! I was just tryin to help!!!

Like I said, I've had all the issues, every durn one of em and unless your live streaming, all the issues brought up here regarding the arlo system, is wifi related!!! I mean really, once you've had the sytem for awhile, or it's in a commercial setting, how many of us are gonna sit around all day and view cloud based video of cars goin by.

Oh, and by the way, your issues will return, you can take that to the bank!!!

---

I wish I was smart, i'd probably have gone a different route for cameras.

No worries, that's why we are all posting here and that is to help others.

I didn't have any other issues except a little lag problem, but that has been squashed by camera placement.  My base is more than 50 ft away from my router, so I say again, not wifi.  A problem that has not been there in the beginning should not show up later unless something has changed.  Something is getting overloaded and it is not my wifi!

As for issues, look at this forum and that's a given.  Come on this is NetGear, I agree with you, issues will return.  This system is in it's infancy, but I'll hang in there as I know if they want to keep their customer base, they will need to improve.

In closing, glad yours is working fine and mine is definitely better, you found moving yours  around worked for you and I found not doing nothing works just as good!  Again, you just got to put the facts together, Netgear is not telling us everything, believe it or not.