added second camera, not video quality is terrible

[Jmarkj]

I bought and installed ONE camera last week and was very impressed with the video quality. Today I added a second camera and now both have terrible video quality. Zoom on both is un-usuable, horribly pixalated. What happened? I"d like to add a third but at this rate, not going to happen. I"ve also updated everything to the latest firmware. Please helps me Mr. Wizzard!! LOL 

[jguerdat]

There are various possibilities but the first thing I'd look at is your upload speeds. Use speedtest.net to determined if you have at least 1Mb per second.

[Jmarkj]

Thank you, I'll try that. I have excessive buffering all the time but am in the process of moving to a different ISP this week. Last time I checked, I had 21 down and usually .8 up. Pretty pathetic! LOL But at times squeeking over 1meg UP. 

[Jmarkj]

Yep.....22mbps DOWN and .8 (POINT 😎 UP.....pretty sad. I'll try pulling the batteries out of the second camera and see if number one clears up. 

[LT2121]

I just experienced the same problem. Just added the second camera today after testing with the NEST cam for a month. Very disappointed to see the poor video quality(choppy) on the additional camera and delay on the first one. I called support as soon as I discovered the issue, and was routed to the philipines(strike 2?) for customer service. The woman told me that i may need to position the second camera higher in the room. Apparently pointing downward gives it a better ability to connect with the base station? Moving it around to get better connection helps too. Unfortunately, I live in a small apartment. If these cameras both need to be near the base station to work properly, that's strike 3. If cable connection is an issue, it sounds like these cameras aren't ready for prime time. Most people have no control or little control over their bandwidth, aside from spending more money. #frustrated 

[LT2121]

I just experienced the same problem. Just added the second camera today after testing with the NEST cam for a month. Very disappointed to see the poor video quality(choppy) on the additional camera and delay on the first one. I called support as soon as I discovered the issue, and was routed to the philipines(strike 2?) for customer service. The woman told me that i may need to position the second camera higher in the room. Apparently pointing downward gives it a better ability to connect with the base station? Moving it around to get better connection helps too. Unfortunately, I live in a small apartment. If these cameras both need to be near the base station to work properly, that's strike 3. If cable connection is an issue, it sounds like these cameras aren't ready for prime time. Most people have no control or little control over their bandwidth, aside from spending more money. #frustrated 

[jguerdat]

Every situation is unique so all we can do is try "usual" fixes.  I'd disagree that the camera has to be higher in the room although, oviously, lower may mean that more furniture, etc. can be in the path between the camera and base, causing signal degradation. Construction can make a difference, too - perhaps you just happen to have a path that includes wiring, ductwork, etc. to block the signal.  Signal strength/quality is a frequent issue.  You can try temporarily moving the camera and/or base around to see if things get better.

Upload speed is the other culprit.  1Mbs is the minimum but multiple cameras streaming at once can cause issues.  I lowered my resolution from Best Quality to Optimized since that reduces the bandwidth needed for my pitiful 1Mbs Time Warner upload speeds (I recently upgraded to 2Mbs to test and it seems somewhat better - the most I can get is 5Mbs at way too much money for my usage).  Test your upload speed via speedtest.net - does it meet at least the minimum?

[LT2121]

Yeah. Thanks for providing a little more detail as to why we had - or would have, problems with these Arlo Pros. Pretty crazy to think that the wifi would have this much trouble connecting to a base station. Though it sounds like you're ok with paying for more internet speed, and compromising maximum camera angle to get a better connection. I'm not. I'll probably return the second camera and just go with one. One camera is ok. Two? Not really. Thanks for your added explanation.