Love/Hate

[Brittle]

I mounted my Arlo cameras to catch mail thieves, after multiple late triggers i finally got 3 seperate thieves in crystal clear video, 2 of them at night.
2 of them have already been identified and are being sought by the post office.
Unfortunately, since we lock our gate now until the time when the mail arrives, one of our thieves climbed up the outside front gate, over 12 feet up, in broad daylight on a main street to steal one of our cameras. The camera was fixed to the corner pole with an excessive amount of duct tape (black tape so it blended in). He just ripped it off and walked away.. no video of his face.
I have had numerous problems with these cameras but when they work, they work exceptionally. The chief postal inspector has been asking what i use to have such great quality.
☆ I have noticed though that only 1 camera at a time will film. I didnt see anything written about this anywhere.
One of my cameras was rendered useless by dead batteries within a month. I live/work on the road and the batteries i ordered online are back logged. Im annoyed that the batteries that came with that one camera were no good, my other cameras are still going strong after 3 months on the original batteries and on best quality settings.
Im now trying to decide if i want to get rid of it, or double up on my cameras and have a camera pointed at each camera in case more get stolen. It seems like a spiral and the police in my city just do not care. I dont mind so much that it will cost 160.00 to replace tbe camera, except that there is no recourse if another one gets stolen. I have considered mounting a GPS to it but that will just be a costly loss considering the police problem i mentioned already.
*Confused and torn.

[TomMac]

Sorry to hear about your difficulties....

But, even wired cameras can be stolen too

☆ I have noticed though that only 1 camera at a time will film. I didnt see anything written about this anywhere.

This is not accurate tho, The system can live stream 4 cams at the same time and with "stacked" rules, I have had 3 cams recording at the same time

If you look into RULES it can help you maybe read this thread;

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Motion-Detection/Create-rule-to-activate-multiple-cameras-if-motion...

[MamaSkylight]

I noticed my original batteries went dead real fast, but the ones I bought since then have not.  I think this is partially due to the settings.  I had them at optimum picture (which drains the batteries faster) and recording for 30 seconds (which also drains the batteries).  So, I think part of it is just finding the right setting for your needs and what you want to pay for batteries.  I am using eight cameras and I like to move at least one of them around from time to time so that if there is someone watching--they won't know where that other camera is from day to day.  I wish I had saved some of my earliest video because I've noticed people (when I'm outside) walking around my sidewalk to the extent of being on my side of the street, crossing to the other side and then crossing back after they get passed my house.  They're the ones I'm suspicious of, but one of them was looking through the slats of my fence one evening and I followed him to where he lives...so now I know where he lives if something happens.

[TomMac]

Yes, the batteries are finite. 

Most find once they get the "settings" down and use the cameras, ( not just additional playing which is part of the learning curve ), the batteries last longer.

Settings will vary based on what your needs are.