bad bargain of the century

[Sander74]

bad bargain of the century - thats what i think.

- lots of false alarms ( front side ) motion detection is not in the center

- In the backyard not lot of movements but lot of battery use.

  Netgear says six months but is it 4-6 weeks, every 4-6 weeks € 35,- euro's for battery's ( 3 cam's )

- 7 days of recording ( 1 GB is the max ) if there is 1 GB used in 4 days, no recording. in the old version of the app i can delete the files but in the new app it's          gone.

- it is certainly not a 'no worries' camera system continuously check whether it's recording.

- I have the system with three cameras for € 449, - euro, wasted money. expensive batteries every six weeks € 35 euros, recording regularly check whether he       record

- Image is good, but to do something more with the batteries you should set it to the worst imagination.

- do you want a camera system for security of your property, take some time, search for a good system and do not buy the Arlo system.

- everything that improves the system costs lots of money, save that money ans spend it in a good camera system.with 100 % recording, quality and no other     expensive costs

a not satisfied Arlo buyer with much regret

[sbcrockett]

While I would agree it's not a perfect system and that Arlo/Netgear could do a better job with updates and providing more consistency between the app and the online website, the system met almost all of my expectations for what it's advertised to do.

You would be hard pressed to find a simpler, more streamlined system, so easy to setup and work right out of the box with minimal installation worries. Granted I got my  5 cameras with base for just under $500 (thank you Amazon deals) but I think you'll find very few quality wireless cameras with a decent software offering and pretty much fool proof operation and still be able to be less than that price point. I agree that the batteries are pricey, but there's always the rechargeable route and if you watch for deals on batteries you can do pretty well.

As for your false alarms, did you adjust the sensitivity and aim the cameras correctly? Why would you want the motion to be activated in the center of the image? I would think it should turn on at the outer edges of the camera view. Also, remember there is a 1-2 second lag from motion activation to record. When I first started getting my motion notifications, I was like you and thought they were false alarms (insects, rain, etc.) but what was happening was my cameras were not aimed properly and were picking up cars driving by. They were going so fast that they were out of the camera view before the recording actually captured them.

Don't forget that you can modify each camera view using the pan and zoom feature in the settings. I'm not sure but I believe this may also tighten your field of view/motion to capture only what you want. This and the sensitivity are crucial to proper setup.

As for the 1 Gb of storage, I don't see how you could be maxing out after only 7 days. Each of my cameras was recording 40-60 video clips every day and I was no where near the maximum storage amount. To be fair,  it IS a free service and I view the limits as a reason to practice good housekeeping at least once a week. And don't forget that you can turn on a push notification to alert you when your storage is 80% full. Try using the "optimize" setting for resolution, I've found it's decent enough and that would at least save you some storage space.

While it's not perfect, I think Arlo eliminates the frustration and headache of trying to assemble different hardware and getting it all behaving when going the a la carte option for video security. They could certainly do better at their updates getting the bugs worked out before rolling out changes. I've noticed some weird behavior when switching between the online website and the iPhone/Android app. But it'll just take some tweaking and some time to get things perfect. 🙂

Good luck with your system. I wouldn't throw in the towel just yet.

[Geoff]

I managed a good five months useage out of my cameras (one is still going after seven months, albeit the low battery warning is now on).

I am expecting the replacement batteries to last longer as a lot of battery useage was used up setting the cameras up initially.

[TomMac]

Agree... two of mine made it to the 7 month mark and died,... tho most for me run 4 months ar best video settings.

Not a complaint here re batteries

[newbieDIYer]

sbcrockett, you mention you got 5 cameras and base for just under $500 at amazon.  was that a special deal for that day?  right now 5 cameras and base on amazon are $625 and 4 + base are $499.

thank you!

[sbcrockett]

yes, it was an Amazon deal. a couple days after the price went up to $625 (which is still $25 less than buying the system directly from Arlo, btw). it was kinda weird the way they described my package: one camera system with 4 camera add-on. I didn't complain and bought it right away, knowing that my friend had just paid $449 for a 3 camera system and BestBuy.

[sbcrockett]

Sander74,

I just re-read your post and forgot to address one of your problems. You said you can't delete the videos when you reach the 1 GB limit. From the Library screen, you need to click Select and then you can click on individual videos or Select All and wipe the whole day.

Hope you're having better luck with your system. Another thing I'd recommend is that if you're little used backyard camera is only lasting 4-6 weeks, maybe you got some sub par batteries? i've been using the heck out of my front camera the last two months, watching live and recording MANY videos and I've still got battery left for probably another month.

Best of luck!