Arlo Q live mode LAG

[Remlam]

I purchased the Arlo Q to use as a baby monitor. This was an obvious choice as I already use Arlo for house permit we security outside and it is nice to have one indoors (justified purchase by using it as a baby monitor).

The problem I am having is varying lag time in live mode when viewing from the app. My internet speed is 60Mb on 5G which my camera is connected two. At its best when viewing live video from the app it takes 5 seconds to connect initially to live view and the video lag on my app ranges from 5s to 15s. In the baby monitoring world, this is a long ass time. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to improve this? How about a baby mode where you can connect to the camera directly without going through the Arlo servers. Holy man that would be a great feature! People need "real time" data for babies and lag is unacceptable. Thanks!!!

[jguerdat]

Nothing you can do other than to have live view already loaded at all times.  I've tested live view to remain active for over an hour on a Q camera.

[Remlam · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply! I'm not sure how that helps though. I experience lag while in live view so keeping it connected all the time doesn't help. Is this normal? It will sometimes lag 10s when live view is already connected.

[jguerdat]

There are two different lag times. One is in starting up live view and the other has to do with the camera transmitting to the servers and then back to you. You can't control any of this other than by having live view already running.

[Remlam]

Thanks for the answer! This is what I figured I would hear. If the folks at netgear are listening ....... Please offer an option (mode) to bypass the Arlo servers and connect directly to the smart device to allow for a safe, proper baby mode. This would be extremely easy for you smart people to offer and you will hit the huge baby market. Currently, lag while monitoring a newborn is not acceptable and you shouldn't promote this as s possible use for your equipment 🙂

[rkm]

I'm having the exact same problem and just yesterday opened a question about this, not being aware of yours.

I think it's highly deceptive if Netgear is making claims about use cases that are then being contradicted by actual capabilities of the product.

Guess it's time to have my lawyer check if this would fall under deceptive advertising... maybe this will be a wake up call for Netgear to stop launching half-baked products...

[Remlam]

I agree. I like the camera for security but they certainly shouldn't advertise it for monitoring a baby (which they do).

The problem is actually very easy to fix so I am just waiting for netgear to respond (hellooo ?! ) and add the direct connect feature in the app. Seriously very basic stuff to implement and I really think they are plain stupid for not doing it. They could market (legitimately) the baby monitor market and blow away the competition. I mean who the hell wants a hand held baby monitor that becomes useless after your kid is out of diapers. Lol. People are much more likely to buy something they can use after their kid grows up to keep on their house. 🙂

[JamesC]

As jguerdat states above, to initiate a live stream, the Arlo Q must connect to the Arlo servers. This results in a slight delay before the stream can be initiated. 

JamesC

[Remlam]

Thank you but you missed the point. We all agree and understand that this is how it is today. There is no technical limitation for netgear to enhance the product (new firmware/app) that would allow for direct connect (bypass the servers for realtime no delay feed). This is what we are asking for.

[DLDL]

I highly agree with the others on this. I'm considering returning the camera because of this issue.
I'd like to be able to quickly check the camera live in order to see who's approaching the door or driveway to my house before they're too close. With the delay it's useless for this purpose.

The cloud-access is good for documentation of events that has occurred. But we need a quick direct access monitor mode to see what's happening live. Preferably an app where you just open the app and it's live immediately without delay or having to start the stream.
Can you please give us an answer if such a feature is in the works and when it may be implemented.

[jguerdat]

We don't know the backend architecture but it appears to be that the Arlo (actually Amazon cloud) servers tend to be located in a continent other than our own.  That may well vary according to your location but I'm in Rochester, NY and the server seems to be in London or thereabouts.  The physical location as well as inter-continental traffic leads to triple digit delay times (in ms) which causes the overall lag to increase, especially if the conversation between the base and server is "chatty".  It's always been this way and we've seen no evidence of change.  I don't know what Amazon's server farm layouts/locations are but I'd certainly think that an East coast US one is available that would likely help my/our situations.

It's something we can't control so you have to make your own decision as to whether it's an issue for you.

[DLDL]

What we're suggesting is a local direct access mode where you can access the live feed from the camera on your local LAN, without having to go through the servers. We're not talking about local storage of videos/images, just local (=low latency) direct access to the live feed!

[Remlam]

Geeeeze. Listen to DLDL. This is NOT rocket science we are asking for. We are asking netgear to listen to the user and implement a simple direct access to our freaking camera so that we can have the option for immediate lag free access to our stream. Forget about which continent the servers are located, they are not relevant to this discussion since we are asking to bypass then for a certain use case. (Ex baby monitor, quick view when motion detected of the camera for security). We still want all that the servers and recording have to offer but ability to switch to "direct"mode. just like how a Kodi remote can sniff out a running instance of Kodi on the same network (for those familiar) the Arlo app should be able to do the same on the same network.

[rkm]

Remlam perfectly sums it up.

Option 1: "Live mode", stream stays "within local WLAN", doesn't go through servers - no recording needed, as little lag as possible needed. "Babyphone use case". 

Option 2: "Record mode" - use the Q as you would use your regular Arlos, for recording of events. Lag less critical. 

[AJames123]

I too agree that this is deceptive advertising.  Netgear should pay me for wasted time.  The delay is not necessary since Skype and such VoIP's have no lag and those also have to travel in and out of servers.

NETGEAR please be professional and address our issues.

[JamesC]

There are topics in the Arlo Idea Exchange discussing this, such as the one posted by Remlam here: Arlo Q - Direct Connect (Baby Monitor). Arlo developers frequently review the most popular ideas based on Kudos. If you would like this to be something added as a feature in the future I encourage you to visit these discussions and lend your support by adding Kudos.

Thank you for your contribution,

JamesC

[robinbroekhuis]

Almost 99% of het Arlo Q users is asking for this option. It seems Netgear isn't listening to their customers! Just introduce a new product (Arlo Baby) where this option is available. The software/firmware is available, why not implement it for the Arlo Q?!