Motion detection is inconsistent

[jmeyer]

My front door has a camera that is set at motion detection.  I usually detects cars that drive by but doesn't catch a person until they are right in front of the camera.  Other times it won't catch a car at all.  It is set at 100% sensitivity because it isn't catching people soon enough.  What I want is pretty much the opposite.

[Showguy]

Take a good look around this forum. You will see what you are describing is characteristic of this system.  You can try different mounting angles, different sensitivity levels, and you can read a book on scientic facts about how heat and light effect the type of motion sensor used in this system.  In the end of the day, nothing much will change. You will always have inconsistency.

Sorry.

[Hula_Rock]

PLEASE DO NOT RELY ON THIS SYSTEM TO PROTECT YOUR ASSETS, PROPERTY, FAMILY, ETC.

This system is only good for "Complimenting", your home security system.  The inconsistancies with motion detection make this a glorified web cam at best.

If you want to see how your dog is doing inside, who is stealing your beer in the kitchen, etc., this is where this system shines.

I hope you kept your reciept.

[RegDawg]

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Hula_Rock wrote:

PLEASE DO NOT RELY ON THIS SYSTEM TO PROTECT YOUR ASSETS, PROPERTY, FAMILY, ETC.

This system is only good for "Complimenting", your home security system.  The inconsistancies with motion detection make this a glorified web cam at best.

If you want to see how your dog is doing inside, who is stealing your beer in the kitchen, etc., this is where this system shines.

I hope you kept your reciept.

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You said it best. There are obviously better security camera's you can get but that would mean have the wiring installed throughout your home. I'm actually on the fence right now of returning my system (I purchased the 4 camera system + 1 add on). My biggest gripe is the motion detection. It does not record on time most of the time and sometimes it does not even record even though I know someone was there. I mean if you overlook the motion recording inconsistancy, it does fine. I mean its wireless, and the mounting areas are very flexible. No need to run wires througout your house to a hard drive. I think positives outweigh the negatives for me which is why I still have it...and believe me each security system will have negatives/positives. Just need to find that balance I guess. 

[armoredsaint]

like others have mention, this shouldn't be your main security/monitoring system - who knew it was full of flaws.

i am starting to think netgear is slowly backing away here...

[sherzberg13]

This is one of my concerns as well. But after playing with the sensitivity, lighting and mount positions for each camera. They now record pretty consistantly. I have one camera I am still working on. It catches everything during the day but nothing at night. Still a work in progress. Thanks for sharing. At least I know I'm not alone. The good out way the bad. My front porch camera caught an intruder just a few weeks ago. I was able to use the video and capture a great still photo of him to give to the police.

[bpg710]

I agree! I'm in the same boat, as most of us are, in dealing with the many limitations of this system. My first camera I mounted outside captured a suspicious character walking from the side of my house and down my driveway in the middle of the night. Then two weeks later I captured that same guy again. I suspect he was snooping around the neighbor's house because both times nothing on my side was tampered with. Still, I now had some useable footage. Had I not been so successful from the start with a decent recording I probably would be returning this system for a lot of the same reasons people here list, mainly the inconsistency of how it detects motion.

My camera's and their corresponding angles will do a decent job 80-90% of the time and other times fail miserably. I'll finally get a camera in the perfect position and it will perform beautifully until it's time to change out the batteries and I have to spend time reposition the camera again. It can be very frustrating trying to duplicate that perfect position.

Since there are many positive features to Arlo, I've conceded to the fact it is what it is. No system is perfect. I wouldn't call Alro a complete security camera system but more of a quick easy solution to monitor your home or surroundings.

[RegDawg]

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bpg710 wrote:

I agree! I'm in the same boat, as most of us are, in dealing with the many limitations of this system. My first camera I mounted outside captured a suspicious character walking from the side of my house and down my driveway in the middle of the night. Then two weeks later I captured that same guy again. I suspect he was snooping around the neighbor's house because both times nothing on my side was tampered with. Still, I now had some useable footage. Had I not been so successful from the start with a decent recording I probably would be returning this system for a lot of the same reasons people here list, mainly the inconsistency of how it detects motion.

My camera's and their corresponding angles will do a decent job 80-90% of the time and other times fail miserably. I'll finally get a camera in the perfect position and it will perform beautifully until it's time to change out the batteries and I have to spend time reposition the camera again. It can be very frustrating trying to duplicate that perfect position.

Since there are many positive features to Arlo, I've conceded to the fact it is what it is. No system is perfect. I wouldn't call Alro a complete security camera system but more of a quick easy solution to monitor your home or surroundings.

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As long as you understand what Arlo is, then its an excellent system. 

[CG198]

The lag time has everything to do with "Cloud" storage. The cameras themselves for up and come on quickly during motion. Put it in test mode and watch it respond. If NETGEAR would allow local storage this could be easily fixed. Are you listening NETGEAR? I have 7 cameras and can get most movement. But it takes a great deal to d rules to set it up and make work. Even then you may miss something. I like the system in that I can move the cameras easily and the picture quality is decent. Battery life has not been an issue. 4 months and batteries are at full bars. Local storage that would fix many ills and make the system more of a security camera system.

[JamesC]

CG198,

The Arlo team is listening. The idea of local storage has gained quite a bit of exposure on the Arlo Idea Exchange. If you haven't already, I encourage you to kudo those threads to help indicate how popular that idea is. I apologize that I do not have any official updates on local storage being a consideration/possibility but backing the idea will absolutely help it gain momentum. Thank you for your contribution!

JamesC

[beconnor]

I have found that my camera records very well if I position it so that people walk from side to side of the camera instead of walking right at the camera. The delay is only a second or two. I am happy with my system 😊

[royvan]

The system definitly needs some improvement in engineering. The 2-3 second delay will many times completely miss the subject which has already moved out out camera range. It also is very sensitive to vegitation movement. I have to turn down the sensitivity to almost 0 to filter out brush movement 30-40 feet away. I agree it is a good supplimental system to a security program but cannot be relied on to immediately catch the motion. It did catch one suspicious person in my front door courtyard area late at night. I downloaded and sent the information to the police.

Now that I have programed the system for 24/7 I have not been able to change the time settings. System seems to be locked on.

[sfabre1963]

I doubt the Netgear team is going to buy into this. Purchasing additional cloud storage is REVENUE!

[sfabre1963]

This is pathetic, a family member pulls into my driveway, I get the motion detected alert, and they are already sitting on my living room couch when the video starts recording ! This is useless !

[sfabre1963]

By the way the base station is maybe 30 feet away from the camera that picked up the motion !

[Hula_Rock]

You have to have pretty low expectations of this system in order for it to work correctly. Netgear is pretty much over their heads with these paper weights

[CG198]

As with any new tech ( out since Jan) there are going to be issues. No its not perfect but the premise has merit and I have managed to get the system working fairly well. There is room for improvement that is for sure. But classifying them as "paperweight" is a bit of a stretch.

[CG198]

If you have the time set for 24/7 for all motion on the schedule mode you won't be able to change it unless to change the schedule.

[RegDawg]

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CG198 wrote:
As with any new tech ( out since Jan) there are going to be issues. No its not perfect but the premise has merit and I have managed to get the system working fairly well. There is room for improvement that is for sure. But classifying them as "paperweight" is a bit of a stretch.

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Seriously, I love the Arlo but I also hate it but the positives outweight the negatives for me at least. As stated, this is a compliment to a home alarm system. This is not going to accurately identify the person that broke in your car most of the time. It should tell you that there was someone in your backyard or someone was on your front porch. If you have it set up in the right place, maybe for you it'll catch that face that was on your porch or who broke into your car. For most of us, its going to be trial and error on placement. This is the only true wireless security camera system on the market right now so gotta deal with what doesn't work so well and try to make it work. I mean, why did most of us buy the arlo? Honestly for me it was the wireless aspect of it. I didn't want to run wires all over my house or install electrical plugs.

[Hula_Rock]

@CG198 .....

What does this system become if you lose your Internet contection?


You guessed it right..... a PAPERWEIGHT!

[sfabre1963]

This is a perfect system, if you plan on using it to monitor inside you home.  As far as monitoring the outside, don't waste your money.  And as far as I am concerned, this systems does not compliment your existing sercurity system.  For my application the motion detection was sub par, and the delay of the recorded video was absolutely terrible.  Maybe if Netgear would listen to their existing customers, and do some re-engineering this could be a great system.  As someone else in here said earlier this is nothing but a set of glorified webcams !!!  Went back to Bestbuy and returned my system !!!!

[bpg710]

In my experience, Arlo has worked great for me. My setup consist of 3 outside cameras (driveway, entry, back patio) and one indoor. My upload speed is usually 5-7MB. It's taken me a while to get my setup and placement to fit my needs but all in all, it's been a positive experience. I could have easily went with a wired system but running wires to my back patio would have been a challenge. Arlo gave me the flexibility to cover all my access points. Are there times where the system misses, yes but as others have stated, the positives out weigh the negatives. It takes time but this systems does work.

Because the system isn't perfect I placed a webcam that looks out my front window at my entryway and records motion to a computer based DVR program. Arlo gives me night vision at night and my webcam can record the things Arlo misses during the day. This allows me to have a back up system, so to speak, or at least accurately see who comes to my house. If I later decide to intall a wired system for my front perimeter the Arlo setup would then move inside the house and I would still have my back patio covered. This is where Arlo can enhance an existing security system.

Still, I understand why Arlo isn't for everyone. I agree, that if Netgear would fix some of the key complaints this would truly be a very unique and awesome system and would probably expand their customer base. I hope they are listening to us.

[aussie_user]

My camera has been recording consistently for the past few months. In the past few days, I have noticed that the recording only occurs on some occasions, even when the movement is exactly the same and the person is close by. I have not touched the position of the camera or changed its sensitivity. Is this a network issue? And how do I fix it, as the lack if detection/recording is quite bad.

[CG198]

Check your recordings and make sure you are not close to your storage limit. Màke sure the batteries are good in the camera. Try removing batteries from camera and reinstalling. If none of this works, Try resetting your Arlo router. Power down and back up. You may have to re-sync your cameras afterwards.

Note: The battery indicator will show 100% then one day be at half then a few days later be red. The indicator is not gradual it is a sudden drop. What I have found is the motion detection loses sensitivity as the batteries get low.

[aussie_user]

Batteries are one month old, still showing 3 bars. My storage is also quite low. I think the main issue which I didn't mention in the earlier post, is that when my phone alerts me that motion has been detected, I don't receive all of the videos for it. For example, just tested the camera and I received three separate alerts but only 2 videos showed up in the library (as well as only 2 emails). I know I'm not going crazy because there were definitely 3 alerts. I have only noticed this problem in the last few days. Surely it's a network issue? Arlo?