Quality of cameras at a distance and battery issues

[Captain9d]

Arlo Pro review

We purchased our 6 pack Arlo Pro last month from Best Buy after much research on quality wireless security cameras.  We decided to go with the wireless system because of the mostly good reviews on the internet and the company info on the quality of the product.  The Netgear company had good marks in the wireless security camera realm.  Now in our 2nd month of operation I have many 2nd thoughts. 

Camera quality is good up close but when you mount the camera on a pole to cover the front of your garage and parking area for your boats and truck, you find many issues.

When a car passes the view, the camera does not turn on until the vehicle is more than halfway across the screen.  During the day and especially at night, you cannot see the license plate of the car passing.  Also, if you zoom in, the view is so blurry there is no way to see anything on the plate or the face of the person walking by. 

The camera we have on the pole facing my boat and truck could not identify anything but a body and what the person was wearing. Same with the camera over the front of the removed building garage.  Both of these cameras took a few days to set up and get working but are offline most of the time.  In fact, since I charged them for the 1st time, they have been offline for the last 5 days.  Not much good if they will not say on or give you a good view of the intruder.

The only ones that work are on the porch, breezeway, my studio inside our removed building from the house, and the front door.  These are within 15-20' of the area viewed and show good video but at night you still cannot ID the intruder's face and in most cases and don't turn on until the person is right up on the door.

There is very little support and is only there for the 1st 3 months but limited.  You would have to pay the monthly $10 fee or more to get support.  Quite frankly, why would I pay more for support when it is so hard to get support when you 1st purchase the system?  There is no telephone number for support, only a community forum.  You purchase a 6-pack but only 5 cameras are allowed on the system so one is useless unless you purchase the month fee package.  We are older folks and need a real live person to talk to for support.  We work during the day and only have the evening to try to get and keep the camera system working.  Not happy at all.

The batteries run out in 2-4 days if you set the camera on the best quality setting.  Don't bother, because the best setting still does not ID your intruder unless they are right up on the camera!  When you remove the camera from the hard mount to charge it, wait until you try to screw it back in!  the small hole is on a slight angle on one end of the back of the camera.  Because of the angle, as you turn the camera the hole does not line up well with the screw receiver and it takes forever to get it to start.  I can see this stripping out in short order.  Plus, I can't hold my arms over my head for the long period of time it takes to get the camera to re-mount.  The magnets mounts are nice but the intruder will have the cameras in their pockets in short order.  Also, if you mount them on the ceiling, the angle does not work well and you have to purchase the hard mount that drops the camera about 3" down to obtain a good angle.

My wife cannot adjust nor turn on or off the camera on her iPad because only one person is allowed to do so.  She is not a happy camper after the high price we paid for these very nice-looking cameras (over $1000 for the 6 pack and accessories). We paid the high cost because we expected high quality cameras expecting to actually ID the car and intruder along the with the low monthly long-term fees.  Turns out we were wrong on both counts.

I had expected the alarm to go off on the cameras but really only works through your doorbell speaker.  This does not scare off any intruder outside of my garage or breaking into my boat.

Lastly, Arlo came out with the Arlo Pro 2 the next month after we purchased our Arlo Pro package.  We had no idea or we may have waited for the updated version.  Not sure I would switch to them because I would have the same support issues and most likely the same wireless connection issues along with another higher price for the new package.  Stuck with our Arlo Pro.

In short, I do not see the value in the higher price, the wireless function, and support of the Arlo Pro system.  If I have to pay a higher monthly fee to obtain quality and support, I would just as well go with a hard-wired system with better support and 1st responder notification.  Not happy after just 2 months of ownership.  No financial recourse, just stuck with a security camera system that does not work like we expected.

[Tofu101]

Thank you for taking the time to lay out your plight to save others from this failed product line. Your words clearly summarize the issues I’m certain with which we’ve all been experiencing. Netgear’s Support is shameful on a product that was rushed to market before it was ready.. Keep your ladder close by for now and best of luck.

[TomMac]

Good review but will mention a few errors , IMO ( used to install cams )

When a car passes the view, the camera does not turn on until the vehicle is more than halfway across the screen.  During the day and especially at night, you cannot see the license plate of the car passing.  Also, if you zoom in, the view is so blurry there is no way to see anything on the plate or the face of the person walking by. 

The above is a perfect describtion of an "activity" cam ( which is what these are ).

With the 130d angle coverage, they are ment to cover a large area... you will see what happened and when , but never prob get an ID of the person. ( this is why stores aim cameras JUST at door ways to get an ID of people )

You will never get a plate ( esp if moving ) of a car cause with the wide angle, past 25ft it just isns't going to happen ( as you know you get larger dots )

The only ones that work are on the porch, breezeway, my studio inside our removed building from the house, and the front door.  These are within 15-20' of the area viewed and show good video but at night you still cannot ID the intruder's face and in most cases and don't turn on until the person is right up on the door.

The PIR device works on people to a max of about 25ft... the fact that it picks up cars farther away is the reflection of IR from same. So I recommend users to NOT cover more area than the PIR can cover for people. An area of 20 ft from camera is about it

To the slow start up, the Pro are pretty good if setup correctly ( no not perfect ). It helps if the movement is across the field of view instaed of straight on , also the sense level must be a trial and error to get good captures but eliminate the false triggers.  I found that placement of the cam away from doors allows the entry to trigger recording and most of the time you will get a face as they leave. ( most of my cams cover no more than 15-18ft away )

There is very little support and is only there for the 1st 3 months

Agree, seems to be a weak spot... but many here seems to have more knowledge than the low level techs and are willing to help

The batteries run out in 2-4 days if you set the camera on the best quality setting

Non of my Pros run out of batteries in least than about 37 days ( heavy use ) , where the average is 60+ days.

If your having battery issues, it can be hardware or location, etc... they should not be running out in a day or two unless something or usage is incorrect.  Spec usage is 5 or less mins perday.

My wife cannot adjust nor turn on or off the camera on her iPad because only one person is allowed to do so

Not so if you use GRANT ACCESS...  In granted access, 2 people or more can use the cameras at the same time AND still have more than 95% control of the cameras options. You don't need to turn OFF the cameras, just DISARMED them

[jguerdat]

The first issue is that you're tyring to see too much.  These have a 130 degree view but trying to cover huge amounts of area just works against you.  That also feeds into the issue of identifying someone - it's a wide angle lens which means the subject is very small until very close. Use a camera with a fisheye lens (try one out at a local camera store) and you'll see exactly the same thing.

Positioning of the cameras is key, especially for night use. The built-in IR illuminators simply won't cast a strong light - this is a battery-operated camera. You can always use external lighting although that's not always practical.

Battery life depends on many things - WiFi connection quality between the base and camera as well as the total number of minutes of live viewing and recording per day (<5 minutes per day is the spec).  My batteries last at least a month, usually more like 2-3, depending on usage.

Support is free - no charges needed. Re-read the support statement. FOlks here have used support with devices out of warranty (1 year) with no issue. You simply don't have to pay for it at any point as a home user.

The 6 pack of cameras DOES allow you to use all 6 for free. You simply have to use the right info (the SKU, I believe) when first installing the system to get them all added to the account. I haven't set up such a system but the directions should be there to do so.  Now that you've apparently set up a standard account, you'll need to remove them from your account and set up a new account using a new email address to properly get all 6 in use.

Multiple people can use the app at the same time.  It would behoove you to look at the FAQs here for help. Basically, use Settings, Grant Access from the master account to a second email address. Follow the directions in the invite email. Then both users can view simultaneously.  This has always been the case and has been documented here innumerable times as well as in the FAQs.

Reading the specs and a little investigation would have shown that the alarm is only in the base.  It was never stated to be available in the camera.

Like all electronics, new stuff comes out all the time. You bought a new HD TV and then a 4k one shows up.  WHo you gonna call?

Whew! And I'm almost 68 and retired so no spring chicken myself. I get what you're saying but a lot is out of context.  There are issues to be worked through but we can help if you'll let us. And there's always the Contact Support link at the bottom here.