Arlo has long been my preferred network camera, handily besting the likes of Nest due to a generous free tier of service and unrivaled placement flexibility — weather-proof, battery-powered, and wireless. Well, Netgear has just upped the ante with the Arlo Pro line of cameras. In addition to what sounds like generally improved optics (and now audio) to possibly match the Arlo Q model, the two new features that have me contemplating an upgrade are rechargeable batteries (supposedly good for 6 months) and USB video storage. However, these refinements do come at a cost. Whereas my original Arlo 4-pack ran $500, the equivalent Pro bundle goes for $650. It seems I could add enhanced Pro cameras to my current config, but local storage does require the new hub.
Do the Arlo Pros support PoE? Any experience with 3rd party app support that may be geared toward more specific use-cases such as baby monitoring?
Yeah, the new hub adds local storage and a Siren. Way too many false alarms for me to ever want a Siren, but the local storage would be nice. I literally just bought into Arlo 1 week ago (Great 2 camera/base station Costco deal), but I’m ok with just adding a few pro cameras to my setup and forgoing the siren and local storage, for now. I was going to add 2 more cameras anyway, so now they will be Pros instead of the old ones.
My biggest complaint about the Arlo wireless cameras is how long they take to start recording after a motion is detected. I’m hoping the new Pro camera’s address that with a better motion sensor.
Brian,
They (Arlo Pros) do NOT support POE because they do not support being wired. The new pros have a mini USB for charging, OR for continuous power, but the data connection is always wireless.
If you want to go with POE, the Arlo Q does support POE.
I have an Arlo mounted above my drive way to watch for vandals trying to get into cars (common in my area). We have a tree partially covering the drive way, and the shadows cast throughout the day and any wind, set up numerous useless recordings/alerts. I did order a Pro standalone to try out. I’m interested in the better motion detection they announced for later this year.
Scary, Byron, I rarely get false positives. I doubt shadows are triggering it and, beyond adjusting the sensitivity, wonder if it’s wind moving branches in Byron’s case — I sometimes see that with my deck grill cover or umbrella on really windy days.
Also, Bryon, have you cropped down the image you capture? If so, the movement may be beyond the edges of that crop. I had a similar experience in my driveway – I cropped out the road, but the motion sensor gets everything in the original frame. Once I tilted the camera down a bit more, the false positives stopped.
Of course, your mileage may vary and we each have different tolerance thresholds — for example the 2 seconds or whatever to start recording on my original outdoor Arlos doesn’t bother me when I see the delivery guy leaving instead of arriving. However, the time lag in spinning up the camera and in the action is annoying when trying to use the Arlo Q as an occasional baby monitor (although the zoom and night vision are far superior to the Samsung Smartcam).
Yeah, it’s likely not the shadows. The wireless Arlos use Infrared heat detection for movement, and not frame analysis.
“Arlo Wire-Free cameras trigger an alert when the infrared technology detects an object that is warmer than the surrounding environment. Arlo’s motion sensor is more sensitive to side-to-side movement across its field of view than to movement directly toward or away from the camera. The motion sensitivity settings range from one (low sensitivity) to 100 (ultra sensitive).”
The Arlo Pros have a digital infrared motion sensor (the original Arlo has an analog motion sensor). I’ve also heard they have 2 passive infrared sensors (PIR sensor) instead of 1. But I’m unable to confirm that right now.
Mostly we get people roaming around looking for unlocked car doors, to try get some loose change for their next fix :(
My image is cropped to avoid the road as much as possible, it’s a short driveway. Occasionally I can tell when a car driving by triggers it, as I’ll see the tail end of the car in the video like this one:
https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/5B18D38E676BABA1_201610
whereas this one just has a flash of light as it starts:
https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/7E64EA6168DDE329_201610
I’m hearing from someone who was briefed by Netgear than 3-months rechargeable battery life may be more typical for many users (rather than the 6 month claim). My real-world experience using non-replaceable batteries has been 3-6 months, dependent on weather (cold), video recording frequency and length. If I were look at Arlo today as a new customer, there’s no question I would go rechargeable – the math probably balances out pretty quickly.
is the battery removable, or do you have to charge while in the camera? Would be cool to have a spare set of batteries that you can easily swap out so you don’t have to stop having the cameras while the batteries charge.
Bricketh,
You can buy additional batteries if needed. Netgear is also selling a “charge station” for charging more than one battery at a time.
http://arlo.com/en-us/products/arlo-pro/rechargeable-battery.aspx
http://arlo.com/en-us/products/arlo-pro/charging-station.aspx
I put an order in thru Best Buy as they are claiming a 10/19 release date. Been happy with my current Arlo’s, but like the idea of the Pro’s better detection and definitely the local storage.
There was a press release a while ago from Netgear stating that Arlo’s would eventually be able to send to a ReadyNAS, but that never appeared.
They are removable. They sell a 2 battery charging station. http://www.arlo.com/en-us/products/arlo-pro/charging-station.aspx
I really wanted to like these, but the level of false detection is maddening. You can’t set a area, so any time a car or any hit source even bounces reflective heat int the general direction of the cam they go off. It’s fine for some areas but if you are on or near a street they are totally unusable.
My two cents –
Love the Arlo’s overall. Biggest gripes, in order of gripey-ness:
1) iOS app. If I get one more *?&*!?? failure trying to look at a live camera….yeah yeah, reboot things all the time, it’s just a crap shoot. Some days it instantly loads a camera, most days I get that orange warning on the app saying it couldn’t play it. Horrible UI.
2) Video quality – they claim HD, I don’t think so. Not like you might think, anyway, like a good 1080p movie. Always noisy and can be pixelated.
3) Price. I get it, wireless, blah blah blah, but still a 4 camera non-Pro system is(was) pricey
Guess not much, but enough that I’d seriously consider a competitor if one comes out.
Guess I’ve been lucky. No connectivity issues, but the speed to spin up live viewing is sometimes frustrating. The app interface has continued to improve since I first got onboard. My main complaint at the moment is some of the icons (like pause, full screen) are extremely tiny targets. I’ve been satisfied with video quality – mine is fully cranked at the expense of battery life but of course night vision is grainy. I’m OK with the pricing given the free tier of service that bests everyone else outside roll-your-own.
I have had, unquestionably, my camera triggered by shadows moving in a breeze. However, it also captures shadows when someone tries to circumvent the camera. I turn the sensitivity down when I get too many false alerts. Planning to get an additional Pro unit now – can’t imagine any system being perfect, however I’m happy with this one.
I tried out a 2 pack of the originals after seeing them on your site. We live in a beach town, so our house is so small, you would never see someone walk through the room, even when I tried to set them up 2 cameras in the same room and trigger each other. Now that the pro’s been out for a while, any updates on the timing? It looks like we may be missing a Christmas package already! Some kind of surveillance would be nice.