Thanks Barbara!

But you do have to pay subscription to get the smart features and cloud service, otherwise they become just basic cameras.

Well, using a smart hub and a flash drive will allow you to record footage, however, if someone breaks in, they could still the smart hub and now your footage is gone. Same goes for any kind of event that would destroy your smart hub, such as flood, fire, storm and what not. The other thing to keep in mind is that even though you have the footage on your flash drive, you can only watch it if you plug it into a computer. Unless they change that. So there is no way to check what had happened when you are not home...

@@fc1133 with my arlo pro 3 its possible to see local storage from home network or from outside network. To be reachable from outside you need to activate port forwarding in arlo software/app and in the router. Relatively straighforward to configure that

What if you changed the base station to say the 4000 unit? Couldn't you say you updated the cameras from what came with the base station, pro2's. And replaced them with these Pro 4's?

I don’t know if your cameras record in 4K ultra HD or not but if they are more than just 1080i HD and for a camera that is pretty busy, five months is still pretty good if just only having to go up there, grab your camera and bring it inside to charge it. I would say that’s pretty good. As far as the cold winter shutting your camera off like that, I can understand that as well as I don’t think there’s really a battery out there that’s affordable any ways that would withstand 0° temperatures. But look at the bright side, I highly doubt anybody at that temperature is going to be meddling around your house. The camera that got disconnected while you were on vacation; yeah, that does suck but that could’ve been just something that wasn’t quite right when you synced the camera. The same thing can happen with Bluetooth devices where sometimes you have to make sure other Bluetooth devices are turned off in order to get a good connection. I’ve had to deal with that myself on Bluetooth stuff so who knows. I’m just glad that was the only time you ever had an issue. As far as the free cloud service, that is a bunch of crap going from offering it for free to all of a sudden charging for it but then again, every company does that at one point and two, it’s going to eventually get to a point to where they’re gonna have to start charging with all the customers they have and with all the servers and stuff they have to constantly be adding that stores all that information but with that said, I’m glad that the last two cameras I bought to add to my other one came with the smart hub so that I won’t have to have their cloud service in order to do the same thing. As far as the delay you were talking about when you talked about the package that was dropped off, I believe that’s just due to the sensitivity setting being set to low and the fact that I don’t think these cameras can really detect motion from a long ways away. One of my cameras I have mounted on the top of the garage door that’s having a hard time detecting movement on the street for when the postal truck comes by and whenever UPS or FedEx comes by and our driveway is probably no more than 40 or 50 feet between the street in our house. I was, however, able to correct some of that by not only just sliding the sensitivity bar all the way to 100 but it also seemed to help by scribing out an activity zone for that camera where the street is and where the mailbox is because like today, even though it didn’t see when the post office came, it did detect when the garbage truck came to empty the trashcan so I’m probably just going to have to play with it some more, may even have to re-aim it or find a different location to put it.

For 24/7 continued recording storage I would use something else. The cameras will be dead in a week unless you connect them to a power source

Not recording anything unless I pay subscription, is an automatic NO GO. I'll avoid these for sure, I don't care how good they are.

@@twoweeledsoto6072 Just an FYI... I've settled on Eufy Cameras. They have models that support local or NAS recording at no additional fee. They have battery or powered models. They do have a subscription service, but I haven't found any need for it. They're not perfect but at least they aren't gouging me for money!

You can record locally if you add a smart hub. It's not written very clear on their product page, it's under the faq section. But I doubt you can make use of the extra funxtion this device has, but only work with q subscription. That's utterly be if you ask me. Why make the product quite expensive and then still ask for more money?!

What did you decide to go with instead?

Yeah, pretty much all the ones I've seen charge for cloud storage. Did you find a good one that doesn't? 🤔

Glad it was informative!

Glad I could help out!

Arlo is a terrible system. If you want to see what's happening in real time...you can't.

@@boblablah Thanks

@@dougtravins9624 Plus, there's been many times when I want to see a camera view and I can't. Arlo decided it want to implement 'TWO-STEP VERIFICATION." So you have to jump through Arlo hoops before it will let you see your camera(s). I can see where I don't own the system...Arlo does.

@@boblablah that is absolutely not true. Of course you can see real time.

Does SmartHub VMB5000 work with Pro 4, though?

Thank you! Happy to help!

Yes, compatible with Home Kit.....

Thanks for watching! Happy the video was informative. I have only experienced 1 camera going offline once in the 8 or so months I have owned the cameras. Hope this helps

@@CottageandCompany It helps a lot. Thank you for your reply.

I don't have much to compare the night vision to, but I would say it is adequate for my use. When you turn the light on it doesn't necessarily improve visibility, it just makes things colorized instead of black and white. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

I used to have a Swann system, and now an Arlo Pro 3 system. I regret not continuing on with Swann. It wasn't perfect, however, I was much more satisfied with it vs Arlo.

I have victure indoor camera wich cost 30 dollars and its continues recording with sd card and deleting old videos and motion recording its perfect i hope they have outdoor cameras and better resolution

Yes, I’m pretty impressed with the battery life too. I was thinking 1 month in VT would be the best you can get in the winter.

Connects to wifi directly but base station would provide holding videos for longer term access.

I just bought this setup yesterday and have tested it overnight. It's worth mounting up. Yes to EACH question. The motion sensor setting allows you to arm the spot light manual in "Live view", it also allows you to adjust the brightness. Spot light has 3 automatic settings; Constant, Pulse and Flash. You can turn the spotlight function off too. The spotlight itself doesn't emit much visible light, but when used at night the camera goes from a black and white image to a color image. It won't be necessary on a well lit street. I live off of a cinder road in Hawai'i with barely any visible light in my area. I'm going to buy motion sensor lights amd place them on my perimeter to improve the low light situation and allow the cameras to capture more useable information as cars, animals and people pass by.

@@gero4708 any update? How you liking it? Have you bought the solar panel accessory to keep batteries charged

@@ethannaka1822 I like the cameras. Haven't gotten the solar panels yet. The only downsides to these cameras are the monthly subscription fees and they pick up EVERYTHING so I get a lot of notifications on my cell phone. Image quality is good, audio quality is good too. I will probably get a few more Arlo cameras

I Do no recommend this purchase.. Arlo limits features to local storage options (Primary account only has access to recordings) in favor or Cloud subscriptions.. Don't get sucked in. Their Customer service is terrible. Arlo has not intent on changing the current business model.. So if you want to run your system on local storage.. you will lose the features that made the Arlo ecosystem appealing... I do not recommend!

How do you like this? I'm thinking of getting this kit from Costco

@@ehd1990 very Happy easy wireless installation and works like a charm. No issues. Good 2k image quality also great at night vision.

There is no such thing as a 1tb hard external drive. You're being lied to. I have yet to see or find a REAL 1 TERABYTE drive. If you know where I can find REAL ONE if it exist point me in that direction and the link

Installed 4 Pro 4 cameras, wireless doorbell, Chime 2 and Spotlight Camera yesterday. All work wonderfully and the videos are retained on my cell or iPad for viewing later. To answer your question re: The Spotlight: Spotlight on our back patio comes on when motion is detected and throws light for about 20 seconds, records the action and then when motion ceases it shuts off. The videos were retrievable next morning on all of my Apple devices that were linked to the Arlo App. So Deer feeding on my wife's plants on the front lawn @ 2:30 AM was recorded. A neighbor's cat @ 4:00 AM preying on our bird feeders was recorded on the back patio, the Driveway camera recorded me this morning at 7 AM walking my dog Hogan and at 8:00 backing the car from the drive to head to the office. Now as I sit in my office 2 miles from home a package was just delivered by Amazon and recorded at 9:45 from the doorbell camera and the Chime 2 sounded to alert my wife that the package arrived and then recorded on the video system retrievable on my phone. I do not yet have the Secure Package but will gladly pay $10 per month to have all of the features beyond just the retained recordings. I think the clarity of the video is excellent and still have much to learn about the 2-way feature in speaking to anyone entering the zone of coverage but will learn soon. As I said, "I only installed this system yesterday". So far I like it very much and feel that my accumulated pieces are nicely situated to cover my property. Hoping to see if Coyotes are in our creek at night......I live in West Michigan on a 1 1/2 Acre wooded properly along a creek. The neighborhood is quiet and is composed of 20 homes that line this hilly terrain along our creek. Thinking about adding a 5th Camera to monitor the mailbox.....I have a farily strong wireless system that supports my wifi. It is the Eero 6 platform. Hope this is helpful.

Depends on the strength of your home wifi system. Mine is an Eero Pro 6 which is pretty strong. The house is large and the property is 1 1/2 acres and I have 5 cameras. All are generating a strong signal. When you link each camera to your app the signal strength is conveniently displayed for you. The best way to mount these cameras is on the house facing the incoming motion not on trees pointed at your home......

Thanks I’ll have to check it out!

do you get more features in the Eufy camera without subscription compared to the arlo pro 4?

I did not 😅

Varies with amount of camera usage and temperatures but 6 months is typical. However the system sends you an alert when the battery is depleted so no worries.

Yep, lots of people saying the sane thing online. Plus the lag for live view is a joke.

@@shanew7361 there is no lag unless you have crap wifi

There is no lag that I can see. Position your camera so that the motion is detected sooner. As for battery life. You might want to reduce the sensitivity and what all you wish to record. Battery life can improve greatly if you are not recording everything like Leaf Movement or birds flying into view or squirrels and chipmunks. I live in a wooded environment with much wildlife. Deer, Turkeys, birds, foxes etc. After you get a general idea of which cameras are most important to be recording and what you want to record you can go into the app and deselect things like animals or reduce the sensitivity. After all most of us are interested in monitoring package delivery and people coming onto our property. The rest is merely entertainment.

The lights on the cameras are small and their purpose is to provide enough light for recording the video. The Spotlight throws considerably more light of course and does act as a strong warning to those entering the area.

Most security systems are designed to have a back up of the recordings @ $10 / mo. I see this as well worth the subscription or maybe you really don't need a security system.

@@dmarque the earlier versions of the Arlo system saved video for free...

@@dmarque as Sean pointed out the older version allowed you to keep videos for free, that was the agreement. But now Arlo sent an EOL (end of life) basically saying that they will stop giving support in April 2023. This goes against their original promise so many people are unhappy.

Ya, profit is such a terrible thing isn't? Where do you think these services would come from if there was not a profit motive and a competitive environment to compete for the best system and the most competitive price? Of course you could always just choose not to have the system too. Your choice. That will show them ......

Well I question how wise it is to place cameras in trees pointing at the house rather than under the protective overhang of your roofline and pointing the cameras toward the incoming motion. The camera activates at the trigger point you set up for (front gate) Rear Patio, Side Door etc. and is much more protected from the elements in that configuration.

Not wise location though...... I question how wise it is to place cameras in trees pointing at the house rather than under the protective overhang of your roofline and pointing the cameras toward the incoming motion. The camera activates at the trigger point you set up for (front gate) Rear Patio, Side Door etc. and is also much more protected from the elements in that configuration under the roof overhang.

Would having it always recording not drain the battery?

@@smurphy1977 Absolutely not. It records to a base unit. That unit is plugged in by your WiFi router. I failed to mention you gotta have the base as well. Sorry

Well yah. It is a wireless system structured on having a wifi network.

Then turn the audio up. Easy just go to the "Devices Settings - Audio".

@@dmarque ya it’s on max the delay causes an issue where people talk over each other and you can’t hear…. You angry or something?

@@GardensoftheAncientsHerbal Angry? I'm not the one complaining or having any problems with the system.