Arlo outdoor Ultra 2 Spotlight Camera Wire Free Security System 4 Pack with Total Security

Quality is great and great clarity with video

So, I have purchased other camera systems to monitor the perimeter of our home, and they have all ended in failure. A friend showed me here Arlo app and I was sold. The system s exactly as described. I bought the Arlo Ultra 2, with a hub and four cameras. Now, I’m that husband/dad where things never seem to go right when I try installing something new. This was a snap. I did have to reset my hub after the software update, but that was the only hiccup. Once the hub was set up, my cameras took about 60 seconds to “load and go”. Coverage is fantastic and the video is clear as day. I had to contact Customer Support for a setting issue, which they resolved in a matter of minutes for me. Very polite and quick to help. I did purchase the power cords for the outdoor cameras as I am not a fan of “battery-operated”. Set-up was really that simple. I am a new fan of the Arlo system. Also, the app is very user-friendly and I can set the alerts to my preferences and schedule.

This product was reported as being compatible with my Arlo pro hub. I purchased this product with every expectation that it would be great. It worked for 30 days at which time I was already well past the Amazon return date. I tried to figure out on my own why it was no longer storing video. I deleted cameras, reset the system, did everything I need to do. I contacted Arlo support. I was told I could not store video on my original Arlo pro hub without buying an additional subscription for $300. I tried to go through Amazon to return the item explaining the situation and that I had been misled about the product. My return was declined and I now have a $700 system That I cannot use because it is not compatible with my Arlo pro hub. Poor customer service from the seller. Poor customer service from Amazon whom I’ve used religiously for years. I am dissatisfied with the product and service. I have attempted to go through customer service twice with Amazon, and been declined.

The media could not be loaded.  I want to start by saying I am not an expert in this technology. What I've written below is what I believe – but it's possible I've completely missed the boat. I've been wrong before.This (Arlo Ultra V2) camera system is nice, but not as advertised. It does provide 4K video. But it does not provide 4k quality video. I'll tell you more about this, I'll show you an example and I'll tell you why I believe Arlo has done that.Before buying an Arlo system, I read a bazillion (okay, not a bazillion, but a lot of) reviews of the Arlo Ultra. Two things popped up frequently as complaints in those reviews. First, that the cameras wouldn't connect to the base station and, second, that the picture quality was a disappointment.Connectivity: I have 4 cameras and the one farthest from the base station is mounted on my garage 80' away. The signal indicator shows it with a strong signal and it operates reliably. All 4 of my cameras have worked reliably so far, and I don't see any reason that would change. This may be due to the particulars of my house or it may be due to the improvements Arlo made to the Ultra 2 connectivity with dual-band switching. Either way, they work anywhere around my house and garage I want to put them. Installation took me a couple hours but was really pretty simple. Arlo did a nice job designing this system.Picture Quality: I have to confess to having been a little stupid here. When I installed the cameras I used my original iPad Air with the Arlo app to aim and configure them. The picture qualilty was... okay. But it wasn't what I had hoped for. At first I put it off to the HEVC video compression. Or maybe Arlo didn't spend as much as they should have on the lens quality. But then (here comes the stupid part) I realized my iPad simply doesn't do 4K resolution. Neither does my computer monitor. Yeah, I've got some upgrading to do.But I do have an 85” 4K Samsung TV that has an internet app. So I logged in to my Arlo account with it.The video looked quite good. I viewed some of the library clips the cameras had already uploaded with the free 90 day subscription. I remembered reading about the disappointment of one person who couldn't read his car's license plate 20' away. So I parked my car where my garage camera could record it and checked. This is in good, strong daylight with the license plate directly facing the camera about 30' away. But even on my 85” 4K TV, I couldn't read the license plate. Not at 20' away either. That's the video I posted with this review.So I went out with my iPhone 6, which does plain old HD video which is a quarter of the resolution of 4K. I put it next to the Arlo Ultra camera and shot a short video, digitally zooming in about halfway through. The license plate is easily readable. Amazon only allows a review to include a single video, so I'll try to post a still shot of the iPhone video. So why does my HD camera provide much clearer video than Arlo Ultra's 4K camera?I believe it's because of Arlo's compression of the video. The Ultra video has 4 times the resolution of the iPhone video. It's also 3 times as long. So it should be 12 times larger than the size of the iPhone video. But, because of the compression, it's half the size. So the HEVC (H.265) compression that Arlo is using seems to compress their video to about 5% of its original size. And I believe that's where all the detail is going.Arlo isn't lying. The video is 4K (3840 x 2160). But with the compression their customers are getting video that is much less detailed – much blurrier - than plain, old uncompressed 1920 X 1080 HD.I believe Arlo did this to solve their bandwidth problem. Even with this level of compression, Arlo says you need an upload speed of about 3 Mbps per camera. With 4 cameras, that means I need an upload speed of 12 Mbps. My download speed is over 300 Mbps; but my internet upload speed is only around 15 Mbps. It seems likely to me that most people don't have internet service that's faster than what's available to me. So Arlo needs to make their systems work within that limit. Which means very heavy compression. Which means video that's good considering it's a security camera, but crappy compared to your HD smartphone. Let alone a 4K camera.I think Arlo could fix this. They could reinstate the USB hard drive port on their Smart Hubs and allow local recording of the signal before it gets compressed. We could buy 2 TB hard drives for $50 bucks and be able to view our camera footage in all its glorious 4K detail. But that would likely reduce the sales of storage subscription plans Arlo provides and they probably need that revenue to continue developing their systems.Or, Arlo could provide a camera option of recording only 2 frames a second with little or no compression. You'd have a series of still shots rather than a video - but you'd be able to read license plates. With a 4 camera system, you could dedicate 2 to detailed stills and 2 to video. But for Arlo to do this would be admitting their 4K Ultra, well... isn't.Arlo is not the Bad Guy here. The problem is a newer technology (4K) that has gotten ahead of the internet capacity needed to support it. Kudos to Arlo for pushing at that envelope. Eventually the internet infrastructure and technology will catch up and Arlo won't need to degrade their product to make it work. Though they will need to upgrade their storage capacity.I really like the rest of the system and I'm going to keep it. I think the app is well-designed and provides a lot of flexibility for managing the cameras. Some smart people put a lot of thought into it. When I get a chance, I'll get a MicroSD card for my Smart Hub and record some video to it. I want to see if the compression occurs only for the videos being sent to the online library, or if it also afflicts the local recording. I'm guessing it's the latter since, otherwise, customers would be complaining about how quickly their SD cards run out of capacity.I would be highly interested if someone were to provide a video quality comparison of the Ultra vs the Arlo Pro.Summary: A really good system that simply can't yet deliver on the promise of 4K video.

I love that they trigger on both motion and sound. We have had a bunch of burglaries recently where they break a window to get in. They don’t trigger the door switches that way. So I installed some battery powered shock sensors on my windows. Normally they would not help because they are not connected to my alarm system. With these cameras “listening “ I get instant alerts on my phone saying “sound alert”. I can then look at the video and if it’s a real break in I push one button and it automatically calls the police. You have to pay a monthly fee for the automatic call feature but to me it’s worth it.

This is top of the line security camera.

I bought this set of camera in last June 2022. However, one of the camera came with manufacture defects with white dots/scratches in the lens. In addition, you can see the water drops developed in the lens. Since these cameras from U.S. to Hong Kong, I decided not to file any complaint because of the hefty courier cost sending back to U.S. for service even within the warranty. Moreover, 2 weeks ago, this camera is out of order and the light is constant in amber color. I took it back to the service center in Hong Kong for repair at my own cost but I was refused because this was not bought in Hong Kong. I also tried to log in Arlo US website for support enquiry but I am not able to do so. Now, I am lost without any help. Perhaps it is, to me, so unfortunate to have received a manufacture defect camera sent to me. Who is to be blamed and suffered?

The Night Vision is Great the 4K is great also. Do not count on a six month battery life. I added a Solar charger to my most active camera and I am very pleased.

Works well. Pitty about the subscription fee, without it the “free” features purposefully make this product a “boat anchor”. Don’t buy if you are not going to get a subscription, there are better out there.