I wanted a simple easy to setup, easy to use, camera system. No need for 24/7 recording, no need for 4K video. Just something that views both driveways, all exterior doors, and the barn at my mother’s place.
A little alert when motion is detected at the doors or a vehicle pulls in the drive, or the the gate is opened to access the rear driveway and barn.
My in-laws got the Arlo Pro 2 system awhile back and it has been rock solid for him even with poor internet speeds.
So for Christmas I got my mother the Arlo Pro system with 3 cameras. Arlo Pro is 720p vs Arlo Pro 2 1080p. For her needs I could not justify the added cost.
Setup could not be more simple.
Download the app, Plug the base station to the wall power, plug the base station to your router, and follow the steps to pair the cameras to the base station.
This took all of 10 minutes for 3 cameras. Actually mounting the cameras and deciding where to mount them for best coverage took the longest. I spent about an hour total installing the system.
Arlo comes with a free plan that will store videos for 7 days from up to 5 cameras anymore than that there is a charge. There is really no need unless you need a ton of cameras as you can plug a USB drive into the basestation to save your videos.
The cameras are completely wireless with rechargeable batteries and utilize magnetic mounts that are surprisingly solid. Arlo claims 6 months on the batteries of course that is based upon how much the are triggered.
The front door camera certainly will not last that long as it records the most. The two on the back won’t see as much recording time.
The app is very simple to use with very quick notifications. Live video connects quickly and the cameras have full audio and a speaker so you can speak if someone is there. You can also trigger a loud siren on the base station.
The video is quite impressive even just at 720p. The whole system cost $350 and so far is worth it. Mom has decent internet speeds and WiFi coverage and have yet for the cameras to have any connection issues.
I’ll try to get some still shots up as an example.
But if you are looking for a simple system more for simple monitoring purposes or glorified doorbell cameras this is it.
With the 720p you certainly are not going to identify an unknown stranger but that is not what I was going for.
I just wanted mom to see the doors of the house and tell if a vehicle has entered the driveway or a person approached the house. I also wanted simple access to the cameras for my brother and I.
This certainly fits the bill and so far highly suggest it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Black92LX,

Thank you for this review. I will use it.

Good review, I’m looking hard at the Pro 2, this helps

Here are some quick pics. Again, this idea for this system is just to know if a vehicle or person has come into the area. Not to specifically identify someone who might have or pick up license plates. These cameras fit that bill very well.



These images are also scaled down to fit the forum better and have better clarity in their full resolution.

Here are some nightshots. I am pretty surprised that they are as good as they are as the exterior lighting at the house is very poor there are no lights out back for the first 2 pictures and only the yard light is on in the third. I will install a flood light next to the camera mounted to the house and have it flood that sidewalk bothways so it should add much better night visibility for the cameras (that is my spring project). But again just to know if a car or person is at or around the house it serves the purpose. Also again the actual video is better than these scaled down screenshots and a fair amount brighter.
The camera looking out at the barn I need to adjust to the left slightly as it hits the corner of the roofline there on the right and the infrared bounces off it causing a bit of a halo.
The other nice part of these cameras they are completely wireless so mounting is almost endless.
The camera looking at the glass patio is actually mounted to a tree. If not there it would have to be forward about 30 feet and to the right a bit and one would lose visual of the area between the two houses on the left or I would have mounted it out on the barn which just gave it too wide of a view.
The sidewalk in pictures one and two are the same walk.

I have this set up as well. Easy set up and you can mount these suckers without the hassles of wires. I find the batteries last very long. Yes, the high traffic spots will need charging sooner than the rest but it's not like you are doing that every other day.

You'll get notices via email as well that alerts you that one of the camera's batteries is "getting tired". You are not left unaware of maintenance.

I had to move a camera from the backyard to the front when I woke up Christmas morning with the outdoor decoration lights cut. Drilled a hole for the mount and attached the camera in under ten minutes. I didn't catch any further nonsense but I feel that if there's a next time, I'll have an alert and footage saved.

Thinking about adding another camera soon. I am digging the Arlo!

I have read some reviews noting the delay in video recording. Have you had this issue?

quote:

Originally posted by festus haggen:
I have read some reviews noting the delay in video recording. Have you had this issue?

I have an Arlo Q which is hardwired and it's own base station. I can add satellite cameras to it later if I wish.
Once in awhile I get a few second delay. Other times it seems to kick on well before there is any obvious movement in it's field of detection.

My biggest gripe was false audio detection alerts that sounded like a "pop", in the middle of the night. It seemed to do it once every few nights so I turned the audio off.
Overall I like it. I give it an 8/10.

I have 4 arlo q cameras and one arlo 2 pro. The arlo q’s are inside, and the pro is battery powered outside, monitoring the drive.

I’ve had these installed a couple of months and couldn’t be happier with them. The app on my iPhone is easy to use and lets me know when motion/audio is detected. I have marginal internet (10mbps rated) and have had no issues with missing or skipping video.

Two of my cameras are on a different level and at the far end of a 4000 sq foot house from the router, and they still connect. One camera barely shows a signal, but still captures motion.

I highly recommend the system.

quote:

Originally posted by festus haggen:
I have read some reviews noting the delay in video recording. Have you had this issue?

I have not noticed any thus far.

quote:

Originally posted by festus haggen:
I have read some reviews noting the delay in video recording. Have you had this issue?

I have tested my regular Arlo, and found that the indoor cameras w/motion detection can be walked right past before recording begins. Camera quality is good, but activation is too slow in my opinion. A fine shot of an elbow leaving a room isn't much help.

quote:

Originally posted by preten2b:

quote:

Originally posted by festus haggen:
I have read some reviews noting the delay in video recording. Have you had this issue?

I have tested my regular Arlo, and found that the indoor cameras w/motion detection can be walked right past before recording begins. Camera quality is good, but activation is too slow in my opinion. A fine shot of an elbow leaving a room isn't much help.

What is the room size and how many second delay are we talking?
All the cameras I setup cover a really large area so that could be the difference as to why I have noticed no delay.

We have also had good luck with the Arlo Pro 2 system. Something to keep in mind is that the outdoor battery powered cameras we have connect via wireless to the Arlo base station and not to your router. So if you can't get a signal to your camera you can't just add a repeater (and Arlo doesn't offer a repeater). One nice feature is that you can power these cameras from an external source. In one location I use an adapter under my porch lightbulb that has a usb outlet and run the power cord from the usb outlet to the camera)

The Arlo Q indoor camera we have is not battery powered but connects to our home router and does not connect to the Arlo base station.

Both types of cameras do integrate into the Arlo app and work great and are very easy to setup.

Do you have a link to the adapter you use?
I have one camera that is right next to a light that this would be helpful with.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by preten2b:

quote:

Originally posted by festus haggen:
I have read some reviews noting the delay in video recording. Have you had this issue?

I have tested my regular Arlo, and found that the indoor cameras w/motion detection can be walked right past before recording begins. Camera quality is good, but activation is too slow in my opinion. A fine shot of an elbow leaving a room isn't much help.

What is the room size and how many second delay are we talking?
All the cameras I setup cover a really large area so that could be the difference as to why I have noticed no delay.

The hallway is about 15 feet. If you enter hallway and walk directly at camera it often does not capture face before tuning to enter room. If you walk with modest purpose, 5 paces. I'll add that router is on floor below, however only 30 feet or so as the wi-flies.

Here is the link to that light adapter with the usb port

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use mine under a covered porch so I'm not sure if it would hold up out in the weather

quote:

Originally posted by nmsu:
Here is the link to that light adapter with the usb port

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use mine under a covered porch so I'm not sure if it would hold up out in the weather

That is the only one I could find.
I would be utilizing a floodlight just covered by the eave of the house so not sure that would work.

Black,

Something I have noticed is a lot of these "home" security systems is the lack of ability to get facial shots because people mount them at near ceiling height. Did you consider mounting any low and looking up or maybe looking out a window to keep someone from walking off with it? Just curious.

BTW...my neighbor across the street has the BLINK systems and loves it. Works similar to the Arlo, but I think they run off of two AA batteries. I assume you can use rechargeable.

Curious as to how the rechargeable batteries will do in cold weather environments because Lithiums seems to drain excessively fast in the cold.

For this setup I was not going for the ability to pick up faces really.
This was more of a wider perimeter view of everything.

Going for faces and any real detail takes some serious cameras and a serious system.
I unfortunately don’t have time to set that up for my mother nor would she ever be able to use it to it’s potential so that would be a waste.

For this setup I just wanted her to know if a vehicle had entered the driveway or a person approached the house or back barn.

Prior to this I had a Reolink Argo camera in the window looking at the front door and it was terrible.
The angle was bad there was awful glare.
Just looked like Sasquatch was standing at the door if someone was there.