Arlo (VMC3040-100NAS) Q – Wired, 1080p HD Security Camera | Night Vision, Indoor Only, 2-Way Audio | Cloud Storage Included | Works with Alexa…

BLUF: Buy the Q Plus with a 128gb card (be sure it’s microSDXC and class 10). You’ll be happy.

I’ll try to mention things I didn’t see in the fiftyish reviews I read prior to purchase. Fast initial setup, not too much tinkering to get the position just right, and easy to change monitor/notify modes or set up your own custom mode. It’s like having an unblinking telepathic watchbird perched in my kitchen. I named it Huginn after Odin’s raven that scans the earth to tell him what humans are up to. Alerts through the iPhone app are 3-5 seconds after the event; emails (for which you can specify multiple recipients) usually come another 10 seconds later. Excellent.

The seven-day free cloud backup rocks. The Q Plus with a 128gb card for local backup rocks far harder. Mine is paired with 

SanDisk Ultra 128GB microSDXC UHS-I Card with Adapter, Black, Standard Packaging (SDSQUNC-128G-GN6MA)

. It’s great if you’re trying to avoid a subscription for more cloud storage, though $50-90 for additional hardware (upgraded camera and the memory card you choose) for five cameras would add up to many moons of premium subscription. You’ll have to think about what suits your needs; I say local backup storage is king. All activity in the busiest part of our home during the past three days has taken 2-3% of the card at 1080 video and audio as well — awesome. You can set it to stop recording when the card is full or automatically overwrite the oldest records once 80% full. Records on the card are mp4 files titled with the epoch time of the event, which you can easily convert to standard date and time with a Google search or just sort the folder of recordings by the date the file was created.

Regarding motion-activated recordings, some old reviews of the battery-operated Arlo units griped about delayed activation. A moving object that was in sight for only a few seconds might be captured for the last half, so only someone’s backside would be seen while exiting your driveway. I don’t know if today’s firmware for battery-operated Arlo units handles it differently but there are no such issues with the Q Plus. It shows playback beginning a few seconds before the motion occurred and then stops recording based on your chosen setting, either upon motion stopping or when a specified length of time has been recorded. I’m guessing this unit has some kind of revolving cache of the past five seconds that it continually overwrites until motion is detected, then using those few seconds as the beginning of the recording.

The only downsides so far:

1) The memory card mysteriously stopped writing after the first couple days and required reformatting. May be related to me removing the card without properly “ejecting” through the menu. Hasn’t happened again but watching out. You can verify remotely that the card is functioning, needs reformatting, etc. (hasn’t happened again after 15 months).

2) Switching modes by iPhone app (home/nonalert to away/alert) sometimes requires as much as 10 seconds for the camera status to be interpreted before changes can be made. Inconvenient but manageable. Might be my old phone. (Yes, upgrading my old phone, network cables from CAT5e to CAT7, and using POE instead of wifi dramatically increased speed.)

3) Windows restrict the IR broadcast for night vision by reflecting the light rather than passing it. The camera’s entire field of view is lit up beautifully like noontime on the night vision recording except the window only showing a reflection of the interior. See attached photo of my kitchen at night. Anyone standing just outside that door window peeking in would be invisible to the camera inside. That’s just physics and nothing the manufacturer can address. I’ll fix it with an outside camera, or at least an exterior IR bulb illuminating that space just outside the window.

All things considered, this system rocks too hard. I keep imagining scenarios like receiving an alert, watching a burglar, then debating whether to startle him with the two-way audio (“Hey bro, nice tattoo.”) or just call the police and showing them his every action in 1080 video. If Sonos ever gets IFTTT integration I might just have “Been Caught Stealing'” by Jane’s Addiction blare at him upon entry.

This system is a huge security asset and Huginn will have a few buddies soon. Highly, highly recommended.

— 5 MONTH UPDATE —

This system won’t stop rocking and five stars ain’t enough. The peace of mind during a week out of town was phenomenal. A few observations.

1) Storage capacity. The camera sits in the busiest part of the house and the 128gb memory card has recorded every motion and word in 1080p. At the rate it’s filling, the card will hold at least eight months of records before it’s full and begins writing over the oldest (turned out to be five months; see update below). Some might call it excessive, but the 64gb card was only $20 less, so no regrets.

2) False alerts. Turns out the motion sensor can activate when the brightness of the room changes suddenly. If the sun is just right and the wind is strong enough to blow my trees fifty feet behind the house, the rapidly changing shadows cast through the window will set the camera to record. This “false positive” is no burden for me but may affect your application. You can choose “hot spots” in the field of vision so, for example, passing cars seen through the window are ignored, but this shadow effect is the entire room.

3) Another application. I hear squirrels over my head in the early morning as I sit on a couch by an exterior wall. Are they on the gutter? Are they in the attic? Huginn was recently assigned temporary duty in the attic, staring at some peanut butter crackers for two weeks. He didn’t complain and reports no squirrel activity in the vicinity, and this bird doesn’t blink. I probably wouldn’t spend so much money on a pest cam but this cost me nothing new (except leaving a security post unfilled for a time).

— 15 MONTH UPDATE —

Huginn is still going great. A few more observations.

1) The local storage in 1080p has kept the past five months of recordings before storage is full and it deletes the oldest (128GB card). I’m still pretty satisfied: it’s over 20,000 individual recordings from the busiest part of our home and enough time to look back if we suspect a break-in occurred.

2) Sometimes excessive wireless network traffic causes the connection to be lost, indicated with a lavender light. I frequently caused it by playing three wifi speakers at once. I never verified but I bet the local storage still saves recordings. Worth noting, after any temporary loss of internet service, recordings made during the downtime will not be uploaded when service is restored.

3) Switching to the power over ethernet (POE) feature eliminated the potential wifi interference and increased data transfer dramatically. Since the device receives its power through the same network cable transferring data, I initially thought just an ethernet connection would suffice. Rookie mistake; turns out you need to “inject” power into the cable. My router does not support POE, and looking around online suggests not many do. For larger networks there are relatively cheap 6-12 socket POE injectors and for small networks you can find an individual. DON’T BUY ONE! I had never looked closely at the supplied ethernet adapter until hunting for a solution. Turns out the power cord for the camera plugs into to a small outlet on the ethernet attachment, so the Arlo Q Plus has its own inline POE injector. The only additional hardware you need is an ethernet cable. I don’t know much about networking, but CAT5e cables are old tech that does not sustain max data transfer at long distances. CAT6 and CAT7 are newer generations with more insulation and other magic I don’t fully appreciate. What I do appreciate is that upgrading every network cable in my house to CAT7 only cost $15. Not even a question at that price, though for you may require more linear feet and dollars of cable than I did to upgrade.