IP Camera

Using the IP camera feature you can connect to your camera over a local Wi-Fi and watch a live feed with a media player. You can watch your camera from a laptop, PC, Mac, tablet, or any device that can run a media player that supports network streaming.

What is a "local network"?

Local network is for instance your home Wi-Fi. When both the camera and your media player are on the same Wi-Fi, you can connect to your IP camera. If you are visiting your neighbors, who of course have their own Wi-Fi, the connection to the IP camera will not work.

How to turn on IP camera mode

To turn on the IP camera mode, go to the camera setting, open "Smart Home & IP Camera…" and enable the "IP camera mode". Although the live stream is available on your local network only, it is still recommended to also enable the "Password required" option, which will protect your live stream from unauthorized access.

Connecting to the live stream

When you have the IP camera mode enabled, you can connect to your camera from any media player. To connect to your camera, you need its IP address. IP address can be obtained by clicking on the "Show camera IP addresses…" option. Current IP addresses will be shown for HLS and RTSP protocols. Choose one and click on the icon to copy the address to the clipboard. You can then send it or share it to your media player. The camera IP address can change from time to time (depending on your home router), so if the media player doesn't connect to the camera, check if you have camera's current IP address.

HLS or RTSP, which is better?

HLS and RTSP protocols are worldwide standards for streaming video over networks. While HLS is supported by almost all media players, some media players don't support RTSP.

RTSP is a real-time protocol that provides the best results and minimum latency, but only one media player can run the live stream at the same time.

Using HLS protocol, you can watch your IP camera from more spots simultaneously, but HLS has a natural latency which causes the live stream to be about 10 seconds behind the real scene.

Stream quality and parameters

The IP camera defaults at 1280x720 pixels (which is also the maximum resolution) and 20 frames per second. When the stream begins, it takes the current zoom value, night vision and torch status from the camera settings. If you want to overwrite these settings when you start the live stream, use the following parameters and add them at the end of the IP address.

To change live stream settings, add "?" at the end of the IP address and then add one or more params separated by "&" mark. For instance, the following sequence starts an RTSP live stream with 4x zoom and night vision on:

rtsp://10.0.0.1:8086?zoom=400&nightvision=on

Zoom

To set zoom, use

zoom=400

where 400 means 4x zoom. If you want the zoom to be 1.5x, use 150 etc.

Night vision

To force the night vision state, use the "nightvision" param with "on", "off" or "auto" value. For example:

nightvision=off

Torch

To start the stream with the torch being turned on or off, use the "torch" param with "on" or "off" values. For instance:

torch=on

starts the stream with the torch being turned on.

Video quality

The video stream defaults at 1280x720, frame rate 20fps and bitrate 2Mbps. To change the default video quality, use the "video" param:

video=resolutionX-resolutionY-framerate-bitrate

For instance, if you wish your camera to start at resolution 640x480 and 10 frames per seconds and you don't care about video bitrate, use

video=640-480-10

If you want your stream to use the same params as above, but you need video bitrate of the stream to be 1Mb, add the bitrate value in kilobits per second:

video=640-480-10-1000

Audio quality

The audio stream defaults at 44.1kHz sample rate and 32kbps bit rate. To change this default audio quality use "audio" param:

audio=samplingRate-bitrate

For instance, to start the audio stream with sample rate 8000Hz and bitrate 32kbps, use:

audio=8000-32