Integrate IP cams

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
1

I’m using a Vero 4K+ for some time without any problems. Now I want to integrate private IP cam live streams, no fancy features, just a pragmatic solution. Haven’t found a “how to” of it, but maybe there is a description of the first steps, for instance is a web browser the recommended viewing tool with OSMC? Any hints and tips are welcome, maybe later a new “how to” can be made of it.

2

No

Well for “streams” there are many suggestions. But it depends on how your camera is providing the Video Streams. Do you have a sample URL?

3

Most cameras provide RTSP streams which can be added and played in Kodi directly.
What’s the make and model of your camera?

4

No, I don’t have a URL because Vero and OSMC is the starting point, currently I’m looking for information, and buy a camera which fits later.

5

Vero 4K+ and OSMC is set, I’m looking for a camera which fits. Maybe you can recommend a make and model?
The camera should not connect a company server anywhere in the world, but has a webserver integrated or can be connected to a webserver I bundle with the camera.
By which menu entry in OSMC can a RTSP stream be opened directly in Kodi?

6

The Kodi wiki is generally speaking the best place to start

https://kodi.wiki/view/Internet_video_and_audio_streams

If you find that a bit confusing there is the interwebs. I found this one which seemed to make it fairly clear on how its done (there should be no difference between Libreelec and OSMC in relation to that article).

7

Hi yebo

I am using my Vero to watch my surveillance cams, but keep in mind, that you can only watch one stream at the time, and not have a single view with all your cameras.

The way i have done it, is to assign a button on the remote to start the RTSP stream.

Here is a cut down example of my keymap file.

<keymap>
	<global>
		<remote>
			<yellow>PlayMedia(rtsp://USER:PASSWORD@192.168.1.40:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0)</yellow>
		</remote>	
	</global>
</keymap>

When ever you press the yellow button on the remote, the stream starts.

I am using Dahua cameras, and the RTSP path is for Dahua, other manufacturers have different RTSP paths, you can test the paths in VLC, it’s way easier than edit the keymap file and reboot the Vero every time.

8
  1. It will be your responsibility to block all traffic from the camera to the internet, including DNS and NTP.
  2. Some less reputable cameras will try to open a port on your router using UPnP, so ensure it’s disabled.
  3. Make sure that the camera is placed on a separate “Internet of Things” subnet, such that you can acces the stream from your home LAN but it can’t initiate a connection the other way.

Take care on this one. Many require an ActiveX plug-in, so Windows only. Grrrr.

9

You don’t need to reboot. If your editing via SSH then after your done just run…

kodi-send -a "reloadkeymaps"

You might be able to just directly test your PlayMedia action the same way (unless it gets tripped up with special characters).

1 Like
10

Thank you for the tip, i did not know that :smiley:

11

Thanks a lot for the links, they pointed me in the right direction. I had just read the OSMC wiki and didn’t find it there.

1 Like
12

Thanks a lot for the answer. It seems I have to “research” remote controls also, currently I’m using the Vero 4K+ standard radio remote control, probably you have programmed a different remote to control OSMC.

13

Thanks a lot for the hints, some things to do it seems.

14

He is using a different remote but you can do the same thing with the OSMC remote. As you have a limited number of buttons on the remote the way you would most sensibly do it would probably be to tie it to a specific window and possibly under a long press. As an example this would be the stream playing when you hold down the play button when you are on the home screen.

<keymap>
	<Home>
		<keyboard>
			<play_pause mod="longpress">PlayMedia(rtsp://USER:PASSWORD@192.168.1.40:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0)</play_pause>
		</keyboard>
	</Home>
</keymap>

Information about where that would go and related information can be found in this thread…