RTSP Live Streaming for Amcrest & Reolink POE Cameras in Homey

Devices
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1

I have created a video that walks through the steps for enabling the Virtual Devices Experiment and setting up live camera streaming in Homey using RTSP. The video demonstrates live streaming for both Amcrest and Reolink cameras inside the Homey app.

Below, I have included the RTSP URL formats that I am currently using for my Amcrest and Reolink cameras. If you are using a different camera brand, you can typically find the correct RTSP URL format by searching the manufacturer’s RTSP documentation or support pages.

Please note that you must replace the values for username, password, cameraIP, and channel with your own camera credentials and network details. The remaining URL syntax should remain unchanged.

Amcrest RTSP URLs
Main Stream
rtsp://username:password@cameraIP:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

Sub Stream **
rtsp://username:password@cameraIP:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1

Reolink RTSP URLs
Main Stream
rtsp://username:password@cameraIP:554/h264Preview_01_main

Sub Stream **
rtsp://username:password@cameraIP:554/h264Preview_01_sub

** The sub stream is lower resolution and lower bitrate. This is the version most Homey users report as most stable when used with Virtual Devices.

4 Likes
2

I connected the ezviz cameras.

played in the dashboards…

rtsp://user:psw@192.168…:554/Streaming/Channels/101?transportmode=unicast&profile=Profile_1

3

Thanks. Got it working.

If you use special characters in your password you can use url encoding to fix it. Some examples:

  1. @ → %40
  2. : → %3A
  3. / → %2F
  4. ? → %3F
  5. # → %23
  6. & → %26
  7. = → %3D
4

Hi There, i’m using a Ajax doorbel to stream an RTSP link.
If i open the widget the video plays, but if i want to show the video live in my dashboard, it says that the player coult not identify the audio or video codec.

IMG_0045
IMG_00451179×2556 97.6 KB

5

EC83AC44-0647-4690-BCE2-11F6B2EB153B_1_102_o
EC83AC44-0647-4690-BCE2-11F6B2EB153B_1_102_o1179×2556 158 KB

6

Homey’s dashboard video tile is a bit more restrictive than the widget. The dashboard typically expects H.264 video (and AAC audio). If your Ajax doorbell is using H.265 or a different audio codec, that can trigger the “could not identify codec” error. If your doorbell allows it, try switching the stream to H.264 and AAC in the camera settings, or create a secondary substream using H.264 specifically for Homey.