Video/Camera Support?

[HikariNoKitsune]

I looked at the discussions and didn't find anything about this that i could find.... so if i've missed it somewhere, my apologies!

I see that there is a widget for "Video Stream" which has the description of "Embed a video stream or video from a camera or a website" and it shows an icon of a security camera.

However, it appears that this is purely meant for streaming videos from actual INTERNET sources, like YouTube, possibly Twitch, and other various internet streaming sites. I say this, as I've spent the last hour or so trying to get an RTSP Video Stream from a security camera which watches my 3D printer, as well as the security camera for my driveway, to show up on my Homarr Dashboard using this Widget, and it simply does not work.

Can someone please tell me if this is indeed the case? Meaning, tell me if this Widget is indeed intended specifically for Internet Streaming Sites, and not actually for streaming video from Cameras like the description (and blatant use of a security camera icon) suggests? And if this is indeed the case, should I (or someone else) put in an Issue ticket to see about either A) removing the security camera icon and replacing it with a general 'video player' looking icon, and asking for the description to be alittle more specific about what it is in fact supposed to be used for (as saying 'video from a camera' sounds like it could be from a security camera, or from a normal video camera). or B) suggesting having that added as a feature?

I'm not sure about many other people, but I'd really like to have the ability to have a quick feed of my cameras just there on the dashboard.. specially the one for the 3D printer, as it doubles as the security camera for the server room in general to see who comes in and out of the room. I'm unable to really think of any valid reason as to why you would want just some random youtube video or live stream playing on your dashboard at all.. doesn't seem as if it really would provide any benefit other than to maybe have a silly goofy audio cue or something play upon loading the page...

Also, I apologize if this seems kinda terse, or rude... like I said, I spent an hour or two trying to get this to work, only to end up frustrated when trying to scour the internet for any hint at what the widget is being used for.. so my thinking may be a bit on the brash side at the moment..

[SeDemal]

#881

Hi, you will find all the infos regarding RTSP here.

The widget is made for live video feed from a camera, just not RTSP.

[HikariNoKitsune]

Sorry for the late response, I for some reason didn't get any notification lol..

So then I'm alittle confused. Nearly all cameras on the market explicitly use RTSP or RTMP to transmit their video. This is an industry standard. Why would that not be incorporated into it? The only other way that I can possibly see a video feed from a camera being ingestible is with some sort of capture card and the camera outputting over HDMI, but even that doesn't seem to be how the widget is made to function...

What other means is there to get the video feed from a camera into that widget then? As this seems rather bizarre to me, since it appears to only work for livestreams/youtube videos, based off of the countless pages i've read and videos i've watched trying to get this to work lol.

[SeDemal]

An industry standard that 25 years old, in an industry where 3 years old standards get deprecated.
It's overused because it's cheap, and that's how you get websites that just collect video feeds of unprotected cameras around the world.
If you check the issue I linked into my first comment, I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses to the questions you're asking.

[mfwadejr]

Ability to stream from security cameras works as intended. Set up a proxy of sorts, I use "Restreamer". Send the RTSP (or whatever stream your security camera supports) to Restreamer. In Homarr, set up the Widget to use the Feed URL provided by Restreamer.

[Lewis8265]

That's a shame that an industry standard of RTSP/ONVIF won't be implemented.

[HikariNoKitsune]

IKR? Its an industry standard for a reason.. not just because its 'cheap'... its used in video production all over the globe, and used here where I work for events and everything else. Its a mixture of RTSP and NDI... a streaming protocol is a streaming protocol.. not wanting to support something natively because 'its old' when there really isn't any other alternative, just doesn't sit right... That's like saying I'm not going to put my cereal in a bowl and use milk, just because we've used bowls to hold cereal and used milk with cereal for hundreds of years... so we should just move to using plates and orange juice..

[Lewis8265]

Exactly that. As with anything like this, with respect to the dev, it should be the users choice. User choice is what keeps projects alive to the end users as it means less compromises.

I'd be fine with there being a security warning suggesting we use more secure protocols, but being outright unsupported is a bit sad.

[ajnart]

@HikariNoKitsune @Lewis8265 it's kind of user choice aha, since this repository of homarr is no longer maintained don't do it here but you are more then welcome to use Claude Code or ChatGPT to try and add support for this using AI / your programming knowledge. If it works we'll gladly take a look at your changes and add it to homarr v1 😄