Adding an IP Camera as a source

You can add your IP camera by clicking on Add Source > Video/Network Stream and selecting RTSP Stream

You will be prompted to enter your IP camera’s RTSP URL.

RTSP URL Format

While only the RTSP URL is required for adding the IP camera source, the formatting of the URL will be different from model to model.

The common format of the RTSP URL is:

rtsp://\[username:password@\]ip_address\[:rtsp_port\]/server_URL\[\[?param1=val1\[¶m2=val2\]…\[¶mN=valN\]\]

Parameters of the RTSP URL (and optional parameters in brackets) are as follows:

(Note that in most cases, the word server can be freely interchanged with the words IP camera as every IP camera has an RTSP server built-in.)

ip_address

Typically, the RTSP servers use DHCP to obtain an IP address automatically. The servers usually provide a utility for detecting the server’s IP address. This can be in the usual IPv4 format (xx.xx.xx.xx), or it can be a valid host address accepted by the standard function inet_addr.

For example, localhost is equivalent to 127.0.0.1. This is usually the IP address of the sending (server) computer.

rtsp_port (Optional)

The port number on which the server is listening for RTSP commands. The port must be a number from 1 to 65535.

Port 554 is the default for RTSP.

username / password (Optional)

For servers that use authentication, you will need to add your username and a password as part of the RTSP URL.

server_URL

Each RTSP server has its own relative server URL, so you need to consult the server’s manual to obtain it.

paramN=valN (Optional)

Extra parameters in this context are server parameters that can be used to control compression, video size, etc. See the following examples for such parameters

Example RTSP URLs

(These examples are here to merely show the possible formatting for the RTSP URLs. They will not work for testing RTSP sources.)

Panasonic IP camera example:

rtsp://192.168.1.111/MediaInput/h264

Sony IP camera example:

rtsp://192.168.1.111:554/media/video1

Axis IP camera example (H264/AAC codecs used):

rtsp://root:password@192.168.1.111:554/axis-media/media.amp?videocodec=h264&audiocodec=aac

Axis IP camera example (MJPEG/G711 codecs used):

rtsp://root:password@192.168.1.111:554/axis-media/media.amp?videocodec=jpeg&audiocodec=g711

Axis IP camera example (UDP connection):

rtsp://root:password@192.168.1.111:554/axis-media/media.amp?\rtsp_transport:udp

Updated on: 11/08/2022