Custom Camera Setup

If your camera supports a local RTSP, MJPEG or HLS stream, IPCams should be able to connect and view it's stream by adding it as a custom camera.

How do I get started?

Select the add button from the camera list to start, and then select the Add Camera Manually button from the Add Camera screen. This page will require a few key pieces of information. You'll need to know the camera's stream type, the IP address or host name of your camera, and the username and password if required.

What is my camera's URL?

The stream URL is the fully formed URL from your camera that provides the video stream. The URL is composed of a few key pieces of information. The scheme, an IP address (or hostname), port number, and path. This information can usually be found on your camera manufacturer's website.

If it is not available there, it can also usually be found with a simple internet search. For example, if your camera is a Foscam R2C, search the web for Foscam R2C stream url and one of the first results will usually have this information.

What are the different parts of the URL?

Anatomy of a URL

Scheme

The scheme of your camera will usually depend on the stream type. For RTSP cameras, usually the scheme is rtsp:// while MJPEG and HLS use http:// (or https:// for SSL). If you need to define a custom you can do that as well.

For the example above, the scheme would be rtsp://.

IP Address/Host

The IP address (or host name) is the address of your camera on your local network. If you don't know the IP address, you can usually find it from your router's dashboard or by using an app like Fing to scan your network.

For the example above the IP address would be 192.168.0.10.

Port Number

The port number can vary, but it is usually port 554 for RTSP streams, 80 for MJPEG or HLS streams or 443 for MJPEG and HLS with SSL.

For the example above, the port number would be 554

Path

The path of your camera is everything after the port number/IP address. It is the part that starts with the slash. In includes the URL path and any query parameters required.

For the example above the path would be /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

Login & Authentication

If your camera requires login, toggle the Login enabled switch at the bottom of this screen and enter your camera's username and password.

Note: Sometimes you'll find that certain websites suggest you add the username and password as part of the IP address field. (e.g. admin:[email protected]). If that's the case, go ahead and add your login info the dedicated username and password fields instead of the IP address field. IPCams will build the URL in the background in that format for you.