If anyone is using the new TP-Link Tapo C125 can you please post a review

[teredactle]

Hi, I just noticed that TP-Link has a new camera, the C125 2K and this looks exactly what I'm looking fall, small profile with wide angle (for indoor use), however I can only see it available in the US at BestBuy. I am curious if this is some rebrand of a dahua internal because generally these types of cameras are mostly put out for cloud consumption model (like Wyze) but this has a bunch of features like a standard IP camera (specsheet), While TP-Link isn't the first manufacturer I think of making IP security cameras, this looks like it will fit my need perfectly. The Wyze cams I have are working OK, but the audio is total $hit from the RTSP feed, and I think it's a problem with the low grade mic/speaker used.

Stuff like up to 30fps, and Protocol: TCP/IP, DHCP, ARP, ICMP, DNS, NTP, HTTP, HTTPS, UDP, ONVIF, RTSP makes me think it's an OEM rebrand of some sort. Would love to see some shots, video, and how many streams it supports. The C110 2K only supports 2 streams, too bad.

Thanks in advance

 

[TonyR]

The C110 2K only supports 2 streams, too bad.

Considering it's a $22 camera I'd say 2 streams, a main and a sub stream, is pretty good.

I used it's little 3MP/2K brother, the Tapo C-110, back in Nov. '22. It was from amazon at the time. It streams to my Blue Iris and to VLC using RTSP and it does NOT require the cloud to do so. It is initially set up with an app on a smartphone.

The instructions for RTSP streaming that also include the C-125 can be found here.

What country are you in? I don't recognize "CAD".

 

[teredactle]

Heh, it's supposed to be CA? Canada? oh well..
Thanks for the reply, I picked one of these up as I have a friend across the border, so far I'm pretty happy with it, however the claim of 30FPS is invalid, it doesn't do more than 15fps - even though in the app you can select 15/20/25/30, the stream is locked to 15.
What I meant by streams was my mistake, I meant to say simultaneous viewers of the stream - on the C110, once there were 2 viewers, a 3rd trying to view the RTSP stream would result in an error.
Seems not to be the case with the C125 though, so I'm happy about that. Thanks for the links, I already had that info but good to have it referenced nonetheless.
The 140 degree field of vision is what sold me on the C125, and RTSP/ONVIF support out of the box.

 

[juanlunagen]

Hello, what app did u use for rtsp stream? have u tried using gstream plugin on OBS?

Customer Portal

i think you can specify what framerate u like for your rtsp camera using gstream plugin

Thanks

 

[teredactle]

Well I'm using BI with the C125 which works well.
This camera has 2 streams, 2K and 720, and for each of these streams you can only have 2 connections - so if 2 players of the stream are connected to stream1, then a 3rd player of the stream cannot connect. I thought RTSP was by default multicast? Not familiar with the protocol details, is it normal to only be able to connect 2 devices simultaneously to any 1 stream??

@juanlunagen I'm not sure about your post; I'm using BI, but also tried VLC and use TinyCamPro - the Tapo Android app allows you to set FPS on the camera 15, 20, 30, however I don't know if this is some sort of Marketing scam, 15FPS is max it can do regardless of those settings.

In any case, love this camera, I will get another and dump the WyzeCam 3s.

 

[juanlunagen]

Thanks for your response. I'm not familiar with BI, could you clarify what it stands for? Also, regarding the Tapo app, setting the video quality to Auto allows for changing the framerate to 30fps, but I'm uncertain if this applies to RTSP streaming as well.

I'm using a GStreamer plugin in OBS to reduce RTSP camera delay/latency, enabling me to utilize my Tapo camera for Zoom. Currently, I have the Tapo C200, which only supports up to 15fps according to the camera specs, resulting in a subpar experience. I'm considering upgrading to the C125 if it can do the actual 30fps on RTSP streaming, which would significantly enhance my camera setup

 

[teredactle]

BI is Blue Iris, it's DVR software essentially to record from your cameras.
I don't find that the C125 does more than 15FPS, even though it's advertised to go to to 30, really not sure what's up with these specs...
Main reason I got it is that is has a really large viewing angle 140 degrees and that it uses IR LEDs that are invisible (not RED) > 940nm IR LED

AI Home Security Wi-Fi Camera
Frame Rate 15/20/25/30 fps (Default 15fps)

 

[TonyR]

Currently, I have the Tapo C200, which only supports up to 15fps according to the camera specs, resulting in a subpar experience. I'm considering upgrading to the C125 if it can do the actual 30fps on RTSP streaming, which would significantly enhance my camera setup

I have 2 questions:

• What the heck are you recording that you feel requires 30FPS?
• If the C-200 is wireless only, do you think using a WIRED camera instead would improve performance enough that 15FPS would suffice for your needs?

 

[teredactle]

I have 2 questions:

• What the heck are you recording that you feel requires 30FPS?
• If the C-200 is wireless only, do you think using a WIRED camera instead would improve performance enough that 15FPS would suffice for your needs?

I don't need 30fps, I'm just saying that the camera is advertised as supporting up to 30fps, but there is no way to get anything higher than 15fps.
I'm happy with the C125 performance, would just have liked to test higher fps settings; the audio could be better, but it's a lot better than the audio with the rtsp hacks on the wyzecam3 which this has replaced.

 

[TonyR]

I don't need 30fps, I'm just saying that the camera is advertised as supporting up to 30fps, but there is no way to get anything higher than 15fps.
I'm happy with the C125 performance, would just have liked to test higher fps settings; the audio could be better, but it's a lot better than the audio with the rtsp hacks on the wyzecam3 which this has replaced.

Actually, my question in post #8 was directed to @juanlunagen.

 

[reddshack]

BI is Blue Iris, it's DVR software essentially to record from your cameras.
I don't find that the C125 does more than 15FPS, even though it's advertised to go to to 30, really not sure what's up with these specs...
Main reason I got it is that is has a really large viewing angle 140 degrees and that it uses IR LEDs that are invisible (not RED) > 940nm IR LED

AI Home Security Wi-Fi Camera
Frame Rate 15/20/25/30 fps (Default 15fps)

I discovered that the HDR toggle was limiting the actual FPS for me, even though I had checked higher in the settings. Once I unchecked HDR, the full 30 FPS started showing up in Blue Iris.

 

[goodevil]

The C110 2K only supports 2 streams, too bad

I have 6 1080p streams and I am recording all of them at the same time with a raspberry 4b into a 1tb HDD.
I am not using a lot of CPU because the stream itself is already encoded and you can just copy the stream directly.

I don't know why are you saying that the C110 supports only 2 streams at the same time, this is more than enough for anything that you need, you use one for streaming locally and the other one you use to connect from anywhere you are by using the app.
If you need more than one then you can copy the local rtsp stream and create a middleware that can create the quantity of streams you need by copying the first one...

The Wyze cams I have are working OK, but the audio is total $hit from the RTSP feed, and I think it's a problem with the low grade mic/speaker used.

Every hardware has it's limitations.
the consumer grade cameras are limited, I don't know anything about this brand but if you want high quality streams then study more about the hardware you need.