5.3.1 - July 16, 2020 Your Blue Iris web server now is also an RTSP server.

majones

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Yeah I was able to confirm VLC works locally and on a remote PC so firewall shouldn't be a concern. It might not be compatible with the cameras that I have, but I don't think that should matter given that from monocle's perspective, blueiris would be the "camera".

If you have some luck with it, please provide an update. Thanks.
Ref Monocle streaming to Echo Shows, unless instructed otherwise BI passes through the camera resolution, and as my Shows are reluctant to play high resolution streams, I have to specify h and w in the url to resize - eg rtsp:/[BI IP]:[Port]/[camera or group name]&w=1280&h=720.

FYI, there is a +/- 10s lag so the Show isn't a good device if you want live monitoring.
 

phtp

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Ref Monocle streaming to Echo Shows, unless instructed otherwise BI passes through the camera resolution, and as my Shows are reluctant to play high resolution streams, I have to specify h and w in the url to resize - eg rtsp:/[BI IP]:[Port]/[camera or group name]&w=1280&h=720.

FYI, there is a +/- 10s lag so the Show isn't a good device if you want live monitoring.
Thanks. I tried adding the w and h in the URL without any luck. I even tried specifying the resolution in monocle to be the same and no luck there either. I'm just going to throw in the towel for now since 10s lag isn't going to be very good.
 

majones

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Thanks. I tried adding the w and h in the URL without any luck. I even tried specifying the resolution in monocle to be the same and no luck there either. I'm just going to throw in the towel for now since 10s lag isn't going to be very good.
For live viewing, I use a Fire 7" and the IP Cam Viewer app that accesses the BI http/https server. It's got no lag and is rock solid.
 

JD12305

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Hi I'm trying to get this to work but all I'm getting is basically it loads, the cameras show up, and then it's just a still/picture. Any ideas?

Thanks.
 

dtm

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For anyone wanting to experiment with the Blue Iris RTSP feed to Monocle. Blue Iris needs to be set to Direct-to-Disk under the Recording tab/Video file format and compression button. This is found under camera settings for the individual camera you want to stream.
Below is a screenshot of Monocle settings. Note that for me the @proxy-tcp tag is the only thing that works.
BI_Setup.jpg
 

Gibby13

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I can't get BI to send me an rtsp stream. URL example:

vlc rtsp:/192.168.1.200:80/kitchen


Errors:
[00007fbc200010f0] live555 demux error: Failed to connect with rtsp:/192.168.1.200:80/kitchen
[00007fbc20002ed0] satip stream error: Failed to setup RTSP session
 

bp2008

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I just tried on the latest BI version and my stream opened immediately in VLC. Your error message sounds like it didn't even get a connection to the BI web server, so you should double check the port number and IP address and make sure you can load BI's web interface in a browser on the same device as you were running VLC on.
 

Gibby13

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I just tried on the latest BI version and my stream opened immediately in VLC. Your error message sounds like it didn't even get a connection to the BI web server, so you should double check the port number and IP address and make sure you can load BI's web interface in a browser on the same device as you were running VLC on.

Yep,I can hit UI3 just fine.
 

andycots

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Hi all,

I have been trying to get my cams to show on my Echo’s with hit and miss success, sometimes shows then starts buffering and stops, had 1 on and had to tell Alexa to go home because was on for ages, still all hit and miss though, mainly miss and no joy.
I am using BI and i from what i understand you do not have to install the Monocle server if you are using the BI feeds and if you are using direct from camera feeds (not through BI) then you do need the server?

Andy
 

Mike A.

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I am using BI and i from what i understand you do not have to install the Monocle server if you are using the BI feeds and if you are using direct from camera feeds (not through BI) then you do need the server?
I believe so now after some security changes on the Amazon side.
 

andycots

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i am having to install the server either way, going direct to camera through server all is fine, when i try to go through BI minus sever nothing loads, if i put server on then go through BI it work but only for a few seconds then buffers then off, so stick with Mono server direct to cam for time being, think may be BI issue going through BI as server.

Andy
 

TonyR

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I am a BI user and have a couple of Echo Dots I shut down last year so I don't have a dog in this fight but was just wondering....
Will the the Echo Show work with a MJPEG stream from the BI server such as "http://BI-server-IP:BI-port/mjpg/Cam3/video.mjpg" ?

That URL will stream directly in Chrome and Firefox, FWIW.
 

Dewcal

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@TonyR - many thanks for this code - also what I needed. One of my cameras is located on an Owl box and I looking to be able to stream the nesting activity for a month or two - not perhaps the usual use! I assume that there is no way of safely allowing viewing without me setting up users/passwords? I only want to allow access to this one camera for more than my family and me.
While the video feed to BI is 1920px, what is the best syntax to reduce this outgoing bandwidth without comprising my BI recording? I am sure I can put size limits on the webpage but don't want to waste all the bandwidth / overhead etc.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
 

bp2008

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I assume that there is no way of safely allowing viewing without me setting up users/passwords? I only want to allow access to this one camera for more than my family and me.
You could set it to require authentication from "No connections" in Blue Iris Settings > Web server > Advanced, and then configure the "Anonymous" user to only have access to one camera group that contains only this one camera. Then when you access Blue Iris remotely yourself you should always go in through the "login.htm" page so that you can use your own account with unrestricted access.

While the video feed to BI is 1920px, what is the best syntax to reduce this outgoing bandwidth without comprising my BI recording?
That is a complicated answer.

As described in Blue Iris's help file, you can use URL parameters "w=640" to limit the width of the video to 640 pixels, "q=20" to limit the quality to 20, etc. "http://BI-server-IP:BI-port/mjpg/Cam3/video.mjpg?w=640&q=20". You can tune those parameters to your liking. However being mjpeg, it is going to be super inefficient for what you get, no matter how you configure it.

The best way to share a single camera view with multiple people would be "livestream.htm?cam=SHORTNAME" which will load an H.264 stream using the "Streaming 0" profile as configured in Blue Iris Settings > Web server > Advanced. Beware that most of the settings here will affect UI3 streaming as well, so keep that in mind when modifying those settings. The main control of bandwidth is the "Max bitrate" setting which will not affect UI3 because UI3 specifies its own bit rate limits when requesting streams. livestream.htm is delayed by several seconds typically but has the benefit of being a shared resource -- as long as you have enough upload speed to support them, you could have many users viewing your owl box cam through that page without causing a big spike in your server's CPU usage.
 

Dewcal

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Many thanks for such a detailed reply. The first part seems relatively straightforward (says he before he tries it out!) so will have a go at this tonight.

With respect to the sharing, is the HTTP syntax for livestream as simple as "http://IP:port/livestream.htm?cam=Owl" ? It seems far too easy if it is!

I do not have a very fast upload speed so once I get it to work I will have to fine-tune accordingly, I just do not want to compromise any in-house recordings by BI.
Thanks again for your help - appreciated.
 

bp2008

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@Dewcal yes, it should be as simple as that.

In your Blue Iris Settings > Web server > Advanced, configure the Streaming 0 profile. Make sure "Limit bitrate" is checked, and enter a Max bitrate value that will allow at least one user to view at a time. Preferably more than one, if you anticipate this being likely. For example, if you have 1 Mbps upload speed, that is 1000 kbps so I would recommend you would enter 450 or less as the Max bit rate if you wanted to support two streams at once.

"Resize output frame width x height" is normally unset I believe. If you want, you can set a low resolution here like 640x360 and it should help reduce the amount of compression artifacts seen in the video.

The "HLS (sec)" argument is also relevant for the livestream.htm page. Its default value should be 3 which means it will buffer ahead at least 3 seconds. Shorter values will make the video load quicker and have less delay, but make it less efficient too.

I would not recommend changing any of the other Streaming 0 settings.

Streaming 0's audio settings don't actually work, so if your cam has audio and you want it to not be in the stream (wasting bandwidth) then you can turn off webcast audio for the camera in Blue Iris camera properties, Audio tab.
 

Dewcal

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@bp2008
Once again many thanks for sharing this information - very much appreciated. I will now try to implement the same over the next few days. Hopefully, I will not have any further queries!
 

Dewcal

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@bp2008 - I am pleased to say that I now have this up and running - for the PC and Android users. Users on iPads running OS14.4 flash the image on the screen and then report "video error: hls:3" Just wondering if there is a workaround when using the " : port/livestream.htm?cam=Cam" (have put spaces in to avoid getting an emoji.....)? Any help would be appreciated.
 
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