Starlight VariFocal 5231 - Snapshot URL? (Onvif URL preferred)

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System Version 2.622.0000000.18.R, Build Date: 2017-11-10
WEB Version 3.2.1.515090
ONVIF Version 16.12(V2.4.1.510971)

I'm trying all sorts of resources, but can't seem to snag a JPEG snapshot from the camera (as I once did, a few years ago.) I suspect it's a combination of stupidity, ignorance, and a firmware/security update once upon a time, wherein whatever I used before no longer works. :(

Why? Integration into Home Assistant - It requires both RTSP: video and JPEG snapshot URLs for each camera feed. RTSP video URL was no problem, I copied it from Blue Iris setup. Won't you help a helpless techie whose simply tired of searching and trying? Thanks in advance!!
 

concord

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Thanks, @TonyR I found another post and Onvif URL that finally worked, once I disabled Onvif authentication in the firmware:

http://192.168.1.nnn:port/onvifsnapshot/media_service/snapshot?channel=1&subtype=1
I grab the jpeg from Blue Iris, along with the MJPEG feed, note that I added my HA system IP address to the no login/password needed in Blue Iris, for example the name of the cam is Road1 and in the configuration.yaml:

camera 4:
platform: generic
name: Road1
still_image_url: http://MyBlueIrisSystem:81/image/Road1
mjpeg_url: http://MyBlueIrisSystem:81/mjpeg/Road1/video.m3u8

In the Card, I use the raw config editor, note that even though I called the camera "Road1", you need to use all lower case in the Card, "road1":

- badges: []
cards:
- entity: camera.road1
- entity: camera.road2
icon: mdi:road
path: cameras_ext_view
title: Road_Cams
 
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I grab the jpeg from Blue Iris, along with the MJPEG feed, note that I added my HA system IP address to the no login/password needed in Blue Iris, for example the name of the cam is Road1 and in the configuration.yaml:
Thanks for that! I've considered hitting the BlueIris server before, since it can certainly handle the slight additional load a lot faster than can the cameras. I just hadn't got around to playing with it yet, and now we have the answer. Thank you!!
 

TonyR

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@VorlonFrog ,
Along with what @concord said about http URLs from BI, below is a more extensive list, courtesy of BI's Help topic, "The Web Server". Note that you can specify size and quality of the snapshot and pull raw H.264 streams and MJPG streams as well.

One of my BI cams is actually a raw H.64 stream from another BI machine at a tanning salon 15 miles away (in the lobby, of course!) :rolleyes:
_______________________

/image/{cam-short-name}?q=50&s=80 A single JPEG image from a specific camera or group, with optional quality (q) and scale (s) parameters. Quality is a percentage from 1-100, and scale may be any number >0.
/image/{cam-short-name}?h=100 You may also specify a specific height (h) or width (w) instead of scale.
/mjpg/{cam-short-name}/video.mjpg An M-JPEG stream. This stream is compatible with Blue Iris's "MJPEG stream request."
/file/clips/{filename}&mode=jpeg&speed=100 An M-JPEG stream of a clip from your New clips folder. You may include additional subdirectory names in the filename. The speed parameter is optional, a percentage of normal playback speed.
/thumbs/{filename} A thumbnail image from a specific file in the New clips folder.
/alerts/{filename} A JPEG image from the Alerts folder.
/admin?profile=x&lock=y Set the active profile to x. Use x=-1 to toggle the lock status, or set the lock=y, 0=run, 1=temp, 2=hold
/admin?schedule=1 or 0 or schedule name x=0 or 1 to disable/enable Options/Schedule, or a name to set the current schedule
/admin?signal=x Changes the traffic signal state and returns the current state. x=0 for red, x=1 for green, x=2 for yellow. This requires admin authentication.
/admin?output=x&msec=y or &force=true Temporarily change the active profile to x. Use x=-1 to toggle the lock status.
/admin?input=x Set DIO output x=0-7 on for y msec, or force on indefinitely
/admin?macro=x&text={text} Set macro number x=1-9 to value {text}
/admin?console={group name} Select the specified group for display on the console, "index" is All cameras.
/admin?camera=x&trigger Trigger camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&manrec=1 or 0 Start or stop manual recording on camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&snapshot Snapshot on camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&reset Reset camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&ptzcycle=1 or 0 Trigger camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&pause=x Send pause command to camera x (short name), x=-2 to 10 matching right-click Pause menu
/admin?camera=x&enable=1 or 0 Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&motion=1 or 0 Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&hide=1 or 0 Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&mdelay=x Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&webcast=1 or 0 Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&preset=x Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&schedule=1 or 0 Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&profile=x Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/admin?camera=x&alerts=x Enable or disable camera x (short name)
/audio/{cam-short-name}/temp.wav Pull a raw audio stream (MIME type audio/x-wav).
/cam/{cam-short-name}/pos=x Performs a PTZ command on the specified camera, where x= 0=left, 1=right, 2=up, 3=down, 4=home, 5=zoom in, 6=zoom out
/cam/{cam-short-name}/pos=100 Causes a snapshot image to be captured from the specified camera.
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.h264 Pull a raw H.264 stream (MIME type video/H264). This stream will play in a tool like VLC, and may be used in future versions of the ActiveX control.
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.ts Pull an MPEG-2 transport stream (MIME type video/MP2T).
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.m or .m3u8 Pull a virtual M3U8 file (MIME type application/vnd.apple.mpegurl). This will play in QuickTime, iPad and the iPhone using the Apple HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) format.
 
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I grab the jpeg from Blue Iris, along with the MJPEG feed, note that I added my HA system IP address to the no login/password needed in Blue Iris, for example the name of the cam is Road1 and in the configuration.yaml:
Now where the HECK do I find that tab in BI setup? :banghead:
I'm running release 4.8.6.3 x64 currently.
 

concord

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Now where the HECK do I find that tab in BI setup? :banghead:
I'm running release 4.8.6.3 x64 currently.
Options / Web Server and then select the Advanced button. Add in your HA IP Address with a carrot: i.e. ^192.168.1.111
 
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Got the IP address setup, confirmed it works without authentication. HA server (NUC i3) and BI server are both hard-wired to the same switch, so network/wifi is not a problem. Why then does HA often return blank JPEGs? It never did this when reading directly from the cameras. :( I did increase the number of simultaneous connections allowed by the web server, but it hasn't seemed to help. Any suggestions, @concord ?
 

concord

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@VorlonFrog,

What are you running HA on? I'm using a Dell/Wyse Thin-Client and installed Linux, docker and hassio, it's a faster than a Pi.

The "static" image updates about every 10 seconds, from BI. Works fine when accessing from my local laptop. The only thing I see is on my phone, if I click to watch live and then close, it will blank out and then comes back, blanks out, comes back... the only thing that fixes it is to do a refresh (bottom right on the HA app). I have only 3 cams from BI on HA.

Try adding this cam and see if it does it too. It's a feed from NYC, it refreshes every 2 seconds:

camera 3:
- platform: mjpeg
name: Times_Square
mjpeg_url: 'http://207.251.86.238/cctv440.jpg?rand=0.8539610582632682'
still_image_url: 'http://207.251.86.238/cctv440.jpg?rand=0.8539610582632682'
 
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HA is an Intel NUC i3-7100U @ 2.40GHz, plenty more power than HA requires. Too much else going on tonight, will give it a try tomorrow evening. Thanks!
 
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