FFmpeg camera with Homekit integration works with everything except iPad

Configuration
1

I have now troubleshooted for two days straight, and still haven’t found a solution.

My below Camera configuration to my stream url (Hikvision Camera, Stream 2 H.264) works flawlessly on iPhone, Apple Watch, MacOS and Apple TV. But for some reason, my iPads won’t start the stream. They show and update the still image just fine. But as soon as I click on it, the stream just never starts. I use “video_codec: copy” as my hardware is of the slower kind.

Funny thing though, I found out through my troubleshooting. If, when the iPad is waiting for stream to start. I can force it activated, if I from my computer connect to the Hikvision Camera web-interfase, and change the max bitrate to anything else (no matter the first input) the stream starts. It somehow triggers a connection state. But the issue still remains, when closing the stream and opening it again on the iPad Homekit app.

How come this issue is only present on iPad ? - is there some switch (extra_arguments) I can use to force this connection to work on my iPads ?

Snip from configuration.yaml (I use manual Homekit integration)
homekit:

  • filter:
    include_entities:
    - camera.cam1
    - camera.cam2
    - camera.cam3
    - camera.cam4
    entity_config:
    camera.cam1:
    video_codec: copy
    camera.cam2:
    video_codec: copy
    camera.cam3:
    video_codec: copy
    camera.cam4:
    video_codec: copy

Looking forward to some assistance, as this is driving me NUTS…!.

2

I have now tried to also separate as accessory, still won’t work on iPad

  - name: "CAM1"
    mode: accessory
    port: 21064
    filter:
      include_entities:
        - camera.cam1  
    entity_config:
      camera.cam1:
        video_codec: copy 

  - name: "CAM2"
    mode: accessory
    port: 21065
    filter:
      include_entities:
        - camera.cam2  
    entity_config:
      camera.cam2:
        video_codec: copy 

  - name: "CAM3"
    mode: accessory
    port: 21066
    filter:
      include_entities:
        - camera.cam3  
    entity_config:
      camera.cam3:
        video_codec: copy 

  - name: "CAM4"
    mode: accessory
    port: 21067
    filter:
      include_entities:
        - camera.cam4  
    entity_config:
      camera.cam4:
        video_codec: copy

Please advise

3

So, no one else has issues with “video_codec: copy” and playback on HomeKit on an iPad ?