Frigate/ZoneMinder/webrtc/etc

Would love some feedback on this - was going to install Frigate, but see that it needs Zigbee2MQTT. I have HA on a Linux Pc, Sonoff 3.0 USB and ZHA all running well. Seems like i need to remove ZHA then add Z2MQTT and maybe reflash my Sonoff etc. So, I researched alternative ways to see all my cameras in HA - ZoneMinder, Webrtc and other solutions out there. Any suggestion on what to use? I have Eufy, Arlo and google cams, plus older POE Lorex cameras with Lorex NVR. Thought Frigate would be a good option to play with but sounds like lots of reconfiguring just to play wiht my cameras in HA. So thoughts on other software/integrations to use that have minimal lag issues and ideally good motion detection. Thanks in advance!

I read this part and stopped reading so if I miss something don’t judge.

No. Just no.
Frigate needs nothing but itself and Z2M has absolutely no place in this conversation.

At best you mean a MQTT broker like mosquito. I’m not even sure if this is needed since v15 changed a few things

EDIT
Did you actually read the frigate docs or just a bunch of stuff in the forum?

Actually I did read the docs, and watched multiple Youtube videos trying to figure it out. Docs DO say a MQTT broker IS required and this video says to install Z2MQTT as a prerequisite.

This is what sent me down the rabbit hole of how to move from ZHA to Z2MQTT however if you are saying its not really needed, then thats great. So just install Mosquito and this should work with my ip cameras and no changes needed to zigbee stuff? thx in advance

This!!
is not the same as this

Also, Z2MQTT is for zigbee. Mosquitto is better if you do go that route.

Im just giving you a hard time. :slight_smile: In reality you should not follow guides or videos cuz they tend to be wrong, outdated or just bad.

I tried every NVR solution and Frigate was/is the best.
The yaml is a bit of a pain but it works very smoothly and I added to HA side panel and it works beautifully.

Ok so I will add Mosquito and see if can get Frigate working, thanks. (by the way i know Z2MQTT is for zigbee, zigbee (ZHA) is what im running. And the youtube video is 90 days old - i did try to find a recent one!). Thanks

The HA integration for frigate not native and available in HACS. Again not sure if it’s needed anymore. If events come through mqtt the integration has no real purpose. As a matter of fact imma look into this again and remove from my install today if not needed.

If you already tried to run frigate and were unsuccessful, the MQTT broker will not be the cause

I understand. In last 90 days frigate 15 beta was released and brought a lot of changes. Recency is not a problem so much as the people claiming to know what they are talking about. That said, I speak on personal experience and really advise carefully reading the docs. I understand they are confusing but truly are best source.

To be clear MQTT is only needed if you want to integrate Frigate with HomeAssistant, this has been the case since 0.13

Agree the docs are not the best. Docs should have a Prerequisites section. Wasted way too much time tinkering with this. To use Frigate, you need MQTT broker, ok so not hard to set up. To add cameras, only supports RTSP type cameras, spent time figuring out if mine are or arent. Few do, so they I have to confifure RTSP stream, oh now I need a NAS! OK I have a NAS but now i need to install Surveillance Station. OK set that up too but cant get cameras to be visible there. Mess around with firewall but that doesnt seem to be issue CONCLUSION: I have old Lorex POE cameras and NVR, new Eufy S3 Pro cameras, few old Arols and Nest cam…continue to use native apps and don;t mess up HA with them. In other words…FRIGGIT… stop wastng time cuz this is too complicated and unnecessary.

1 Like

What? why?

Ok. Let’s be clear about What an NVR is.

There is no need for NVR.
Frigate has nothing to do with HA

NVR stores video recorded from surveillance cameras. Network Video Recorder

Many cameras store video locally on SD and do object detection

Many NVR by amcrest or cloud service like ring do this as well

Frigate simply brings that locally to central location on server with web interface. No needed but for done useful.

It also can bring several camera types into
Unified interface

RTSP is almost standard. Like HDMI on a laptop. For that matter rtsp isn’t required so much as video from any source since go2rtc accepts almost anything.

Docs are fine, it’s just a lot for non technical person to understand and requires willingness to learn if you don’t know. All the info is there which is the best you can ask for

1 Like