I’m currently trying to switch from Blue Iris to Frigate. I have installed Frigate as a Docker container running on my server and set up all my cameras in Frigate. Object detection works nicely in Frigate. My only remaining problem are the live camera streams and how I can get them into HA.
I have configured go2rtc in Frigate and the streams work in the Frigate UI. Both in MSE as well as WebRTC mode. However, I can’t get the RTSP streams to work nicely in Home Assistant. I installed the RTSPtoWeb add-ons as well as the RTSPtoWebRTC and Frigate integration. The camera entities from the Frigate integration do work on my Macbook and an iPad, but I can’t get them to work on my Fire tablet running Fully Kiosk. I know that the Fire tablet is rather slow, but I don’t understand why even the sub streams with low resolution and less than 10 fps don’t work. The Blue Iris streams, which I believe are MJPEG streams, work without any problems even on the Fire tablet. But the RTSP streams from Frigate just don’t work. It takes ages for the stream to start and when it starts, it is a studdery mess. Maybe someone has a suggestion as to how I can get the camera streams to work in HA (on the Fire tablet running Fully Kiosk). Thanks!
I have mine integrated in HA for minimal purpose, and can see live view in the app (web browser depends on the one you use, so may or may not work with the below).
The way I have it working is:
Settings>>Devices & Services>>Add Integration then use “MJPEG IP Camera”.
In the pop up …
Name: Whatever you want
MJPEG URL: http://xxx.xxx.x.x:5000/api/NAMEofCAMERAinFrigate
Still Image URL: http://xxx.xxx.x.x:5000/api/NAMEofCAMERAinFrigate/latest.jpg
… rest use as you need …
Change xxx.xxx.x.x and NAMEofCAMERAinFrigate as you need.
Hope it works.
Edit: after reading your post again - I may have misunderstood not sure if the above will help (may get you live view, but not via RTSP)
Thanks everybody for the suggestions. The MJPEG alternative works somehow. But nothing works really well. I guess, I’m sticking with Blue Iris for now. Frigate is great for object detection, but the streaming component and NVR functionality is not yet ready for prime time. Will keep an eye on it and maybe switch in the future.
the issues you are describing have nothing to do with frigate, it is a problem with HA and that it uses HLS for rtsp streams. You simply need to follow the advice above of using the frigate card or the webrtc card.
I tried both, but they do not work reliably on a Fire tablet. No problem on a beefy desktop or laptop computer or even an iPad, but not on a low performance device. The MJPEG streams which the Blue Iris integration provides, work perfectly on the Fire tablet. Plus: In Frigate, my older Reolink cameras keep crashing even though I updated them to the latest beta firmware which provides support for ONVIF and iFrame. A video surveillance solution has to be 100% reliable. Blue Iris is, Frigate not yet.
If you actually asked for help it would have been simple to help and setup the jsmpeg view in the frigate card for the fire tablet. Many users use it this way on the fire tablets.
I’m still open to suggestions. However, my current problem is rather that the camera stream of two of my Reolink cameras keep crashing. So I have to fix this first (probably by replacing the old cameras). But of course, I’m still interested in how to get the jsmpeg stream working on the Fire tablet.
Seeing the crash logs would be helpful, some reolink cameras require using ffmpeg: for the go2rtc stream
I used to have reolink cameras but have gotten rid of all of them except the reolink doorbell in favor of empiretech / loryta cameras and since then I have not had a single stream crash / error in months.
You would just want to use the jsmpeg source instead of go2rtc source in the frigate card for the fire tablet.
not sure if the above will help (may get you live view, but not via RTSP)