Reolink doorbell press button stream to chromecast now working but 23 sec till stream plays

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1

My first automation and I was a little bit stuck. But answered my own question, so posted this in case it may help someone.

Although automation now working, it does take 23 seconds from doorbell pressed till stream playing. Changing ambient screen to black screen ahead of stream only takes 2 seconds. If I press the doorbell again shortly after, stream is nearly instant, presumable because it was still connected to the Chromecast.
Any suggestions how to start playing stream faster? Or make it cast permanently but only flip from ambient to fluent stream till doorbell pressed?

My setup is

  • Reolink POE doorbell with FTP enabled
  • Raspberry Pi 4b running Home Assistant
  • Chromecast 2nd gen
  • All running latest firmware, HA and Reolink integration versions

Objective

  • Press doorbell, display video stream to monitor connected to Chromecast device for a few minutes then return to ambient slide show.

My automation

  • When: doorbell pressed turned on
  • Then do: Play Fluent on Hall Screen
    Delay for 300 seconds (30 during testing)
    Mediaplayer “Turn off” on Hall Screen

What happens

  • If I press the doorbell, the ambient screen turns to a blue cast logo on black screen, then black screen with a line at the bottom indicating about to stream a video. Then a few seconds later just black screen. After 2 minutes back to casting logo, then after 7m7s back to ambient screen.

My trace timeline (anonymised) shows

Triggered by the state of binary_sensor.doorbell_visitor at 12 March 2024 at 22:15:33

Play Fluent on Hall Screen

3 seconds later

(media_player.hall_screen) turned idle

1 second later

(media_player.hall_screen) turned buffering

Stopped because an error was encountered at 12 March 2024 at 22:16:03 (runtime: 30.06 seconds)

Execution of quick play http://192.168.xxx.xxx:8123/api/hls/xxx/master_playlist.m3u8?authSig=xxx timed out after 30.0 s.

How I fixed it

  • A simple setting I must have set at some point. Device > Reolink IP NVR/camera > Configure > Protocol = RTMP. Changing to RTSP made it all come alive. But a bit slow to get going.
2

So solved my 23 sec delay to cast to my screen. It is now <1 sec.

Settings > Devices & Services > Reolink IP NVR/Camera > 1 Device > Fluent > * > Preload camera stream = On

Video displayed but time shifted by about 30 seconds earlier. Does not bother me and quite useful.

What a great device. FTP to my own NAS, announcements and video on an old monitor, new use of my old RPi.

HA has opened a whole new world. My To-do lists is growing :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

Thanks for posting !

4

do you mind sharing your script?

5

Sure. But be aware I only used the visual editor to configure this.

alias: Doorbell Pressed
description: If doorbell is pressed, show video on hall screen
trigger:
  - type: turned_on
    platform: device
    device_id: [your device]
    entity_id: [your entity]
    domain: binary_sensor
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 0
condition: []
action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.hall_screen
    data:
      media_content_id: media-source://camera/camera.doorbell_fluent
      media_content_type: application/vnd.apple.mpegurl
    metadata:
      title: Fluent
      thumbnail: /api/camera_proxy/camera.doorbell_fluent
      media_class: video
      children_media_class: null
      navigateIds:
        - {}
        - media_content_type: app
          media_content_id: media-source://camera
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 5
      seconds: 0
      milliseconds: 0
  - service: media_player.turn_off
    metadata: {}
    data: {}
    target:
      device_id: [your device]
mode: single
6

I know this is an old thread but I was having the same problem trying to cast to my Chromecast connected TV. The OPs solution got me on the right path but it still took a long time to show the stream. I have a bit of a different solution that worked for me. Like the OP, I too have about a 30 sec delay from the “live” stream.

alias: Show Doorbell Feed on Slide Show
description: >
  Displays the Reolink doorbell feed on Chromecast for 60 seconds, then returns
  to Ambient Mode.
triggers:
  - entity_id: binary_sensor.reolink_video_doorbell_poe_person
    to: "on"
    trigger: state
actions:
  - target:
      entity_id: camera.reolink_video_doorbell_poe_fluent
    data:
      media_player: media_player.slideshow
    action: camera.play_stream
  - delay:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 30
  - target:
      entity_id: media_player.slideshow
    action: media_player.turn_off
    data: {}
mode: single
7

I have moved on from using Chromecast as the display driver and dusted off an old Raspberry Pi 3 and found a used Hannspree 22" touch screen. This way using Chrome browser on RaspOS the doorbell camera can be displayed, but also all other dashboard items. This way I was no longer incurring the 30 sec time shift and video is streamed near instantaneous. The touch screen does work but is only single point. So have now moved on to a Raspberry Pi 5 with FydeOS. Touch screen is much better and I can move easily from doorbell to energy use, to other home controls, etc.

8

Hello there, thanks for sharing your experience and with all the respect but why would you be happy with a 30 seconds delay of the video footage on the screen for a doorbell ?

I tried first time with HA and Google Nest Hub2 and I could see the image was like 2-3 seconds delayed…but then I upgraded the firmware (and I should have taken note of which firmware was installed upfront) and since then the image is even frozen…

I’m searching how to get this Reolink Doorbell working with a Google Nest Hub2 as a replacement for my old standalone videophone doorbell which wasn’t connected to internet.

All ideas are welcome of course ! :wink:

9

hi @yzichome ,
Did you manage to find a solution for this?
I am having the same delay issue and cant figure out how to fix it.