Dahua multicast

[ayryq 0]

Does anyone know how to get at the multicast stream on Dahua cameras? (I have a IPC-HFW2100, the "mini-bullet")

 

The normal tcp stream is at something like:

rtsp://server:port/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

 

The above url isn't documented anywhere, so I'm guessing maybe the multicast url also exists, undocumented. Anyone know it?

 

I'm not an expert on multicast but it sounds like it could be useful if monitoring any given camera from more than one location.

 

Thanks,

Eric

[pkoi 0]

I was wondering the same,

[Securame 0]

What is a "multicast stream"...?

[xizor 0]

Were you ever able to figure out how to make multicast work?

[buellwinkle 0]

First, it's all very well documented in their manuals. Second, have no idea what you are talking about. You can connect to the camera using a browser from many locations. Don't know what the limit is, I think it's 10 or 20 but if you need more than a few, make sure you have the internet upload bandwidth to support what you are doing or use a re-streaming service like UStream or YouTube

 

Does anyone know how to get at the multicast stream on Dahua cameras? (I have a IPC-HFW2100, the "mini-bullet")

 

The normal tcp stream is at something like:

rtsp://server:port/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

 

The above url isn't documented anywhere, so I'm guessing maybe the multicast url also exists, undocumented. Anyone know it?

 

I'm not an expert on multicast but it sounds like it could be useful if monitoring any given camera from more than one location.

 

Thanks,

Eric

[xizor 0]

First, it's all very well documented in their manuals. Second, have no idea what you are talking about. You can connect to the camera using a browser from many locations. Don't know what the limit is, I think it's 10 or 20 but if you need more than a few, make sure you have the internet upload bandwidth to support what you are doing or use a re-streaming service like UStream or YouTube

 

The author is asking how to connect to it using a client other than the browser, which is the same question I have. A video source supporting multicast should constantly send out video on the network, but this implementation looks to only work with their plugin, and you can only start the multicast through the browser. On a LAN, a multicast stream will only use 1x the bandwidth no matter how many users are watching, while TCP/RTSP will use N users times the bandwidth. At 6Mbps 720p or 1080p, multiple viewers can strain a FastEthernet LAN network.

[thewireguys 3]

Make sure you configure your network to support multicast streaming.

[buellwinkle 0]

Not familiar with Multicast, but it is an option on the camera, under Network -> Multicast and it's enabled by default, multicast address is 239.255.42.42 an port 36666. My best guess is you need a multicast enabled player. Have you tried VLC?

[40th Floor 0]

Multicast is over UDP. It won't go outside a router, either, so your desire for "more than one location" is fine so long as it's still on your LAN. But, even a 6 Mbps stream times 10 viewers is nothing on a Gbit LAN. If you want to limit band/connections to the camera, put something like (...) in there and connect all clients to (...). (...) is whatever you want it to be. The only safe way to fly.

 

Back to UDP. UDP is terrible for anything that fragments, and unless you are doing very small video frames (low quality 320x240[*]) you won't like what you see. Multicast is good for local/office conferencing, and if there's video in the mix, it's very small.

 

TCP is the way to go for IP cameras. If it's not done right, you can back it up and get a lot of ...lag (the data is buffered until it's removed, and the buffers can get very big), but that's an implementation problem, and not the protocol.

 

[*] Small H.264 video, that is. JPEG probably won't be so terrible