Any experts on CCTV DVRs here?

Question

I have 8 analogue cameras connected to a Samsung DVR.

I also have viewer software on a computer that connects to the DVR over ethernet and also my mobile phone can do the same. They can both access live video streams as network streams

Now I would like to do the same with VLC.

According to Samsung, the DVR can present RTSP streams using a correctedly formatted requesting HTTPS URL that contains the IP address of the DVR, the stream number from 0 to 7, the username and password in plain text.

Trying this with VLC simply does not work.

I am trying to do this as:

Click on Media menu

Open Network Stream or CTRL N

rtsp://admin:NNNNNNN@192.168.0.234:10010/0

admin is the name of the account holder and NNNNNNN is the password (not literally but replaces the true password for the purposes of this post.

I get the following:

Connection failed: VLC could not connect to "192.168.0.234:10010". Your inpConnection failed: VLC could not connect to "192.168.0.234:10010". Your input can't be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'rtsp://admin:NNNNNN@192.168.0.234:10010/0'. Check the log for details.

I can use a web browser or the Samsung Viewing app and I can confirm the IP address, username and password all work.

I have even tried to view the HTML code for the web viewer to see if the code could give me a clue but no joy there.

Andy Burns · Accepted Answer

Do the cameras/dvr claim to be ONVIF compatible? There is software to try to find the correct rtsp:// URL, e.g.

formatting link

I certainly got VLC to talk to some generic AliExpress cameras

Can you use wireshark to sniff the communication between you cameras and dvr?

SH · Answer

scrap the above query....the correct format to use is:rtsp://admin:PASSWORD@192.168.0.234:558/LiveChannel/0/Now how do I find out the resolution of the RTSP stream?Stephen

SH · Answer

right I have compared the RTSP stream side by side with the Veiwing software. The latter is reporting 5 MP and its clear the RTSP stream is of much lower resolution in VLC.....S.

Andy Burns · Answer

Main will likely be 1920x1080 or 1280x720, sub could be 544x576 maybe lower, if yu get VLC it'll tell you in the tools/media tab.

SH · Answer

just found it in VLCVLC is reporting 640 x 386 awith a frame rate of 29.97 Hz. (!)Ideally I'd like tyo get this up to 1920 x 1080.The idea being I could then set up 8 Raspberry Pis all using VLC to view one camera each via RTSP in full screen and then feed the HDMI output of the 8 Pis into a bank of 8 DVB-T modulators so I can have 8 in-house DTT channels. So we can go to any TV set in the house (I have 8!) with a remote control and we can see whats on the cameras without the faff of going to a PC, starting it up, launching teh viewer software etc or mobile phone with its small screenThe HDMI output of the DVR is currently feeding a HDMI mod and is the mosaic of all 8 cams. Currently the resolution on this is 1920 x 1080.

SH · Answer

P.S. the cams are 5 MP....

Andy Burns · Answer

just experiment with other stream numbers 0,1,2,3 in the URL, tell google what make model camera you have and Gemini will give you example URLs too try ... you're not going to break anything trying,

SH · Answer

yes, but the cameras are analog, so the RTSP stream is actually being generated by the DVR.

I have tried stream0, stream1, stream2 and stream4 and RecordingChannel but the only one that works so far is LiveChannel at the resolution of

640 x 386

Andy Burns · Answer

sorry, forgot that.

Ian <$ · Answer

If they are baseband analog (composite video) the actual resolution willnot be anywhere near 1920x1080, even is the sensor is "5MP".That might be as good as it gets...

SH · Answer

They are outputting TVI at 5.0 MP.The cameras can output in AHD, CVI or TVI at up to 5.0 MP and 960H if put into CVBS mode.The DVR viewing software shows the recordings as being at 5.0 MPSo there is clearly a 5.0 MP stream to be had somewhere....

Any experts on CCTV DVRs here?

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