Firestick, Wyze Sideload, Alexa, TinyCam?

It’s been a long time since I updated this thread and I am completely enamored with TinyCam. It is the best $2 - $4 you’ll ever spend. (And you may not even need the paid Pro version at all.) I got it set up on a tweaked Fire HD tablet for full time monitoring of Wyze and other cameras. I later got the FireTV version on sale. TinyCam can do its own motion detection, person detection, and local recording, and it runs its own web server so you can view your cams from any browser. There are tons of amazing features hidden in plain site.

I have a Fire HD tablet tweaked to do full time display of all cameras on a small easel. I alternate with the Wyze app but usually run TinyCam Pro or Free. It happens to sit next to an indoor Wyze V2.

Today a family member asked why we needed both - we only really need room monitoring when we’re not there, so what’s the point of the tablet monitoring the camera right next to it. Doesn’t the Fire tablet have a camera?

So next was a brief rabbit hole with Alexa. The Alexa app can certainly “drop in” and get video from the Fire tablet… But ONLY when that tablet is in “Show Mode”. And the only way I see to switch it to Show Mode is while you can touch or talk to it - the Alexa app is incapable of switching it remotely.

What’s next? Another remote control app for the tablet? Hey wait, why not use one of those apps that can use the tablet’s camera as a webcam and funnel that back to TinyCam? I checked out Alfred and IPCam and some others, but all were adware. How can I easily use the Android tablet’s camera?

Hey wait. Did I forget something? TinyCam, Manage Cameras, Add, Android camera. No way, it can’t be this easy - a feature built right into TinyCam itself. The stream starts right up and I’m looking behind the tablet. I didn’t even realize the FireHD had a rear camera! I flip the view to front camera and I’m looking at myself.

One problem - the view has a greenish tinge. I switch the camera setting from H.265 to JPG and the color is normal, but the frame rate is poor. Try different encoder settings, no change. I start looking up “white balance” and “green” and don’t see any fix for TinyCam. :frowning:

Finally I’m noodling in the settings and get to the Developer section. In the middle is an “experimental” feature that is intended if you have a green view on Android cameras! I flip that bit and lo and behold it’s fixed.

TinyCam is just a great app. I hope Alexey ports it to other platforms. (Linux would be cool for running on other low power devices.)

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