Old Question, Hoping for New Answer

One part of the equation I’ve overlooked is my primary TV. It’s a 2023 Sony XR model that, I believe, runs some flavor of Android. Anyone know if Wyze has a version of their app that would run there?

Does it show in the Play Store? If it does then it probably will.

Wonder if it can be “Sideloaded” ?

There is not, I have been asking for it on the wish list for a while!

I am deep in the IANAE category on TV Android, but this link seems to show a Wyze app for this platform: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hualai&hl=en_US

The only experience with Android I have is, an old Android Box running stock Android TV OS. Haven’t used it in at least couple of years.

I remember reading some speculation about something similar a few months ago:

That’s something I’ve thought about trying but haven’t made it a priority. I did find out that my Google TV runs a 32-bit Android version, so the best I could hope for with a Wyze app on that device would be getting a v2.50x APK to try. For @jasNW’s Sony, I think I’d try to determine what variant of Android it’s running as a starting point.

I like this idea, as I have the android emulator running on my main PC, I’ll have to visit this option on my Intel NUC, so see how well that works as well.

Lots of great ideas in the thread already, hope to get one of them working for this same need that I have as well.

Drat. I thought I was “this close” to a working alternative.

I no longer have this setup, but I once had an android box that had an HDMI out. It was running pure android and not android TV and so it had Google Play pre-installed.

Of course, I installed the Wyze app and tinycam pro. Tinycam was perfect; it allowed me to show 9 cameras on the screen.

I don’t beleive tinycam will stream local (which I think OP wants) but honestly as long as your internet is halfway decent it shouldn’t be an issue.

The wyze app with 4 cams in a group fits the screen nicely (depending on the resolution of your TV and whatever you hook up to it) however if you want more than 4 then you need to use tinycam or something else.

I played with tinycam briefly, and I also have WSA installed on the PC that is connected to my TV and can run the Wyze app in there, however I’ve just never really had a use to have the cams up on the big screen. Especially considering I’m still holding onto my plasma TV with a death grip (like the look of plasma, can’t buy them anymore) and don’t want any burn in.

There are a lot of options. Sticking with native Wyze app is probably going to be the smoothest and most reliable, but of course it all comes down to one’s wants/needs.

MS Phone link is another option if you have a windows PC connected to the TV, but that relies on your phone doing the heavy lifting and being in range, just mirrors the display to the TV (which can be done with built in screen mirroring on the phone too).

Tinycam will stream local :+1:

That’s good to know, makes it a good solution then (except for when Wyze updates something and it stops working for a while).

My assumption was that the encryption used would block that (especially with them starting to add “VerifiedView” which I think is just a white label name for another generic tagging technology) and that tiny cam just basically had to mimic a user connecting from one of their servers. But I guess they must have found a way to emulate the app behavior. Of course there still is the concern that you have to provide fairly sensitive credentials/access to a 3rd party.

So does Wyze bridge also stream local? You’d think if Wyze allows this (or it is able to be done) they’d just re-add RTSP already. Hopefully that discussion bears fruit.

Since docker Wyze bridge is no longer useful, I’m now using tinycam’s server mode. My old iPad, which can no longer install the Wyze app, is now showing my cameras again. Tinycam server is running on dirt-cheap, refurbished Fire tablet.

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Good thinking, but I assume that happens during initial authentication with TUTK or the LotVideo SDK. So cameras, initially get authetication through the internet when they first start a stream, but after authentication passes, then you can kill the internet and the cameras will continue to stream locally. This is how RTSP has worked in the past. People would boot up the camera, wait for authentication, then kill the internet and the camera would stream indefinitely. Tiny Cam worked the same way. I assume Verified view also just checks at initial authentication, and then Tinycam keeps streaming indefinitely until you log out of tinycam or close the app. But as long as you leave the app open after initial authentication, then it’s all local just the same as when you use the Wyze App.

Yes, that is exactly what they do. Alexey Vasilyev (Tiny Cam Founder), also works for Wyze since 2020, so he has access to make sure things work pretty smoothly.

100%

But you are right that I haven’t verified all of this conclusively since Verified view launched, so there could definitely be some changes. I didn’t consider that. I only know that the video used to be local, just the initial authentication isn’t. Tiny cam just works the same as the Wyze app…which is also local after initial authentication. The cool thing with Tiny Cam is you can run it in server mode, and then just stream directly to any other device totally locally without the new device(s) having to authenticate through the internet.

Yes, it works very similarly, though with Wyze Bridge, you need to get an official Wyze API Key and Key ID and insert those as if they are 2FA extra passwords. You don’t have to do that with Tiny Cam.

The main thing about TinyCam and DWB providing RTSP is that they require a separate device that will convert the stream. So Wyze would either need to sell a hub that does this conversion processing, or update the cameras themselves to convert the stream to RTSP just like DWB and TinyCam do. Most companies just build it into the camera directly. It’s the best option. Hopefully that’s what Wyze does soon.

Yeah it’s a fantastic option!

That’s a brilliant workaround! I didn’t think about recommending that to people who have devices with older OS’s that can’t handle the Wyze app. I’ll have to remember this. Thanks for sharing!

This is a perfect option. You can regularly get those off Woot for under $20. I know other people who just buy old Android phones to be dedicated to this, or some people just run a Bluestacks emulator on a desktop or laptop. But it’s hard to beat a great Fire Tablet for under $20 to use as a dedicated option for this!

I can’t seem to get this to work. Would love to give it a shot! Anyway you can direct me to someplace where I can get instructions on how to get these cameras to work on the tiny cam servers? I would appreciate it.

You need Fire Toolbox to either install Google Play and install the Wyze app from there, or sideload the Wyze app directly. When I tried sideloading, there was a hiccup, but I assume that’s been taken care of by now. The instructions are pretty straightforward, but if something isn’t clear, ask here.

Sorry I wasn’t clear, I got the android and the iPhone app is working just fine,
I’m trying to figure out how to get TinyCam to work.

I forgot to mention that tinycam’s Web server feature is only available with its paid version. If you already have the paid version, pressing the menu icon pulls down a list, and one of the entries is, “Web server”.