yes they do have a stream api open to the public that is what tinycam uses
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Hi WyzeGwendolyn!
I’m excited to hear about RTSP support. I could see not having PTZ support (the app could be used for that) so the only option/feature that I would like to see is the Time-lapse feature. I do a nightly time-lapse so I can ‘summarize’ what one of my critter cams captures and if needed then go grab the raw footage…
I think we just disagree with what “api open to the public” means. 
The “API” isn’t documented or supported in any way by Wyze and it’s not even clear that it’s legal to use the ThroughTek part of it …
To use the information that Alexey determined by reverse engineeering, you have to call into libraries from Throughtek that are published on github in binary form only. Those libraries have no indication of licensing to the public that I could see, and they’re published from a random-looking Chinese account that is not obviously associated with Throughtek. Throughtek itself does not make those libraries available to the public as far as I can tell, and I doubt it condoned publishing them to github.
So yes, there’s a way to access Wyzecam, and it’s very nice of Alexey to have shared his work, but due to the dubious nature of the Throughtek libraries, I suspect that any commercial entity in the US is going to be pretty shy about shipping code that includes them.
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I would love RTSP, but I hate to lose all those other great features. There is a 3rd party firmware already available that you can flash to WYSE cams to allow RTSP, but you lose the other great features that WYSE has created in there current firmware. I would rather wait to keep everything else when RTSP is added. Just my opinion.
I have 5 WYZE cameras. Does RTSP mean I will be able to see more than one camera view at a time?
If so - then why would I lose other features? How is it that I can watch one camera stream right now, but not two, three, four and five at a time?
Based on the HD bandwidth I see right now about 100K per second - there is plenty of bandwidth waiting in my pipe for all the cameras at once. Funny thing - I can set my other phones to other cameras and see them at once. Confused as to why I can’t watch multiple cams at once.
Thank you!
currenty if you want to do that, your best bet is to use tinycam pro. its not a wyze authorized app per se, but it works for what you are wanting to do. all you have to do is enter in your information. ( many youtube videos on this)
wyze labs are in the midst of researching many things and multiple live camera views are on the list of things you can vote for. when you get a minute go to the roadmap and vote for things you would like to see. below is the link for multiple cam views in roadmap . make sure to vote on it.
ive also attached a view to show you what tiny cam looks like when used.
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I’d like to review some of the information around how RTSP might work with the Wyze cameras.
If you have three cameras and you are using the Wyze app, you typically manage them by viewing them one at a time within the application, like this:
Each camera acts as a little web server, and serves up content via your router through the cloud. The live streams are provided via the app. The 12 second video clips are uploaded to the Amazon Web Services (AWS). You also have local storage on any MicroSD cards you’ve installed.
If these three hypothetical cameras have RTSP enabled, it gives a lot more flexibility. I’ll describe what I mean in this diagram:
The little web server that each camera has can now be accessed as a local web page within your network. You should be able to manage some basic settings this way - IR filter, night mode, status lights, that sort of thing - but nothing fancy.
You can expose your multiple camera feeds to video surveillance software (also known as a Digital Video Recorder DVR) or Network Video Recorder (NVR). There are lots of options here (for example, I use Netcam Studio), but the key point is that all the NVR software generally offers these features:
- View multiple sources at the same time
- Motion detection with zones
- Audio detection with thresholds
- Recording to local hard drive / cloud accounts
- Scheduled recording | Constant Recording | Record On Event
- PTZ controls
- Time lapse
- Recording Library
- Secure remote access to all of these features
Most of the NVR software supports up to 64 video sources.
The whole point of requesting RTSP support for the WyzeCams is that they would be simple and easy to add as a video source to existing NVR software. This would provide options for people who wanted more flexibility. It doesn’t matter what your focus is, it will provide you the ability to do what you want with a little research and effort.
Want to have more control over your detection zones? Easy. Want to set up timelapse? Straight to your hard drive. Need more control over where your video feed goes? Secure your camera IP addresses to be internal only. Want license plate detection capabilities? Just pick the right software.
I appreciate that Wyze Labs are still working on the RTSP implementation. I wanted to bring some clarity to this discussion to confirm why RTSP is important. I am aware that there are solutions to expose the video feeds to other sources, and I understand a lot of time and effort has gone into that. However, my focus in on the hopeful implementation of a separate RTSP firmware, and the reasons why this would be useful.
(Edit: Added a little cloud in my second picture)
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Please launch RTSP firmware what you have and users can tell you if its stable,NVR software can take care of the rest as that’s whats its build for. RTSP users really don’t care for much except RTSP from camera,App developers can work how ever they want we care less for paid apps etc.
Less complicated clean and simple basic functions is all that’s needed.
Sorry Wyze but I’m getting tired of waiting for this feature. First camera that offers a similar price point and POE and RTSP and they’ll get my money. At $25 it was cheap to try out, but limiting its features reduces your market. With such a small price point, you need to move lots of these units and catering to as many users will help that.
Just adding my voice to the resquest for RTSP support!
And also to see if we can get an ETA for a beta version of the firmware.
Sorry, I don’t have an ETA for that yet. I know that we’re working on it now but I’m not sure when it will be ready for testing.
Does this RTSP Ability HAVE to fit into the Internal storage though?
Is it possible for Wyzecam to just check for Custom firmware on boot from the SD Card?
Assuming the contents are only read from SD card and stored in memory for the duration of the run, it might take longer to boot, but in exchange it should have a much lower chance of bricking the camera from a bad firmware flash.
At the same time should the user want to revert to stock Wyzecam they only need to remove the file from the SD card.
… Unless the camera already does this and that’s how some 3rd party unofficial firmware does it?
EDIT: Example… say it looks in the top level of the SD card for the first .bin file it can find… if “rtsp.bin” is found it’ll boot the rtsp firmware, else it boots the camera’s default firmware.
I don’t know how Wyze is planning on implementing it, but that’s exactly how
the OpenIPC firmware works.
I tried it for a few days… didn’t care for it and then simply wiped the sdcard.
It loaded the Wyze firmware and I haven’t had any issues.
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Not dismiss the genuine value of RTSP (and/or other standards compliant local access options; ahem, MJPEG is super inefficient but still mighty handy for viewing in a browser with no plug-ins or server required)… but…
Obviously every company / product manager faces the standard axiom: “You can’t please everyone” or “This product is not the best fit for everyone”.
And obviously Wyze is aiming for mass market, which means that if they feel or know (from market research) that the camera is a “good fit” for 80% of consumers in the IP camera market without RTSP, then by the 80/20 rule, it would be poor use of resources to try to acquire the next 10% (yes … only 10%, because you can’t please everyone even with RTSP implemented).
While I have no basis for guessing this, I personally feel that Wyze can reach a sufficiently large proportion of the market without RTSP; i.e., that adding RTSP support would only increase their potential market reach by about 10%.
I hope I’m wrong. I hope Wyze implements it anyway and their effort is rewarded with a much more substantial increase in penetration than 10%!
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Why does it require a different firmware? I would prefer to keep all the features and have an option to enable RTSP. If some functionality isn’t available at the same time as RTSP then that feature can be turned off while RTSP is on (for example, if you can’t support streaming to the cloud and to RTSP at the same time).
Don’t get me wrong though - RTSP is the number one thing I’d like to see. I’m just curious why you would create a separate firmware for it.
If you do create a separate firmware, would you consider having that firmware be open source? For anyone with security concerns about the camera, that would address them.
I think the answer to some of your questions can be found in the recent Q&A.
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hmmm,… making progress. what does that mean ? this year, next year ??? never ? how about some realism instead of platitudes ?
i’m guessing you didn’t watch the video in the post before yours?
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Or the letter from Wyze that came out several weeks ago…
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