I too want RTSP local access from these cams. I value owning and controlling my own video feeds and using my own camera management software.
I don’t agree with the notion that adding RTSP would make the camera unstable or somehow less-than. You don’t have to compromise much to offer these services. Why can’t it be more like the Foscam R2 I have? That camera has mobile App access, Cloud Storage, RTSP direct local stream and on-board SD card storage in addition to an Ethernet jack. I don’t have to give up anything and can use any or all those features as I see fit. It’s only a little bit more expensive.
I also don’t buy the notion that they instantly become of no value once they add local video feed support. You CAN do both and still be valuable. There will always be people who prefer cloud storage over local storage. Why not give them the option?
The fact that RTSP may actually on the map now is good. However I still say that if TinyCam Pro can access the cameras why the heck can’t other 3rd party apps? However Tinycam does it any other 3rd party app should be able to. This all without modifying the firmware or adding RTSP.
With that said I want the simplicity of the Wyze app. But I want the ability to use any 3rd party software which means RTSP or ONVIF.
Not saying anything bad about Wyze, the value is undeniable and we have a few of them around the house. That being said, if they fit my secondary use case by adding RTSP, I would by more to implement in those scenarios as well. It’s not that we’re boycotting them or anything, we just have more situations in which we can utilize these little fellers that just don’t work without the RTSP.
If anything, I’d love to see them implement it so that I can justify purchasing more of them thereby supporting further efforts. However, I wouldn’t buy a wood saw blade for a metal working project just because I like the company who makes the wood saw blade more than the company that makes the metal saw blade.
With RTSP I would buy a few more cameras, to replace my currently implemented solutions, and I think that’s more than fair. That’s the consumer saying “Look, I love what you’re doing so much, that I would rotate out perfectly good hardware to find more room for you! I just need you to be able to fulfill the function of that hardware before doing so.”
Tl;dr
Wyze cams are great, and many of us would love to buy more of them, but they need to fit the secondary use case in order to justify additional purchase.
I understand how Wyze must be on the fence about enabling RTSP, and would like to offer my humble thoughts on why RTSP could be a win for both the consumer and company.
While I doubt Wyze is taking any kind of loss on hardware, they have priced their cameras low enough that there can’t be a significant margin on each unit.
This is why it likely doesn’t matter if everyone in this thread and on Reddit says they will buy 10 or 20 if RTSP is enabled.
That’s 10-20 units with slim to no margin and if what they are trying to do is grow the user base prior to bringing out a paid subscription tier of cloud services, users who purchased specifically because of RTSP will likely not be sources of future recurring revenue for additional cloud services.
How I think RTSP would actually benefit Wyze goes something like this:
The percent of home users shopping for cameras similar to Wyze is large, as can be seen by the push from Google, Amazon and others into the space. Even my non-technical parents have picked up some much more expensive cameras so they can peek in at their pets while away.
However, the portion of that potential market that also have some kind of home server, NAS, or actual use for RTSP must be minuscule in comparison.
It’s a geeky, somewhat technical feature request, we’re just a loud bunch online.
The people that use RTSP likely also provide tech support and recommendations to family and friends, post on places like Reddit, twitter, forums etc…
They become the evangelists for Wyze because of the positive experience they have with the company and hardware.
They may not generate much revenue beyond the initial sale, but they boost the user base, and spread the recommendation for Wyze cams to a larger group who are likely to be interested in future cloud offerings.
As long as Wyze is not taking a loss on each camera sale, they are out nothing but development time for enabling RTSP even if it potentially loses a subscription sale, but for each happy RTSP customer in the wild, that is one more person recommending their cameras to those who are more likely to subscribe.
Just my 2 cents, and of course it’s all just speculation, but I think it is not only good in terms of marketing but also good for business growth.
Wyze has already indicated at the top of this thread that they recognize the desire.
The vote count alone shows the margin of the ask and again, I think Wyze sees it.
As others have mentioned, Wyze will make their own decision as to whether it meets their long term business plan. For those of us who would like the RTSP option, we can only hope.
What I want to know is how TinyCam Pro got the rights to the video feed. Did they reverse engineer? (so much for security), or do they have a relationship with Wyze. If it is the later, thats not so great because TinyCam is very inefficient in its use of bandwidth. Anyway I digress since I don’t want to hijack the topic.
Yes please add RTSP and also a POE option. Once RTSP is added, please allow the frame rate to be adjusted as well. Wifi is amateur connectivity. I would gladly pay double for a POE capable 1080p WYZE cam. I have no interest in cloud middleman. Unless you create a system like Ivideon. Local server with cloud options.
RTSP support would be extremely beneficial to small/mid size businesses. At the current price point I can buy 20 Wyze cams for the price of the last camera I purchased. Not all camera’s are that expensive but the video quality between the two are not far off from the more expensive camera. I could increase coverage around the facility while still staying under budget. Even if the Wyze camera only lasted a year it would still makes financial sense. With RTSP support I could see our business purchasing between 30 - 60 Wyze Cams.
If your truly serious about making a profit from volume sales, then it would seem like adding a software update that would more than likely double your sales to a preexisting product, would make financial sense for both parties. It seems like a win, win, to me.
RTSP and a affordable digital doorbell are your money makers, don’t hesitate act!
I would also very much like the RTSP to be implemented/supported by the next version of Wyzecam firmware. I love the v2 units I currently have and recently ordered a pair of the v2 black units. If or when these are RTSP enabled I will purchase more and begin to recommend them to everyone I know. I don’t believe they will be able to keep them in stock at that point and that’s why I made my recent purchase.
There is HUGE market for cameras that can record 24/7 locally while sending triggered clips to the cloud for safety. Wyze is so close to this now with recording to the SD. But the SD is limited in size plus NVRs often tie into home automation in ways that move a cameras usefulness to the next level. So adding RTSP will not hurt a paid cloud service option. If anything it will may it more attractive while at the same time probably lowering the load per camera since people will probably send less to the cloud by sending less false triggers. And helps lower the end user’s bandwidth usage.
When you already have a very expensive Honeywell NVR… you can only go with cameras that support RTSP & ONVIF. I’ve been looking for smaller/less obtrusive camera and would love to buy Wyze cameras once it’s fully supported. Are we thinking this is going to require new camera hardware, or a firmware software update to the latest ones?
We have an RTSP tentative plan and would like to know if this fits the needs for most of the RTSP users.
It will only support local LAN streaming.
It will be a separate firmware which may not have all the features we currently support. For example, motion tracking, PTZ control, two-way audio, etc.
You can create a password to access your video for an extra layer of security.
For my use case, I feed my RTSP cameras to motioneyeos (Home · motioneye-project/motioneyeos Wiki · GitHub) which runs on my raspberry pi 3b+. I think the majority of us just want something to connect to another software asset at a minimum for right now. Obviously if you can get audio or motion tracking working in any form, that would be fantastic. I would be okay if I had to load an SD card to load in the additional files to suppose RTSP along the same firmware to get motion tracking. My thought was to have RTSP alongside the same firmware, but if that is difficult, I will accept that and at least be grateful with the RTSP feed!
Edit: I just want to add in that I would at least like to have the ability to control the stream quality and be able to set night mode ON or OFF manually.
Brilliant start. I’d perhaps suggest giving us maybe 3 tiers of RTSP quality?
From the Github repo I’ve tried a few different streaming profiles. You guys obviously have perfected it, but if we could choose the 360P - SD - HD in addition to password, that would be a great start.
Also perhaps maybe retain some bare settings like Auto Night Vision on v2, otherwise this is exactly what we need. I know it’s a huge step for RTSP, and this would give advanced users and people like myself a way to use this in existing environments ( Blue Iris, Security Spy ) and not running Android emulators.
Can’t vote YES for this enough!
EDIT: In addition to a streaming profile, please add the ability for us to modify the port, for us that have multiple cameras. Thanks!
one more caveat about the plan , being very transparent –
This seperate RTSP firmware will be updated and maintained at a much less frequency and lower priority than the normal firmware branch. You will most likley have to flash the firmware instead of OTA