NVR and DVR: streaming a recorder channel to your website

When to stream from the recorder

• PoE recorder. Cameras on an NVR's PoE ports sit on the recorder's internal network and are not reachable from the router. The recorder is the only way in.
• Analog cameras. An analog (Turbo HD, HDCVI, AHD) camera on a DVR or XVR has no RTSP of its own — the recorder encodes and serves the video.
• One port for all. You forward only the recorder's RTSP port and every channel becomes reachable.

If a camera has its own IP and you can reach it directly, that's more reliable: recorder reboots and load no longer affect the stream.

Channel RTSP URLs by brand

For example, channel 7 main stream on a Hikvision recorder is /Streaming/Channels/701, channel 12 sub stream is /Streaming/Channels/1202. On Dahua channel 7 is channel=7, on Uniview c7.

rtsp://user:password@203.0.113.10:554/Streaming/Channels/701
rtsp://user:password@203.0.113.10:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=7&subtype=1
rtsp://user:password@203.0.113.10:554/unicast/c7/s0/live

The channel number

The channel number is the one shown on the recorder's screen or in its web interface channel list (D1, D2… on Hikvision; 1, 2… on Dahua and Uniview). Watch for two exceptions:

• Hybrid DVR/XVR. On some models IP channels are numbered after the analog ones: on a DVR with 8 analog channels the first IP camera may be channel 9.
• Older Hikvision NVRs. On some old firmware, IP channels started at 33 (/Streaming/Channels/3301). If 101 reports a wrong path, try that.

Main stream or sub stream

The main stream is for recording: often 4–8 megapixels, H.265 and a smart codec. That's too heavy for the web and behaves badly in browsers. The sub stream is light, but often ships at a very low resolution (640×360 or less).

Best option: in the recorder's video/encoding settings (pick the channel), set the sub stream to H.264, 1280×720, CBR, 1–2 Mbit/s, I-frame interval = frame rate × 1–2, no smart codec, and stream that. The main stream stays untouched for recording. For IP cameras, the recorder sometimes passes these settings to the camera; sometimes you have to change them in the camera itself. See camera settings.

Recorder and internet limits

• Upload speed. Each streamed channel sends one stream to our server: 1–2 Mbit/s for 720p, 3–4 Mbit/s for 1080p. Four channels at 720p means about 4–8 Mbit/s of upload. The number of viewers doesn't add to it — our server serves them.
• Recorder outgoing bandwidth. Every recorder has an outgoing bandwidth and remote connection limit (see the model's datasheet). The phone app, a VMS and our stream all share it.
• CPU. Budget DVRs sometimes struggle to serve several main streams at once and the picture freezes. The sub stream helps here too.

Security and adding it to VIDEOCAMERA LIVE

1. On the recorder, create a separate user with live view rights only, limited to the channels you will show.
2. Forward only the recorder's RTSP port on the router — see port forwarding. Keep the web interface (80, 443) and vendor service ports (e.g. Hikvision 8000, Dahua 37777) off the internet.
3. Log in to the dashboard and add each channel as a separate camera: host, port, username and password stay the same; only the RTSP path changes.
4. For each channel click Test connection, then activate it and copy the embed code — see embedding a camera on a website.