Getting Started

Getting Started with MiBee NVR

What is MiBee NVR

MiBee NVR is a lightweight Network Video Recorder written in Go. It records video feeds from IP cameras to MP4 segments on disk and provides a web interface for viewing recordings, managing cameras, and accessing recorded footage.

Key Features:

• Records RTSP (H.264, H.265, MJPEG), HTTP JPEG, and ONVIF cameras to MP4 segments
• Web UI with dark/light theme, HLS live view, and Chart.js statistics
• WebDAV (configurable read-only/read-write) and FTP access to recordings
• MQTT integration for event-driven recording
• Segment merging to reduce file count
• Single static binary with embedded web interface — no dependencies

Quick Start (5 Minutes)

Option 1: Pre-built Binary (Recommended)

Download the latest binary for your architecture from GitHub Releases:

# AMD64 (most PCs/servers)
wget https://github.com/Mi-Bee-Studio/MiBeeNvr/releases/latest/download/mibee-nvr-amd64
chmod +x mibee-nvr-amd64

# ARM64 (Raspberry Pi, etc.)
wget https://github.com/Mi-Bee-Studio/MiBeeNvr/releases/latest/download/mibee-nvr-arm64
chmod +x mibee-nvr-arm64

Initialize config and start:

./mibee-nvr-amd64 init --password yourpassword
./mibee-nvr-amd64 -config mibee-nvr.yaml

Open http://localhost:9090 in your browser.

Option 2: Docker

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:9090 in your browser.

Note: No config preparation needed! MiBee NVR auto-initializes when started without a config file.

Changing the Storage Location

By default, recordings are stored in ./data on the host (mapped to /data inside the container). To store recordings on an external drive or a different directory, edit docker-compose.yml:

    volumes:
      - /mnt/external/nvr:/data    # ← change to your host path
    environment:
      - NVR_DATA_DIR=/data          # must match the right side of the volume mount
      # - NVR_UID=1000               # match the UID that owns the host directory
      # - NVR_GID=1000               # match the GID that owns the host directory

Important: The right side of the volume mount (:data) and NVR_DATA_DIR must always match. If the container fails to start or keeps restarting, check that the host directory exists and is writable by the configured UID/GID (default: 1000:1000).

Option 3: One-click Install Script

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Mi-Bee-Studio/MiBeeNvr/main/install.sh | sudo bash

This downloads the binary, creates a system user (nvr), generates config with password, installs a systemd service, and starts it automatically. Data directory: /var/lib/mibee-nvr.

To uninstall (preserves recordings):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Mi-Bee-Studio/MiBeeNvr/main/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --uninstall

Option 4: Build from Source

Requires Go 1.26+ and Node.js (for frontend):

git clone https://github.com/Mi-Bee-Studio/MiBeeNvr.git
cd MiBeeNvr
make build
./mibee-nvr init --password yourpassword
./mibee-nvr -config mibee-nvr.yaml

For cross-compiling to ARM64 (e.g. Raspberry Pi):

make cross

First-Time Setup

Using mibee-nvr init

The init subcommand creates a config file with secure defaults:

./mibee-nvr init --password yourpassword

Options:

Flag	Default	Description
--password	(prompted)	Admin password for Web UI
--username	admin	Admin username
--data-dir	/var/lib/mibee-nvr	Data directory for recordings and DB
--listen	:9090	HTTP listen address
--config	mibee-nvr.yaml	Config file path
--force	false	Overwrite existing config

Password Setup

There are three ways to set the admin password:

1. mibee-nvr init --password <pw> — sets the hashed password during setup (recommended)
2. Plaintext in config — set auth.password in YAML; auto-hashed to password_hash on first start
3. Manual hash — generate with mibee-nvr hash-password <pw> and paste into auth.password_hash

Default Paths

Path	Description
/var/lib/mibee-nvr/	Data directory (recordings, database)
/var/lib/mibee-nvr/mibee-nvr.db	SQLite database
mibee-nvr.yaml	Configuration file

Adding Your First Camera

MiBee NVR uses a separate transport + encoding format for camera protocols:

• Transport: rtsp, http, onvif
• Encoding: h264, h265, mjpeg, jpeg

The old combined format (rtsp_h264, rtsp_h265, rtsp_mjpeg, http_jpeg) still works for backward compatibility.

RTSP H.264 Camera

cameras:
  - id: "front-door"
    name: "Front Door"
    protocol: "rtsp"
    encoding: "h264"
    url: "rtsp://192.168.1.100:554/stream"
    enabled: true

RTSP H.265 Camera

cameras:
  - id: "driveway"
    name: "Driveway"
    protocol: "rtsp"
    encoding: "h265"
    url: "rtsp://192.168.1.103:554/stream"
    enabled: true

HTTP JPEG Camera

cameras:
  - id: "garage"
    name: "Garage"
    protocol: "http"
    encoding: "jpeg"
    url: "http://192.168.1.102:8080/snapshot"
    enabled: true

ONVIF Camera

cameras:
  - id: "lobby"
    name: "Lobby"
    protocol: "onvif"
    url: "http://192.168.1.104:80/onvif/device_service"
    username: "admin"
    password: "camera123"
    enabled: true

ONVIF auto-detects the encoding. The encoding field can be omitted.

Using the Old Combined Format

All of these still work:

cameras:
  - id: "cam1"
    name: "Legacy Cam"
    protocol: "rtsp_h264"
    url: "rtsp://192.168.1.100:554/stream"
    enabled: true

After editing the config, restart MiBee NVR or use the Web UI to add cameras at runtime.

Accessing MiBee NVR

Web UI

Open http://your-server:9090 and log in with your configured credentials. From the Web UI you can:

• View live camera streams (HLS)
• Play back and download recordings
• Add, edit, and remove cameras
• View storage statistics and trends
• Configure settings

WebDAV

WebDAV is available at /dav/ (enabled by default, read-only by default):

curl -u admin:password http://your-server:9090/dav/

Mount in a file manager: davs://your-server:9090/dav/

To enable read-write access, set webdav.read_write: true in config.

FTP

FTP is available on port 2121 (enabled by default):

ftp your-server 2121
# Username: admin
# Password: (your password)

Common Issues

Service won't start

• Check config file syntax: cat mibee-nvr.yaml
• Verify the data directory exists and is writable: ls -la /var/lib/mibee-nvr/
• Check logs: journalctl -u mibee-nvr -f

Permission errors

• The install.sh script creates a nvr system user. Make sure the data directory is owned by it: sudo chown -R nvr:nvr /var/lib/mibee-nvr/

Port conflicts

• Default port is 9090. If it's in use, change server.listen in config (e.g. ":8080")

Can't connect to camera

• Verify the camera URL works with VLC or ffplay: ffplay rtsp://192.168.1.100:554/stream
• Check network connectivity: ping 192.168.1.100
• Ensure camera credentials are correct
• Check if the camera requires a specific sub-stream URL for H.265

High memory usage on Raspberry Pi

• Reduce segment_duration to 30s (default). Longer durations hold more data in RAM.
• The RPi 3B has ~900MB RAM. With 4 cameras at 30s segments, expect ~300MB stable usage.