How to find your camera's RTSP URL when the manual is no help

[homeprimus-pa]

The camera's app shows video, the box says ONVIF, and the manual mentions RTSP. But the moment you try to add it to a recorder, you are guessing paths. You have the IP address and the password. What is supposed to go after them?

A typical RTSP address looks like this:

rtsp://user:pass@192.168.1.50:554/stream1

The IP identifies the device, 554 is the default RTSP port, and /stream1 selects the video stream. Replace user:pass with the camera's local credentials. The path is the part that varies between brands and sometimes between models of the same brand.

Some documented examples for cameras that support RTSP:

• Hikvision: /Streaming/channels/101
• Dahua: /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
• Reolink: /Preview_01_main
• Tapo: /stream1

Those numbers and words select what you receive. In the Hikvision format, 101 means channel 1's main stream and 102 its substream. In the Dahua format, subtype=0 is the main stream and subtype=1 the substream; channel selects the video channel on the device you are connecting to. Reolink uses main and sub, while Tapo uses stream1 and stream2. Cameras with multiple lenses can have additional paths, so check the documentation for your model.

A working address can still be the wrong one for recording. The substream may look fine in a small preview, but you won't recover the main stream's detail by enlarging that recording later.

Before trying variations, check the camera's settings and the manufacturer's instructions. Look for RTSP or ONVIF under network or integration settings. Local access may need enabling, and the RTSP port may have been changed from 554.

If the camera supports ONVIF, software can ask it for the stream addresses. Guardian Eye uses this during connection checking: select the discovered camera, enter its credentials and run the check. GE requests the available streams through ONVIF and uses the returned addresses to help establish the connection. You can also enter a known RTSP URL manually.

An empty scan doesn't necessarily mean the camera is incompatible. Automatic ONVIF discovery may not reach another subnet, even when a direct connection is possible. In GE you can enter the camera's IP manually, provided your computer can reach it.

Once you have an address, check what it actually opens. In VLC, choose Media, then Open Network Stream. For codec and resolution information, you can also use ffprobe:

ffprobe -rtsp_transport tcp "rtsp://user:pass@192.168.1.50:554/stream1"

Replace the example with your camera's address. Keep the URL in quotes, especially when it contains an ampersand, as Dahua URLs do. Check the video dimensions before leaving the recorder running.

If the path looks right but authentication fails, check which account the camera expects. Tapo requires a separate Camera Account for RTSP and ONVIF; your TP-Link cloud login won't work there. When you put credentials inside a URL, reserved characters also need encoding: @ becomes %40 and # becomes %23 in the password. That changes how the password is written in the URL, not the password on the camera.

When it finally plays, save the working address and label it main stream or substream. After a reset or when changing recorders, you will know which address you used and what it was recording.