RTSP stands for Real Time Streaming Protocol. RTSP allows you to pull a live video stream from your camera and view it from different devices and programs.
Step 1. Find The RTSP Stream URL
For all H-Series cameras, this is the RTSP Stream URL:
rtsp://user:password@IPADDRESS/Streaming/Channels/1
After the two forward slashes the first word USER will be replaced with your username that you use to log into the camera followed by a colon. The second word PASSWORD will be replaced with the password you use to log into the camera.
Next, after the @ sign you will need to replace the word IPADDRESS with the Local IP you use to connect to your camera.
The last number in the H-Series RTSP URL can be set to either a 1 for main stream [high quality] or a 2 for sub stream [lower quality].
Step 2. Putting It All Together
For example, if we have an IP camera with a local IP address of 192.168.1.37 with a username set to admin and a password set to 1234567a and we would like to view the main stream then the corresponding URL would look like this: rtsp://admin:1234567a@192.168.1.37/Streaming/Channels/1
Step 3. Viewing On VLC Player
Now that we have the URL information we can test it out. For our guide we are using VLC Media Player
After installing VLC, go ahead and open it up and click "Media" in the upper left corner of the VLC window.
Then select the "Open Network Stream" option to pull up another window.
Lastly, we'll take our RTSP URL that we created above and copy / paste it in the window. Once you are done, click Play to begin streaming your IP camera.
After clicking on Play, You should see your camera!
