Hi Guys
How difficult would it be to dev a plugin that would allow you to connect to local wireless IP cameras?
It would be a basic mpeg video stream with audio.
We could have a launch screen with all the cameras showing with no sound and the option to D pad to the stream you want to enlarge to full screen with audio.
Thoughts?
What about writing a .strm file that would point to the IP address of the camera, would that work?
That could work, although it really depends on what kind of videostream comes out of the camera device.
You can select either a mpeg or mjpg stream.
Plex can handle both mpeg and mjpeg, so a .strm file with an url to your videostream will probably work fine!
Now the hard part is getting the stream to show 4 cameras in quadrants and then having the ability to D over to the stream you want to watch full screen.
Can that be done with a strm file or is that more a plugin requirement?
Thanks for your help.
Sorry, neither plugins nor strm files have the ability to display a grid with (live) previews 
Interested in this too - http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/12214-ip-cctv-viewer-plugin
Thanks
M.
Is it possible to add a shortcut to the folder with the strm files in it from the home menu?
Okay, there must be something wrong with the strm format. After trying multiple configs to get the strm file to play I thought I should see if I can even get a youtube video to stream.
I can’t.
So maybe it’s not the video stream after all, but how the file is supposed to be written.
I even tried the test file from the tool section with a youtube URL that works - no luck.
Any ideas guys?
Thanks
Hi!
I just checked and it turns out that the example from the [STRM tool](http://dev.plexapp.com/tools/strmtool.php) on the dev site isn't very helpful as there isn't a Site Config file for YouTube videos present in Plex.
.strm files work:[list]
[*]if there is a Site Config file present in Plex. If that is the case you can use a link to the webpage containing the video;
[*]if you create your own [Site Config](http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/Configs.html) for the source webpage/website and place this file in *~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Site Configurations*;
[*]if you link directly to the video file (http...../video.flv for example)[/list]
(Site Configs work with Flash and Silverlight based content)
If it is a basic MJPG video stream. Do you need a site file?
I don’t have the coding skills to build a proper site file but if someone could help me out i can provide all of the information if required.
Thanks
If you have direct access to the (mjpeg) stream, you do not need a Site Config. In [another topic](http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/14018-add-login-and-password-to-strm-file) on this forum you mentioned http://192.168.0.43:6060/live.htm as an address. That can't be used, you have to find the video source. Look at the source of that live.htm webpage and see if you can find it.
Closer
I inspected the page and found /videostream.cgi to be the source.
I tried the plex tools version:
plex://localhost/video/:/webkit?url=http%3A%2F%2F192.168.0.43%3A6060%2Fvideostream.cgi
And got and error opening the file.
But…
I tried a direct URL:
http://192.168.0.43:6060/videostream.cgi
and got “Could not read from input stream” error - which is new.
Can you post the source of that webpage (…/live.htm) on pastebin and tell us what brand and type of cam this is? Also, if videostream.cgi really outputs a video stream, can you try opening http://192.168.0.43:6060/videostream.cgi with VLC (File > Open Network…) or any other videoplayer and check if it’ll display the stream?
I can open it with VLC without problem and it stream fine.
It is a Foscam IP camera
http://foscam.us/product_info.php?products_id=42&osCsid=3b1f52a12bc4bdcb060a4afc30802962
Could it be a Plex issue with the negotiation of the login/password to the camera?
I used:
http://login:password@192.168.0.43:6060/videostream.cgi
to access the stream using VLC - which worked perfectly.
Paste BIn
http://pastebin.com/pLGWdYBW
Ok, I checked out a demo on the Foscam website. It turns out that this ‘live’ page isn’t displaying a video stream at all: it’s just one image that is being refreshed by a Javascript…
Whoops, .strm files that link directly to a video file or stream (and not to a Flash or Silverlight based webplayer that’s using a Site Config) shouldn’t be using the plex:// webkit notation like this:
plex://localhost/video/:/webkit?url=http%3A%2F%2F192.168.0.43%3A6060%2Fvideostream.cgi
Instead the .strm file should just contain the link to the video file or stream:
http://192.168.0.43:6060/videostream.cgi
In this case this still doesn't work, most likely due to the fact that the stream is actually a bunch of JPEG files that are handed to the browser or videoplayer each with a *multipart/x-mixed-replace* HTTP header. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_JPEG#IP_Cameras
So, MJPEG streams are not a compatible video format for plex?
Is there a way to use another player’s codec (or something like that) within Plex to display the video stream?
I really don't know. I think Plex (ffmpeg) can handle certain mjpeg files, just not this "streaming" format where every JPEG image in the sequence is preceded by a http header. But I'm really really really not sure about that.
