{"title":"","byline":"Written by Tim Moody","dir":null,"lang":null,"content":"

Transform Your WebCam into an IP Camera (for Frigate)

\"Tim

\"\"
Frigate Mission Control Center Performing “Person Detection”
Full Video Tutorial from @DataSlayerMedia

One of the configuration inputs for frigate is a valid RTSP stream URL. Unfortunately off-the-shelf web cams don’t generate RTSP streams so if we want to use a web cam with our Frigate system we’ll have to generate a valid stream for the service to hook into.

Download RTSP Simple Server

Download the library.

wget https://github.com/aler9/rtsp-simple-server/releases/download/v0.16.0/rtsp-simple-server_v0.16.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz

Extract the zip.

tar -xzvf rtsp-simple-server_v0.16.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz

Get your machine’s ip address to expose the server on.

hostname -I

Run the server exposing the service on your local ip address and port 554. You can theoretically chose another port if needed and it should work so long as it’s not already in use.

RTSP_RTSPADDRESS=192.168.X.X:554 ./rtsp-simple-server
\"\"
RTSP Server listening on port 554

So now we have an RTSP server but we need to direct our webcam output to the server.

Leaving the above server running. Execute the following command.

sudo ffmpeg -f v4l2 -framerate 25 -video_size 640x480 -i /dev/video0 -f rtsp -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://192.168.XXX.XXX:554/mystream

You can tweak these settings like framerate and others.

The server should acknowledge the stream.

\"\"

We now have a valid RTSP stream routing our web cam feed into.

To utilize this stream in frigate we can configure the config.yml file to generate a camera entity with this URL.

\"\"
Frigate config.yml referencing our RTSP stream.

Start your frigate instance.

\"\"
Frigate Running from a generic webcam

Voila!

Final Thoughts

I’m always happy to answer questions or discuss ideas proposed in my articles. So don’t hesitate to reach out to me! 🙌 Also, make sure to subscribe or follow to not miss out on new articles.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DataSlayerMedia

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DataSlayer374

GitHub: https://github.com/dataslayermedia

","textContent":"Transform Your WebCam into an IP Camera (for Frigate)Frigate Mission Control Center Performing “Person Detection”Full Video Tutorial from @DataSlayerMediaOne of the configuration inputs for frigate is a valid RTSP stream URL. Unfortunately off-the-shelf web cams don’t generate RTSP streams so if we want to use a web cam with our Frigate system we’ll have to generate a valid stream for the service to hook into.Download RTSP Simple ServerDownload the library.wget https://github.com/aler9/rtsp-simple-server/releases/download/v0.16.0/rtsp-simple-server_v0.16.0_linux_amd64.tar.gzExtract the zip.tar -xzvf rtsp-simple-server_v0.16.0_linux_amd64.tar.gzGet your machine’s ip address to expose the server on.hostname -IRun the server exposing the service on your local ip address and port 554. You can theoretically chose another port if needed and it should work so long as it’s not already in use.RTSP_RTSPADDRESS=192.168.X.X:554 ./rtsp-simple-serverRTSP Server listening on port 554So now we have an RTSP server but we need to direct our webcam output to the server.Leaving the above server running. Execute the following command.sudo ffmpeg -f v4l2 -framerate 25 -video_size 640x480 -i /dev/video0 -f rtsp -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://192.168.XXX.XXX:554/mystreamYou can tweak these settings like framerate and others.The server should acknowledge the stream.We now have a valid RTSP stream routing our web cam feed into.To utilize this stream in frigate we can configure the config.yml file to generate a camera entity with this URL.Frigate config.yml referencing our RTSP stream.Start your frigate instance.Frigate Running from a generic webcamVoila!Final ThoughtsI’m always happy to answer questions or discuss ideas proposed in my articles. So don’t hesitate to reach out to me! 🙌 Also, make sure to subscribe or follow to not miss out on new articles.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DataSlayerMediaPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/DataSlayer374GitHub: https://github.com/dataslayermedia","length":1994,"excerpt":"","siteName":null}