Request input from users on MJPEG streaming features for IpCamera binding

[matt1 (Skinah)]

Tonight I successfully added some proxy server code to the IpCamera binding and can now stream video from my cameras to Habpanel. It will work for any camera that can send MJPEG http streams and the same code will open up future features like RTSP and FFMPEG conversions as a server is needed to feed these streams back to Openhabs features. Unlike the method that I posted in the following thread, the binding will work on all platforms and not just linux.

How to display RTSP streams from IP Cameras in Openhab and Habpanel (Linux only)

Update: The IpCamera binding can now create mjpeg streams for cameras which do not have this ability normally. The below is not needed if you use the binding to do it for you. Tonight whilst playing with ffmpeg and ffserver I found the following way to use them to get working RTSP streams in Openhab and Habpanel. This only works in Linux as ffserver is not available on the other platforms although ffmpeg itself is. This can be improved to have this auto start very easily, but this method is ha…

Looking for feature and UI control ideas on how this should be presented to allow maximum flexibility and easy setup. If you have an idea or feedback on this idea before I clean up the code and implement the controls that would be great…

Extra binding setup:

• SERVER_PORT (each camera will need a unique and unused port) Example would be ‘5700’
• STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE To allow any url to be specified or can be left blank for cameras that auto detect the right url.
• IP_WHITELIST The proxy will refuse to serve the stream to requests not on the whitelist because the proxy removes authentication. Binding will list a WARN when a request is blocked so you know the IP and can enter it if you wish.
• ONVIF_MEDIA_PROFILE This selects the substream number usually this is a value of 1 with 0 being the mainstream which usually can not be MJPEG format. If you have ONVIF setup you will get some warnings if you have selected a non valid stream.

Channels the binding has for streaming:

• streamUrl Is a string of the proxied url you can use anywhere in Openhab/Habpanel. Example is ‘http://192.168.0.4:5700/ipcamera.mjpeg’

Additional features? Some examples…

A switch to turn the stream OFF and ON. ON is actually auto as when the stream is not being used the network traffic stops.

Ability to display a static picture when the stream is turned off by changing the streamUrl string to be a picture link, could be used to display a nice error icon or even a picture of the camera feed just before it was turned off.