Arlo (and Arlo Pro) RTSP Streams?

Devices & Integrations
1

Hello, I am having a bit of nest nostalgia as I test the Arlo/Arlo Pro system - I have painlessly integrated the officially supported Arlo integration, looking at the device console, I see that using what I assume is netter’s API it generates a RTSP URL if you choose to live stream an individual camera.

what I am looking to do is based on ST events (as an example) is enable live streaming and send myself the url so I can quickly see what’s on the camera - vs. going manually into ST/arlo app finding the camera and hitting live button

Out of ignorance is the source code for the official integration available somewhere ? or does anybody know of a way to leverage this capability using a different device handler or smart app.

thanks

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2

RTSP support is definitely “in the cards” for ActionTiles… no idea what time frame, though.

Our Media Tile (video tile) is very popular, but is still very basic and only supports MJPEG for streaming. Now that browsers are starting to add RTSP natively (right?), that may be our ticket to glory on this one.

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Not exactly what you are looking for, but I run a python script to pull down the last stils from my arlo cameras and then display these in actiontiles

You can also pull down the last recorded footage as mp4s but I dont think actiontiles supports pointing at a url to a video

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4

I’ll take it! thanks

5

No … we don’t (maybe someday)…

But the concept of “on the fly” transcoding of live streaming video is technically possible. The output has to be a stream though … and currently a “browser native <img> compatible stream” … i.e., .mjpg.

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This is pretty awesome, Daniel! I’ll give it a shot this weekend if life doesn’t get in the way. I would think streaming would kill the battery life quickly anyways.

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7

Anyone had success with this? I own both Arlo and Arlo Pro but can’t seem to complete the setup.

8

as as side note, I tried to use “last snapshot” with action tiles, alas it seems that arlo expires them after a day on the s3 side (or at least the authentication) closest I’ve gotten is trigger via stringify where cameras record a 10 second clip (so the screenshot is updated on the arlo side, email them(and update the app and website) and then record a 2 minute video, hardly ideal but there it is

PS I tried to use arlo with SHM and it was very very buggy, but the idea is neat, when there was an incident it did indeed embed a direct link to the cameras in the event log of the incident scrolling through - was insanely inconsistent however in terms of working correctly

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If we could find a big enough marker for folks willing to pay for a storage service, we might build one. Alas, the problem wouldn’t be entirely in out hands, as Arlo (etc.) would eventually block our service.

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bottom line is for whatever reason (I imagine the support overhead / monies) arlo currently limits the API to “partners” which as far as I know is stringify,ifttt, Samsung etc.

quite frankly I was hoping there is some way to look at the code for the “DHT” that these “connect” official API connectors use but I guess those aren’t exposed in any way either.

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Correct. The Arlo Device Type Handler is proprietary closed source code.

The smart home industry is NOT “open”, despite the SmartThings propaganda. It’s open to forming partnerships if they are profitable.

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Hi, I created and maintain the (first and best?) Python Arlo library. It supports rtsp streaming. There is a method called GetStreamUrl() which returns the rtsps url that you can use with any popular streaming library of your choice (OpenCV, VLC, etc.).

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Hey Jeffrey,

This sounds really promising! Thanks for your efforts on this.

I have the battery version of the Arlo cameras, so an always on stream would drain the batteries quickly, but I’m wandering if its somehow possible to pull down the latest recorded video using your api and then present this media as a stream which we could then hook up with action tiles? Any ideas?

Thanks!

D

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Hi Daniel,

Yes, you can do that. Check out the sample code in the wiki and readme.
Specifically the GetLibrary, GetRecording, and StreamRecordingfunctions.

Jeff

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15

Hey Jeffrey,

I’ve been struggling to get this working.

Would you be able to post some sample code that exposes an rtsp stream? I think this would be really beneficial for others who have Arlo cameras and use actiontiles?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,

D

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16

This is the code I use…

I have two Arlo Pros and one Arlo

This script is configured to run every 10 mins and then actiontiles points at the .jpgs its pulled down

Note that its a good idea to create another account within the arlo app as you will get kicked out of the app when the script runs if you are using the same account.

#!/usr/bin/python
#connecting
from pyarlo import PyArlo
arlo = PyArlo(‘username’, ‘password’)

#listing all cameras
arlo.cameras

#showing camera preferences
cam = arlo.cameras[0]
cam.last_video.download_thumbnail(’/var/www/html/arlo/output1.jpg’)

cam = arlo.cameras[1]
cam.last_video.download_thumbnail(’/var/www/html/arlo/output2.jpg’)

cam = arlo.cameras[2]
cam.last_video.download_thumbnail(’/var/www/html/arlo/output3.jpg’)

=====

I used the same python interface to download the last recorded mp4 file, but not yet found a solution to display this in actiontiles.

2 Likes
17

Could you use IFTTT or this script to upload to a specific folder in Dropbox that is syncd to a computer that is on 24/7 (using the python script). Then have actiontiles pull in the newest video?

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18

Probably could… but I’m not sure that it’s really worth it given the amount of lag that would result.

If an Arlo motion detection goes off, not only does a customer want to see what triggered it, they’d also like to see what the current live situation is.

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Yes the delay would be an issue.

The way I see it, between my phone, watch, PC I have multiple ways to get updated in real time. A mounted tablet with AT wouldn’t be the first line of defense it would be more of a summary. Like what happened over night. Nothing immediate but more of a recap.

The push notifications from webCore, Arlo and ST would be enough for me to check my phone.

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20

Did anyone ever manage to capture the video stream url in a format that ActionTiles can use? I’m still just displaying the last image captured - but it would be great to be able to display the last recorded video!

Cheers,

D

1 Like