Add ReadyView cameras to HomeKit via Homebridge

lydian

I like the cameras and recording of the ReadyView NVR, but the iPhone app is not great, and the iPad app doesn't work at all. I hate to abandon the hardware so...

I added the cameras to HomeKit using HomeBridge running on a Raspberry Pi 4. Info on setting up HomeBridge is available at homebridge.io and you need the homebridge-camera-ui plug-in to stream the cameras.

You do need a HomeKit hub (I use an AppleTV). Info on setting up such a hub is available via Apple.

Here's the overview:
The ReadyView NVR exposes the RTSP streams to the LAN over IP:
rtsp://<ip>:<port>/unicast/c<channel>/s<stream>/live

Replace <ip> with the IP address of your ReadyView NVR, and the port is typically 554.
<channel> is the camera number (1-8) and <stream> is 0 for primary, and 1 for sub stream.

Something like - rtsp://192.168.0.11:554/unicast/c1/s0/live
You can test access by streaming to VLC over your local network. Use your ReadyView IP address of course. If you've set a password for your NVR you'll need to enter admin as the user name and your password to start the stream.

The trick to getting the streams into HomeKit: the cameras must be set to H.264 as the codec and 1080p30 for the resolution. You change those settings in the web portal of the ReadyView NVR.

The other thing to note is that if you've set a password for the NVR, you'll need to add that to the URL you use for the homebridge-camera-ui plug-in. For example:
rtsp://<name>:<password>@<ip>:<port>/unicast/c<channel>/s<stream>/live
Where <name> is admin and <password> is your NVR password, separated by a colon and followed by an @ as shown above.

Obviously setting all this up correctly is not a trivial undertaking, but it's not hard, and it really requires very little change to your existing setup. The ReadyView NVR continues to record to its internal HDD, and the cameras are powered through PoE on the NVR. It is fantastic to be able to view the cameras on my big screen on AppleTV, and on my iPad, MacBook, or iPhone through the Home app. And it works across the internet too!

I hope this helps someone get a jump on connecting the WD cameras to HomeKit.

PaulL

@lydian Awesome stuff here! This will for sure help some people in the future if they are willing to take on the DIY aspect of it. Going to bookmark this myself as we have quite a few customers who don't want to just dump their ReadyView system.