The easiest way for many devices is ONVIF

In Shinobi you can see in the left side menu and click ONVIF Scanner. (if you are on Dashboard v2 : Click your username then ONVIF)

Once the scanner is open you can leave the IP Address blank as well as the Port. This will make it so the IP Address range that the Shinobi server is currently on will be scanned. Leaving the Port blank will attempt to check these ports 80,8080,8000,7575,8081,9080,8090,8999,8899.

The username and password should be set as what is used on the camera(s) or NVR to login.

No ONVIF?

This may be more difficult. It will require a little searching the web. The way to go about it is by getting the following information.

  • Brand Name
  • Model Number

With these you can form a search similar to this

Reolink 520 Stream URL

and the first Google search result for me was https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007010473-How-to-Live-View-Reolink-Cameras-via-VLC-Media-Player perfect. This gave me

  • Main Stream : rtsp://admin:password@ip_address:554//h264Preview_01_main
  • Sub Stream : rtsp://admin:password@ip_address:554//h264Preview_01_sub

This URL is generally sent over RTSP, HTTP or RTMP protocols (notice the prefix of the URLs).

However for Reolink use the RTMP URL instead (not mentioned in that link). More about that here.

rtmp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@CAMERA_IP/bcs/channel0_main.bcs?token=sdasdasd&channel=0&stream=0&user=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD 

More details about finding a camera without ONVIF here.

What about NVRs?

NVR that can output to third-party software generally behave much like an IP Camera also. They may not have ONVIF compliance but you may be able to find a Stream URL online.

A Tragic Truth

Some cameras and NVRs do not allow third-party connections. They are usually labelled as P2P devices. You'll probably need to use their downloaded applications and a connection to their servers to make use of the device. Sadly, these devices cannot be used with Shinobi unless they are modified or provide the option to enable RTSP or RTMP.

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