RasPipC - Cameras on your TV made Easy.

[nayr]

raspIPC.tv - Cameras on your TV made Easy.

Goal: Easily display security cameras on a dedicated monitor/tv managed remotely via simple and modern WebUI.
Status: Under Development, WebUI 95% Complete
Releases: None Yet, beta later this week.

Homepage: http://raspipc.tv
UI Demo: http://demo.raspipc.tv
Source Code: http://github.raspipc.tv

Required Hardware (USD):

• Raspberry Pi2+ ($36 w/out case or psu)
• 16GB+ (64G Max) MicroSD (Samsung Pro Suggested @ $16)
• HDMI Cable (or HDMI to DVI adapter for a monitor w/out HDMI)
• H264/MJPEG Video Cameras with a stream tha'll play in VLC
• Wired Ethernet Cable
• TV or Monitor to display on, 1080p or better suggested.

More:
Dedicated Displays are a vital key to a successful Camera system, nothing is worse than having something stolen right out from under your nose, despite the presence of your cameras. Dedicating a display or having the ability to view your cameras throughout the house will dramatically increase your property's security.

I created this project so anyone can use it, yes it uses Linux but you wont ever have to touch a command line.. unless of course you want to. Releases will be distributed as firmware images that you simply burn to the memory card and go.

This project is for you if you:

• want full FPS displays on some or all ofyour TV's
• dedicate a spare monitor for viewing your cameras
• want to display cameras as reactions to Home Automation/Alarm events
• need something so simple your mother could figure it out w/out instruction :laugh:

 

[nayr]

I see several people hit the demo, I take it no major issues? I need a lil bit of feedback from IE and Edge users as I have done zero testing with em.

FYI: The demo is actually running on a Raspberry Pi2 so thats the kinda performance you can expect, or better since it will be local.

 

[hiky]

concept and idea i like nayr but am confused as to what or how you connect the monitor to ?? sounds like a stupid question but you are designing i am just a reader

and then i realise its a Pi thingy, not something i have ever looked at tbh, i prefer the hdmi over coax way of doing things

 

[nayr]

Good question, I should clarify.. the WebUI is so you can manage the monitor remotely with a browser, this way you dont have to have a keyboard/mouse plugged into it to manage it.

Using a RaspberryPi as the base will transfer data over switched ethernet, so no need for HDMI over ethernet or coax or any of that stuff.. its extremely power efficient and was chosen specifically for its hardware video decoders, and ubiquitous availability/affordability.

The RPI could also do wireless, but I would not recommend it.. wont have the throughput or latency you'll want.. however, if its just a pair of low resolution cams it would probably work fine.

I am also going to be adding an API so you can change the display with URL Commands, so for example you could have BlueIris send a command to RasPipC to change the camera display based upon motion activity.

 

[cball]

Hi Ry. (see I even tested your about-site)

I tested on Windows7 with Firefox 44 and IE 11.
Everything looked good - I couldn't find any errors so far. I was able to delete, to create or change cams.

With my iPad and Safari I wasn' able to change camera settings - the menue doesn't even open. I imagine, its because of the missing Java on the iPad. All other functions working - even deleting and creating cams (without the settings menue).

edited: Maybe you what to catch those devices before and give a warning.

When I make the browser smaller I get a pretty weak wordwrap with the cams:


Maybe you find a way to improve.

Great work and look forward to be able to a first test on my own raspberry.

 

[nayr]

excellent, thanks for the feedback.. thats the kinda testing I need to get done before the release.. didnt even occur to me to grab my wife's ipad and try it, but I can see that being a popular way to manage it.. so I will get it working.

the entire thing is written in JavaScript, so if any of it worked then it should all work.

and yes on my ToDo list is a confirmation dialog so you dont accidentally delete cameras your trying to edit.. it will also be displayed when you go to apply the settings to the screen.. that square icon to the right will be the apply to screen button. When you press it it'll ask "Are you sure you want to change the display?" then it'll take whatever page your on, calculate the display grid and push it to the screen.. it may take a few moments for the feeds to change, substreams actually switch quite quickly and have very low latency... the HD full resolution streams can take an extra second or so to load and that results in a bit more latency.

Cameras are loaded in a priority list, if a stream is offline or errors out it will simply move onto the next camera and then try that one again in a few mins... you can change priority by dragging them on the ipcamera window.

Eventully those generic camera images will be replaced with either a jpeg from the camera directly or one you can capture and upload your self, dont know if it'll make it into the first release or not.. Ive also been trying to play with having the streams embeded via VLC plugin, so far tests have been good but there are some display bugs that will be hard to squash.

 

[cball]

1. Then I would suggest a multilingual app because espacially when it's supposed to get used in security-businesses, these people are in non english speeking countries not very good at it.
2. I suggest to explane the buttons (especially the two in the right) with a mouseover explanation.
3. I'm missing, how I can change the cameras in the different views. How can I change from cam1 to cam2 when I have the 1 Cam view only?
4. I'm glad you think about switching to vlc. I have problems with the omxplayer with my cheap Chinacams

 

[nayr]

1 & 2 - already looking into it.. everything is different with AngularJS, this is my first foray with it and its a complicated beast.
3 - change camera order on camera page, just drag and drop.. i guess I need some instruction on that page indicating that is possible.
4 - vlc-plugin for browsers, vlc wont play streams with hardware decoding.. it would be so you could view your streams through the browser too.
4b - I have a patched version of omxplayer that disables UDP support (its the default) and works so much better, no tearing at all.
4c - no promises with cheap china cams, as always YMMV.. if it plays well in VLC it SHOULD play well in omxplayer via TCP.. both use ffmpeg backend. omxplayer just interfaces ffmpeg with the rpi hardware decoders.

 

[cball]

3 - I found out myself a few minutes ago - but not self explaining... you need multilingual...
4b. - well then I'm awaiting the new version. I followed the instruction from the other threat and now I have trouble with my two HRX-IM3101-P1 which I had just get running with enabling sound (weird!).

I' so happy that you also have included cgi - so I can still use my 12 year old cams

 

[nayr]

4b. ahh the sound issue, omxplayer needs a --no-audio switch.. I may have to implement this my self so you dont have to disable audio streams on your cams.. you just wont get sound on the monitor if you cant find a compatible encoding type.

I havent tested it but it should work with MJPG via CGI, omxplayer will play MJPG or H264 files off HTTP/RSTP and even FTP.. It'll even do MPEG-2 and VC-1 if you buy a license for it.

$ for codec in H264 MPG2 WVC1 MPG4 MJPG WMV9 ; do echo -e "$codec:\t$(vcgencmd codec_enabled $codec)" ; done
H264:    H264=enabled
MPG2:    MPG2=disabled
WVC1:    WVC1=disabled
MPG4:    MPG4=enabled
MJPG:    MJPG=enabled
WMV9:    WMV9=disabled

If you have an old MPEG2 camera then you'll need this to unlock the hardware decoder (~$3.50USD): http://www.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/

 

[nayr]

@cball you got some time to play with your cheap china cams and omxplayer for me?

turn audio back on and see if the following works on your cameras, reading through the code this looks like it will disable audio on a feed!
omxplayer --aidx -1


​if you find success I am adding a new option on configuration page to disable audio incase of problems.

 

[Travieso]

I Can't see the stream of the cameras i tried to refresh and no image was coming up

Also Where are you guys buying your Raspberry pi from?

What Operating system is PI Running to be able to run your application?

I haven't found away to allow my father in law to stream my cameras over his TV in his room, He's 75Years old and we've tried the Tablet and it was to complicated for him not to mentioned he would forget to turn off the Ivms Application and it would eat up my bandwidth, not that I have a cap but I don't want to piss off my ISP and make them put a cap on me. Would your Application perhaps maybe cut off like a certain time like what Pandora does when your streaming for a while it will actually tell you if you are still there? and if you don't hit yes it automatically turns off. This would be a awesome feature.

By the way I think this is great my hats off to you sir.

 

[nayr]

WebUI does not show streams.. not yet anyhow, thats not the goal.. just a nice to have.. I am planing at first to just show you a still image off the camera to simulate what the TV should show.

I will provide a preconfigured Raspbian minimal image that will request a DHCP address, display the IP on the screen and be ready to roll once you burn it to the sd card.. I'll also build an installer script for those people who have an existing system and dont want to reflash.

You need to display remote cameras in you father in laws room? Why would your ISP cap have to do with his bedroom? I am missing something.

infact its designed to do the opposite and keep trying failed streams until they come back... I am planing on adding a relay option so you can plug the monitor/tv into a smart switch and turn it on/off, i want to hook up a real motion sensor so when someone goes into the mudroom the monitor turns on... but when the monitor is off it'll still be streaming the videos.

ps: if your paying for internet, use it.. Ive always abused my providers and never caught any grief.

 

[Travieso]

WebUI does not show streams.. not yet anyhow, thats not the goal.. just a nice to have.. I am planing at first to just show you a still image off the camera to simulate what the TV should show.

I will provide a preconfigured Raspbian minimal image that will request a DHCP address, display the IP on the screen and be ready to roll once you burn it to the sd card.. I'll also build an installer script for those people who have an existing system and dont want to reflash.

You need to display remote cameras in you father in laws room? Why would your ISP cap have to do with his bedroom? I am missing something.

infact its designed to do the opposite and keep trying failed streams until they come back... I am planing on adding a relay option so you can plug the monitor/tv into a smart switch and turn it on/off, i want to hook up a real motion sensor so when someone goes into the mudroom the monitor turns on... but when the monitor is off it'll still be streaming the videos.

ps: if your paying for internet, use it.. Ive always abused my providers and never caught any grief.

Your last statement got me there, I guess I never thought about it this way, You're absolute right about me paying for internet.

Comcast Note: Enforcement of the 250GB data consumption threshold is currently suspended.

as you may know or not know in some places Comcast does cap their Customers to a 250 GB a month, This is why I mentioned that.

Since we are on the subject of Remotely Streaming Live Footage to my father in laws room what would be the easiest solution to a very non techy person?

I could perhaps run a cat5e cable to his room that wouldn't be a problem all I would have to do is crawl on the attic. I have to set up 2 other cameras so Im thinking of going up there anyways.

 

[ruppmeister]

@nayr Here is what I have for the camera layout icons. They were made in 16x16 sets, but are vector so they will scale beautifully. Just let me know if you want this to be in a single image sprite or individual svg icons.



Edit: looks I had forgotten one of the variants... added it now.

 

[nayr]

@Travieso, I am on a business plan with no transfer caps.. I go through 250GB in a couple days if I am not trying very hard.. but that kinda happens when u host pi's at home for everyone to abuse

This wont use your dataplan if your father in law lives with you, it all transits the local network.. you only using dataplan if your sending the video out to a remote monitor.. keep it on the local network and its free.. if you can run an ethernet cable into his room and have a spare HDMI port on his tv your set, all he'll have to do is change the inputs to see the cams.. he can handle that right?

@ruppmeister, those are perfect.. thank you! I am not a gfx guy, downloaded inkscape and went back to coding when I realized my time would be better spent there i'll add yeh to the about page, cheers

this project hit a major speed bump tonight: March Madness go Shockers! (my alma)

 

[ruppmeister]

@nayr Here is a zip with the Illustrator raw images plus an svg image file for each of the icons. Let me know if you need something different to work easier for you.

View attachment RasPipC_Icons.zip

 

[AtlantaPesto]

Nayr - I really appreciate all the effort you're putting into this. Its' definitely something I can see using on a small screen on the back of my front door.

I did a little bit of testing with Edge 25.10586.0.0, all was well; Add/Remove Cams, Shuffle Order, change display modes. There was some minor futzing with the top as screen size shrunk, but everything else was very workable - and this is on a relatively low res screen (Carbon X-1 first gen, 1600x900).

I can't see it being an issue for laptop/tablet users, but possibly if someone tries to use a smartphone. You can see it worked to a point, stacking the camera profiles in two neat rows, then it went vertical at a certain size.

Questions -

1. This is meant to be a realtime viewing solution only with only one display, correct? I ask because I would love to put a display in my home office, and small one on the back of the front door.

2. Is there a way for this to work alongside a recording/archiving tool (BI, Milestone, Synology)?

Thanks so much,

Chris

 

[nayr]

yeah I am not sure the UI is going to be workable on mobiles, might just have to scale it down.. I could make a small screen version of that.

The web interface is NOT designed to be a display its self.. just a mockup of what the display will be. Right now you can accomplish all those layouts manually via command line by calculating all the coordinates and firing off omxplayer.. this is just a frontend to make all that quick and easy so you dont have to touch the command line its a browser app.

If this shows you a view of your cameras that will just be a nice side effect, its not the mission or the objective.. it could be doable, but its not been scoped out fully.. just experimented with.

1. exactly, if you have more than one display you can simply build another Pi and hook it in.. If you have a NVR that gives out feeds and you pull it from that its nearly limitless the number you could run. The price point for a Pi+SD card are likely lower than even the cost of a single long HDMI cable.

I could possibly add a feature in the future to sync configs in a master/slave mode, so if you have more than one display you can update them all with one UI.. it would be pretty simple actually at this point.

2. Not implemented yet but I plan on having a documented external API that uses http get commands, you can use these with scripting on any platform that will expose that.. ie, On Motion Goto URL: http://raspipc.host/api/fullScreen/camera/1 and then another command to put it back to normal display after a timeout. This was a major point in creating this project, so you can tie your displays into automation/alarm systems without all the fuss.

PS: if you want a smaller display there are a ton of options that could be good for a couple cams, touchscreen wont be usefull: http://www.amazon.com/Uniker-Raspbe...srs=11723136011&ie=UTF8&qid=1458105178&sr=8-2

 

[cball]

@cball you got some time to play with your cheap china cams and omxplayer for me?

turn audio back on and see if the following works on your cameras, reading through the code this looks like it will disable audio on a feed!
omxplayer --aidx -1

​if you find success I am adding a new option on configuration page to disable audio incase of problems.

Sorry Nayr.
Different timezone - I live in Germany and it was night.
I'll try to test tonight, when I'm back from the Office.