Camera brands/models that allows accessing video stream from browser (no plugins)

Artanis

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Hello, guys!

Long story short - for over 12+ years I have been using some prehistoric Vivotec brand IP camera at my apartment door, and the feature I was most satisfied with was the possibility to access the video stream directly via the URL link !http://user:pass@myip:port/video.mjpg. No stupid plugins, no software to install, it was compatible with any browser under the sun, accessible from phone, from VLC player, from any home assitant software, had to have only a single port forwarding in the router firewall - it was PERFECT for what I needed, the only thing I wanted to improve upon was the low-light video quality.

So yesterday I decided to buy a brand new Hikvision IP camera. I installed it, connected to Hik-connect app, checked the image quality through the mobile app, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. However - once I wanted to check the camera feed from my Chrome browser, I was unpleasantly surprised to see the popup saying that I need to install a plugin (called Native LocalWebComponents) to view the live feed. Even more dissapointed I was discovering that even after the plugin installation camera shows primary stream video feed only in my local network, but NOT from external WAN (side note - all ports, 80/445/8000, forwarded correctly, even tried UPnP as a last resort). Now I'm back to square one - I was forced to fall back to the secondary MJPG stream of my new camera, but the quality is the same or even WORSE than my 12 year old Vivotek. What the f*&$ garbage is this?!

After some hour spent on google it seems that there are SOME models from Hikvision and some other brands that has an actual, plugin-free ability to access the primary high-quality video stream without installing any garbage plugins. But even for those models information is contradictory. Furthermore - I find it ridiculos, that technology, camera sensor and video compression quality have advanced so much in the past decade, but actual USABILITY of these cameras have only gotten WORSE!

"Too long, didn't read" summary of my question:
Please suggest me an IP camera that simply allows me to pass the login credentials and access the primary video stream with a simple URL, directly to the video stream from a web browser. Without having to log in to the camera UI, wihtout having to install stupid plugins, compatible with all OS and all browsers.

Many thanks in advance, cheers
 
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alastairstevenson

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I was unpleasantly surprised to see the popup saying that I need to install a plugin (called Native LocalWebComponents) to view the live feed.
What is the (unspecified) camera model and firmware version?
It's some years since current-model Hikvision cameras needed the Webcomponents plugin.

NOT from external WAN (side note - all ports, 80/445/8000, forwarded correctly,
You presumably know this is a risky configuration - letting the entire internet in to the camera and all it's vulnerabilities.
Many, many posts on why it's not advised.
Check this out :
 

kd4e

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I was testing an older Hikvision camera and experienced the same problem. (I'm a Linux guy so I asked MS guy.)

He said that some devices, including older Hikvison cameras, expected to see the older IE browser. The Hikvision api was less secure than now.

Modern browsers intentionally block those vulnerable api's.

He installed "ie tab helper" from Blackfish Software - which, apparently, gets Edge (and maybe other browsers) to play nicely with the camera.

I wanted this for the purpose of testing the camera and it worked.
 
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