Issue with viewing camera live stream with browsers on MacBook

[LAdude54]

I set up my NVR and camera by using the NVR’s interface (with an attached mouse and TV). It’s also connected to my Xfinity gateway via ethernet. Using my MacBook over WIFI, I can access the NVR’s WEB browser interface and view the live image with no problem, using the Main Stream HD video. If I try to access the camera directly (either by clicking on the “e” icon in the camera list or by typing the camera’s IP address in the address bar), the live image displays but blacks out every several seconds before reappearing. I discovered that if I change the video from Main Stream to Sub Stream 1, it no longer blacks out, but of course the video quality is less.

I get the same result whether I’m using Safari, Chrome, Brave or Pale Moon.

I also have VMWare Fusion Windows emulator on my MacBook and tried different browsers there with the same result.

I also have an ancient laptop running Windows 10. I can access the camera’s WEB interface using different browsers and viewing the Main Stream feed without problems.

On my Mac, why can I view the Main Stream Live by accessing the NVR’s WEB interface, but not without constant black screens when I’m accessing the camera’s WEB interface? My first thought was the NVR is doing some buffering or processing that the camera alone is not. But then why does it work on my old Windows laptop?

It’s not that big of an issue, but I’d just like to do some tweaking of camera settings using the WEB interface (as I’ve seen recommended in other posts). And I’d like to use my Mac to do it, if possible, since that’s the computer I use daily.

Sorry for the long-winded question… I appreciate any suggestions!

My equipment from EmpireTech:
Camera: IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3
NVR: NVR8CH-AI (no PoE)
PoE Switch: EPOE-8CH 10-Port Unmanaged Switch

 

[bigredfish]

Sounds like something to do with the capability of the machine or the connection to it, not the NVR

You could of course keep reducing bitrate and FPS and thus quality until the machine can keep up

 

[The Automation Guy]

The fact that it works on your old Windows laptop, but not the Mac proves the NVR is not buffering or processing the image weirdly. Obviously there are some incompatibility issues with the MAC and the camera feeds. Now it's not uncommon for cameras to be "optimized" for Windows Internet Explorer and have weird "glitches" when you use other browsers. You didn't say which browser you were using on the Windows machine.

It's also possible that the Windows machine has a plugin or other software installed on it that is making the stream work correctly while the Mac is missing this software. Unfortunately, many older cameras required various browser plugins to work correctly and I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac blocked this software because of security issues.

 

[LAdude54]

The fact that it works on your old Windows laptop, but not the Mac proves the NVR is not buffering or processing the image weirdly. Obviously there are some incompatibility issues with the MAC and the camera feeds. Now it's not uncommon for cameras to be "optimized" for Windows Internet Explorer and have weird "glitches" when you use other browsers. You didn't say which browser you were using on the Windows machine.

It's also possible that the Windows machine has a plugin or other software installed on it that is making the stream work correctly while the Mac is missing this software. Unfortunately, many older cameras required various browser plugins to work correctly and I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac blocked this software because of security issues.

Thanks for the info. On my Windows machine I used Edge and Brave browsers. I tried using IE, but Edge has hijacked it. Other than displaying the live view, I haven't tested out the functionality of the WEB interface with those browsers. I don't plan on doing anything fancy, so hopefully I can limp by with my old machine. There's probably a way to rescue IE from Edge.

 

[tangent]

I set up my NVR and camera by using the NVR’s interface (with an attached mouse and TV). It’s also connected to my Xfinity gateway via ethernet. Using my MacBook over WIFI, I can access the NVR’s WEB browser interface and view the live image with no problem, using the Main Stream HD video. If I try to access the camera directly (either by clicking on the “e” icon in the camera list or by typing the camera’s IP address in the address bar), the live image displays but blacks out every several seconds before reappearing. I discovered that if I change the video from Main Stream to Sub Stream 1, it no longer blacks out, but of course the video quality is less.

If I'm understanding you and remembering correctly, it sounds like you can view the multi cam view (substream) but not the individual cameras (main stream). A few years ago some other users had issues with certain video codecs displaying on their Macs. You likely need to change the codec of the main stream to one of the H.264 options (unfortunately the default probably offers better compression).

You could also try using SmartPSS or perhaps Scrypted as a HomeKit bridge which you might like for other iOS devices, if any. Scrypted changes a fee for Scrypted NVR, but basic version which doesn't record is free. I'm not sure how well it works to interface Scrypted with an NVR instead of the cameras directly (also depends if your NVR has PoE built in)

 

[LAdude54]

If I'm understanding you and remembering correctly, it sounds like you can view the multi cam view (substream) but not the individual cameras (main stream). A few years ago some other users had issues with certain video codecs displaying on their Macs. You likely need to change the codec of the main stream to one of the H.264 options (unfortunately the default probably offers better compression).

You could also try using SmartPSS or perhaps Scrypted as a HomeKit bridge which you might like for other iOS devices, if any. Scrypted changes a fee for Scrypted NVR, but basic version which doesn't record is free. I'm not sure how well it works to interface Scrypted with an NVR instead of the cameras directly (also depends if your NVR has PoE built in)

Changing the codec to H.264 did the trick! I can connect directly to the camera and view its main stream without issue. Thanks for the tip!

I installed SmartPSS Lite on my virtual machine and it seems to work fine for viewing. I've not heard of Scrypted but will have a look at it.