Blue Iris
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No way!
Just kidding … so the issue really lies in the fact that Blue Iris does not provide a RTSP stream and Alexa devices do not support a MJPEG stream. If we were to do anything it would only be to re-encode the MJPEG stream into a valid RTSP stream. However, that adds a significant latency to what most would expect to be a real-time stream. The Alexa devices are already latent enough with the 5-15 second current latency. The ideal solution would be for Blue Iris to produce a RTSP accessible stream … similar to other NVR/DVR solutions such as Synology, Lorex, Amcrest, Dahua, Hikvision, etc.
Which solution are you using for Google Nest hubs? I tinkered around with getting Monocle to work with the Google devices a while back.
As fast as forcing Alexa to display the camera stream on some event driven trigger, the last time I looked into it, there was no Alexa API that would allow us to force the camera to display without voice invocation.
Thanks, Robert
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The ideal solution would be for Blue Iris to produce a RTSP accessible stream …
Agreed. However, I’m pretty sure the developer wouldn’t consider including this option, sadly.
Which solution are you using for Google Nest hubs?
Well, it’s a kinda complex setup since I use Home Assistant to control all my smart devices (well, except Alexa at this moment in time) so I use THIS script as part of the Home Assistant setup to cast my cameras to the screen of my Google Hub. It’s possible to include scripts within HA itself to be able to ask Google for each camera but I have instead used IFTTT to call for each camera using a Web Request. Quite simple really once you have all this set up and cameras appear almost instantly on the Hub screen. Blue Iris has the ability to set Alerts so that once it detects movement on a camera, it can (amongst other options) send a POST request similar to the one used for IFTTT which instructs Home Assistant to Cast Camera to Screen. So when (for example) my Door Camera on Blue Iris sees movement it almost immediately automatically appears on my Google Nest Max screen.
… the last time I looked into it, there was no Alexa API that would allow us to force the camera to display without voice invocation.
Awww, I didn’t know that. That sucks. This is yet another reason why I think Google is the better (best?) system but it’s not without its own shortcommings hence why I decided to go for Echo as well and have the bet of both worlds, especially since I use Amazon quite a bit and am a Prime member. Because I use Prime and therefore Amazon Music, it made sense to use Echo to be able to ask for whatever music I want via Amazon Music, something you cannot do on Google (except to cast from a phone) unless I paid for Google Music, Spotify or Deezer. I have enough media subscriptions without adding yet another!
Anyway, I digress…
Yes, it’s a damn shame you cannot just send something to Alexa without asking for it first, thanks for that info. You’ve saved me bothering to do some research into getting Blue Iris to cast to Alexa like I have with Google. Ah well, no worries. -
I’ve been using browser version.
so you setup the firefox and browser
then browse to blueiris ui3 interface. -
@roderickchan That’s a cool idea but can only ask for browser, can’t we? Can’t ask for the actual web page or individual cameras. Have to resort to using the touchscreen for that. Kinda defeats the object.
But it’s good we can get BI on screen, just like using a Tablet or PC. -
@Legsmaniac Yeah for browser approach.
Can’t directly ask to launch a page., still required a press to launch the site.I’ve been setting up the hdmi encoder to rtsp.
so it is streaming the whole computer video output that is running blueiris or whatever it’s on. might be over kill but just experimenting.I got it working for echo show 5 and 8.
still troubleshooting for echo 2nd.
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@roderickchan Can I ask why when Monocle does individual cameras just fine? Or are you having problems?
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http is not be support for the camera stream i guess.
i was thinking to make custom alexa hosted skill that just simply refreshing pulling jpeg, then it would work for blueiris.
but then monocle gateway solved the compatibility from camera and much simpler solution -
Just an FYI, i just spoke from the developer of BlueIris and i asked for the same feature (Legit RTSP stream served) . He said it is a top priority for him and to expect something in the next couple of months
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@skarragallagher That’s great news, thanks for that. I’ve seen several posts on their forum from members asking about RTSP and nothing was ever done so I gave up hope. To be honest, I still remain sceptical about it appearing “in the next couple of months” but hey, we’ll see, huh? :-) Here’s hoping.
I’m guessing this will only be a new feature added to the new Version 5 of BlueIris? If so, that’ll mean I’ll have to fork out for version 5 (sigh!) as I’m still running version 4. I didn’t really feel the need to upgrade just yet as 4 does everything I need to date, apart from RTSP obviously. -
Yeah i would assume this wouldn’t be backported to version 4. I upgraded to 5 just to stay current and get support. Obviously we know many vaporware that come and go but i will be watching for this and reminding him if a couple months pass… I really want access to the groups of streams.
