Static Image Support

muzzle

It would be great it Monocle could support static images:

Not all cameras support RTSP but most can export a snapshot
Cameras in remote locations might not have the bandwidth to support an RTSP stream

I’ve tried to work around this by generating an RTSP stream from exported still images, but it’s very inefficient and rather clunky. Would much rather have it bundled into Monocle with my other cameras.

Thanks!

Monocle

@muzzle

I think a rotation of images such as a picture gallery would be nice too.

vmsman

Monocle is designed as a Gateway or Bridge to support viewing cameras on your Amazon devices. Functions that involve management of video or images from cameras should be addressed on an NVR. Most NVRs allow some pretty advanced functions for the management of images, clips, snapshots, and events.

Monocle

@vmsman

Good to know that some NVRs can offer more advanced functionality like this. However, I think we would like to expand the feature set of Monocle to do more. And as @muzzle suggest, some (older) cameras may only be capable of snapshots and not compatible RTSP/H.264 streams.

name99

I’d like to point out that the use cases for snapshots (ie a single image) are much broader than have been listed here.
One case is time-lapse, where you simply want to automate a photo every minute/hour/day/whatever.

Another is in automations that involve something “dangerous” where you want to validate that the automation fully completed. For example if you have a recirculator pump, you want to switch that on for a few minutes before showering, but you don’t want it running 24/7 (because it puts a strain on copper joints and leads to micro leaks in the plumbing). So you’d want any automation to do something like

start power (eg switch on a smart plug)
delay five min
stop power
capture a screenshot of the smart plug and/or recirculator, and display it on eg an Echo Show.

Video is a sub-optimal solution here insofar as

it’s not necessary
you don’t want to have to manually tell the video to stop. Much better to just throw up a snapshot and have it sitting on the Echo Show indefinitely, until you see it and use the Show for some other purpose.