[scottlamb]

> I thought frigate connects to the camera's RTSP stream (maybe with ONVIF in the mix)?

Right, that's the expectation of Frigate, my own Moonfire NVR, and basically every other NVR out there. Ubiquiti decided to think different.

[ImPostingOnHN]

Well thanks for the heads-up to avoid their cameras.

[scottlamb]

I hear you, but on the other hand, I'd take a bit of interop pain over supporting genocide any day. It looks like with the hints from moonlighter and from https://github.com/keshavdv/unifi-cam-proxy I'll be able to get this to work.

Honestly it might be less work than some other cameras that (allegedly) speak RTSP. You'd be shocked how low-quality these implementations are. Never advancing timestamps, setting the RTP MARK bit arbitrarily, writing uninitialized memory framed as audio packets (on cameras that don't have microphones), closing file descriptors then writing data to them anyway (and so having it show up on the next accepted connection to be assigned that fd even pre-auth), etc.

[psd1]

> writing uninitialized memory framed as audio packets..., closing file descriptors then writing data to them anyway...

Thanks for the reassurance that I'm not such an incompetent dev as I feel.

Funny how companies tend to be competent at either devices or software, and rarely both. This sounds vaguely like the automotive industry.

[ImPostingOnHN]

FWIW, there are multiple other camera brands who don't manufacture in Xinjiang (or China for that matter), like Axis or Vivotek.

[kotaKat]

Arecont Vision is another good brand. I’ve got a friend that got a bunch of Arecont domes stupid cheap and they have amusing modes like “casino mode” (guaranteed 30fps recording for various gaming regulations).

https://www.arecontvision.com/news/arecont-vision-adds-casin...

(eBay deal sniping sometimes gets you some funny deals but YMMV — I picked up an Axis Q1700-LE license plate camera for under $200 for some experiments.)

[scottlamb]

I've eyed Axis cameras but they're pricy (particularly for large sensors) and don't seem to come in the turret form factor I prefer. E.g. the AXIS M4317-PLVE is a dome and $717 at newegg. Kinda a weird model actually—180/360 degree view which isn't what I'd want. But I haven't found anything that is at a price I'd like to pay myself, let alone recommend to others for home use.

Vivotek's a bit more reasonable but still. The (brand new?) Vivotek VIT04A-W is the closest I've found—1/1.8" sensor, 4MP, turret, $535 on jmac.com.

These Ubiquiti models seem really nice in terms of hardware specs and and very reasonably priced. $200 for a 1/1.8" sensor turret, $479 for a 1/1.2" sensor turret with extra AI features. Same general price bracket as Dahua, I think.

[ImPostingOnHN]

Check secondhand. I'm finding quad sensor cams that retailed for $2k purchased off craigslist for $100. Wipe em, flash new firmware, deny all internet access at the network level, and you're good to go