View Cameras Live with WebRTC and the Frigate Card. Part 4 of the Frigate NVR series.

This is part 4 of the Frigate NVR series. I show how to use the WebRTC card for live viewing and the Frigate card to view live, snapshots, and clips. I also briefly compare Blue Iris and Frigate.
Full series and more in the playlist:
• Cameras and Stuff
Links:
WebRTC card github github.com/AlexxIT/WebRTC
Frigate card github github.com/dermotduffy/frigat...
HACS install video: • Home Assistant Basics ...
Grid Cards: • Grid Cards in Home Ass...
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00:00 Intro
00:30 Why Use WebRTC
02:18 Install WebRTC in Home Assistant
05:04 WebRTC Dashboard camera view
11:18 Add second WebRTC camera card
12:57 Panel view with Grid Card
14:16 What is Frigate Card
15:40 Add a Frigate Card to the Dashboard
22:30 Frigate card in action
24:10 Add a second Frigate card
26:59 Blue Iris vs Frigate
DISCLAIMER: Some of the links above take you to affiliate sites that may or may not pay a small commission to me. It doesn't increase the cost to you, but it does help support me in making these videos.
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Mostlychris
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[@czi2011]

very high quality contents in your videos, thank you for your efforts. You definitely deserve 10 times as many subscribers.

[@mostlychris]

Wow, thank you!

[@RonnyRusten]

Excelent, as usual.

[@mostlychris]

Thanks Ronny!

[@joseluisron8132]

Great tutoril. Thanks!!

[@mostlychris]

Thank you!

[@MarkGhali]

Watched the first 30 seconds and absolutely pumped for this video! Thank you again for all the work you are putting into your videos!

[@mostlychris]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@peterdierckx6703]

hello chris. big big big thanks again

[@mostlychris]

No problem 👍

[@adifoto6362]

Thanks for the videos, not using an NVR yet, no cameras for now.

[@mostlychris]

No prob. When you do though, you'll be ready with choices 😀

[@peteradshead2383]

Thank you for this video , they as been a few changes since this video . Frigate will not start up without the camera entity and you need to add rtmp to one of the inputs , I made the mistake of adding it to the detect , which means that the full screen uses the low res detect stream. The frigate card now looks a little different and works from default . I've only been using HA for just over a month so in the middle of changing light switches etc too zwave and building automations. ( every room as a temperature , motion , light sensor fitted ) , but still a lot of work to do. Still got a lot to learn like templets , but now got my first camera up for testing . The camera is pointing at my 3d printer now and I've found that the proxmox default setting 2 cores and 2 gb of ram doesn't work . The detection on 1 camera was using 100% 2 cores and very slow ( 160ms) , I pushed the ram upto 4 gb and 4 cores and it's running a lot faster ( 35 ms ) and only 20% cpu on the 4 cores which makes no sense unless it was the ram which is making the big difference. Not sure if the high cpu is the video decompression or finding the objects , there is no chance of getting a usb edge tpu module lately.

[@mostlychris]

Congrats on getting started with HA. Lots of changes since my video series. I have the new cards now and the latest version of Frigate that includes config file changes (I have a breaking changes video on that). High CPU is probably object detection. If you have continuous motion on your printer, Frigate will spend 100 percent of the time determining if that is an actual object. That's why we mask things like date and time overlays that count seconds. We don't need Frigate trying to determine if that is an object every time the seconds count up.

[@UNgineering]

You can store videos/clips to a NAS with frigate, it's just a bit more work, perhaps. I am running mine in a docker container and passing a NFS mount as /media/frigate to the container - it works great.

[@smartlivenet]

Thank you for the Video! Unfortunately i am not able to Add the webRTC card after the installation. Restart was done after download from adding the integration. Do you have an idea why?

[@mostlychris]

Do you have an error with the card or does it not show up as an option? Need more details to be able to help.

[@kubectlgetpo]

You can mount any directory (including a NAS) as a volume to the container running Frigate for it's /media dir. In other words, for Frigate /media is just a dir inside container and outside it can be anything on host machine. I have my NAS mounted and so it does count as "external storage" for Frigate.

[@mostlychris]

How are you doing this? I have mounted the media directory but it doesn't write to it. That has been a big issue for a lot of people. If you are running this on something like a VM then it makes sense, but not from an Odroid or Pi or supervised OS standpoint.

[@kubectlgetpo]

@@mostlychris aah yes, I am running Frigate as a docker container on bare metal debian. My setup is a docker compose stack that spins up Frigate, HA, Nginx, Mosquitto.

[@mostlychris]

@@kubectlgetpo ​ @NeonIon Makes sense. That's the only way I know of to be able to utilize alternate storage. Supervised HA doesn't allow that.

[@raheelarshed9377]

Great video series...Any chance you can do an advanced Frigate video that covers NGINX configuration?. I currently use the NGINX Home Assistant SSL proxy addon but am struggling on where to start with Frigate. Everything works for me in Frigate, except clips and snapshots will not show on the frigate lovelace card (live stream works fine)

[@mostlychris]

Nginx reverse proxy works and I have a video on that. The Nginx stuff can be applied for a number of different situations, not just frigate. Here is the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYTFmH94mK6orac. If that isn't what you are asking, let me know.

[@varunaeeriyaulla]

As of June 2023, Frigate HA addon doesn't provide an easy way to use external storage. My setup: 1. A Proxmox privileged LXC (It's hard to mount a NAS via SMB to an unprivileged LXC). Debian 11 is the best OS template run Docker on a privileged LXC. 2. Just used the Frigate docker-compose example. It works out of the box. 3. To mount the NAS I used cifs-utils and smbclient Debian packages. 4. To integrate with HA, I used Frigate proxy addon and HACS Frigate integration. Works like magic :) * Connected HA MQTT server for communications.

[@mostlychris]

I am using Frigate in Docker now with the proxy as well as Frigate cards, etc, and of course MQTT. So basically what you are doing. Works fantastic.

[@smartlivenet]

Just another question. I like this video style where the video creator like you is in front of the content. Can you please tell me how to create such a view?

[@mostlychris]

I use a green screen and OBS. I set the chroma key to match the green screen color. Takes a lot of playing around to get the lighting correct so the green screen actually works correctly. I've recently switched to a static background so I don't have such an issue with the lighting.

[@firepilot17]

Perhaps a part 5 on how to dial in person detection? I keep getting deer and occasionally shadows labeled as a person. It has awakened me at night. Oh, and also my dryer exhaust "mist" occasionally triggers it too as a person.

[@mostlychris]

I've been messing with doubletake, deepstack, and compreface. That'll probably be my part 5. There are some settings you can tweak related to object size and other related items that might help. Let me get through this other stuff first. It's been quite the experience.

[@MarkGhali]

Chris, Are these cameras being exported from Frigate using the RTMP then using the WebRTC? Currently I have an error trying to use the Frigste card with WebRTC. ERROR: support only RTSP stream. So I have to grab these directly from camera not Frigate? Feels like I am missing something.

[@janbjorn]

I'm also getting this error in my setup. I've configured my frigate instance to use the RTMP-stream from the cameras. Will try to swap over to rtsp if that helps.

[@ikolsteren]

I am getting the same and am confused as well. I don't want to be going back to the camera with multiple feeds

[@mostlychris]

Yeah... this is RTSP only. This is why I mention in the video that you have to be careful about the load you put on your network and your cameras. I haven't had any issues running multiple RTSP stream as well as the Frigate detection and recording streams. However, YMMV. Version 9 of frigate is being worked on and this looks to have some improvements in viewing cameras.

[@ikolsteren]

@@mostlychris Great videos. My house is now surrounded with cameras just because of Frigate. Can't wait till the new version. I am using the Frigate cards and the WebRTC works great for a couple Wyze cameras I use in the house.

[@juliandsp]

Nice video! I have one problem, when I try to set de WebRTC card, there is an error and never loads. The error is something like "Only support RTSP". I looked the documentation and frigate restreams in RTMP, but don't know how you actually made your WebRTC card work. Any advice would be good received. Thanks!

[@mostlychris]

I am using RTSP streams for everything. That is a requirement, or at least it was at the time I made that video.

[@Avico78]

in reverse proxy setup ,please correct me if i wrong but we expose "sub-domain" which the reverse proxy point by specific port, is there no issue exposing frigate gui to the outside world ?

[@mostlychris]

Subdomain will work. The proxy then points to the port if you have it set that way. You need to add whatever level of security you're comfortable with when exposing resources to the internet.

[@drewp8399]

You can set a url for the frigate card, instead of entity, you would specify 'url:'

[@mostlychris]

Thanks for the tip!

[@bernisworlds]

Q: how you train frigate to detect multiple persons in one stream? in my setup only one person is detected with a box ... eg mother daughter son , only mother will be detected

[@webcrawler5548]

Frigate can also be configured to work with Deepstack.

[@mostlychris]

I'm playing with an option for facial recognition and Frigate. Stay tuned... Might play around with Frigate and Deepstack as well.

[@horaciomonaco6843]

Thank you for the crystal clear explanation all about Frigate. After having set my two cameras and checking this amazing surveillance system for more than a month, the integrated switches (movement, etc.) became frozen after updating HA to version 2021.12.1. I had to downgrade to 2021.11.4 to keep the detection sensors alive. Could you be so kind to indicate me how to setup Frigate to make it fully functionally on HA version 2021.12? Thank you in advance and Happy New Year

[@mostlychris]

I am running the latest version on both Frigate and HA and haven't experienced this. What do you mean by "frozen"?

[@horaciomonaco6843]

@@mostlychris I mean the switches don't respond to the movement. Even if the events are recorded the switches result unavailable

[@mostlychris]

@@horaciomonaco6843 This might be related to your other comments about detection not working and entities being grayed out. Make sure the add-on is running. If you are still having issues after removing the integration (not add-on) and re-adding it then jump into the frigate channel on my discord and post screenshots of what you are seeing.

[@horaciomonaco6843]

​@@mostlychris Ok, I uninstalled frigate, upgrade HA to 2021.12.9 I tried to load the add-on and I couldn't, a message saying "config flow could not be loaded" appeared. But in Add-on store I found it. I runned it, it seemed to work ( I mean, I see both cameras in the frigate tab) but I cannot access to the sensors or even the cameras images in lovelace as the integration is not set

[@horaciomonaco6843]

@@mostlychris Well finally I did it, I had to update the frigate-hass-integration to version 2.2.0. Frigate is fully functional again. Thanks again for your interest and your clear videos 👍

[@DT006]

For some reason I keep getting what look like buffering when first opening the lovelace tab. I have to set my cameras down to 1080p to get them to load in a reasonable time. Do you think it is an issue with my internet upload speed since Webrtc is internet streaming?

[@mostlychris]

Are you viewing this remotely? When using the WebRTC card, it will check to see if you are local and can use WebRTC. Mine always seems to start with MSE first and then goes back to WebRTC when I'm local. The delay you are talking about could quite possibly be the resolution you are using--and potentially a bandwidth issue. I would almost recommend that you don't stream anything above 1080p for surveillance cameras unless you have a very specific need. If you are displaying it on tablets or phones, you probably won't even know the difference.

[@DT006]

@@mostlychris Yeah it was streaming locally. Now that I know what the icons mean it does start MSE then switch to WebRTC. Now that I know I have 3 streams I am going to have 480 for detect, 1080 for live viewing and 4k for clips/recordings.

[@mostlychris]

Excellent!

[@sygys]

I have been watching your video but i cant seem to get it to work right. For some reason i get loads and load of interupts using both webrtc and the frigate card. 99% of the time there i a buffer/loading bar and when its gone the image tries to keep up resulting in a fast forward video. No one seems to have these problems but me. Is this a browser related thing or something? i have this on my note 10+ with chrome, on my pc and also on my tablet. These video feeds just dont seem to play on the love lace. the funny part is that when i open frigate in home assistant and watch the stream from withing frigate its rock solid. no stutters or what soever. I really think the lovelace is messing these streams up but i cant seem to find out why and how. any thoughts? While using webrtc and putting in the custom card and rtsp link of my camera i get this message 'Custom element doesn't exist: webrtc-camera.' While im sure its installed in hacs and HA is rebooted

[@mostlychris]

I was going to suggest a network issue. However, if you can stream it in other players, that doesn't sound like an issue. I wouldn't think it was a browser issue either. Are you on the latest version of HA? Have you tried using RTSPtoWebRTC (I have a recent video on that)? It's hard to say unless your HA device just can't process what you are trying to show. Frigate is probably direct streaming from the cameras (depending on your settings).

[@kubectlgetpo]

I get "ERROR: Support only RTSP-stream". Since Frigate re-broadcasts as RTMP, how did you get it running?

[@mostlychris]

I am using RTSP streams from the cameras for the WebRTC cards. I didn't use RTMP. I haven't had a lot of luck with RTMP but to be fair, I haven't played with it much either.

[@RobertusWE]

can you make a tutorial to install frigate in proxmox lxc container ? with google coral usb? is a nightmare, i didn't understand how, are a week that I'm trying, without success

[@mostlychris]

I don't have a setup with Proxmox at the moment, but I found this: forum.proxmox.com/threads/usb-pass-through-in-lxc-container.73742/. It might help.

[@BShermer321]

I am using Home Assistant OS on a Synology and WebRTC is CHOPPY as can be. Even without Frigate. New install just WebRTC and bunny video is probably 5 fps. Any tips?

[@mostlychris]

Does anything else play ok from that NAS? Does any other playback device (tablet, pc, laptop, etc) play OK? Trying to narrow down where the issue might be.

[@dma_k]

Hi Chris, Thanks for the great video! I watched additionally another your video (6hJXenSZJ5M) but I what I really miss in the story is why first of all I would need WebRTC? If we think of the average configuration of 2-4 cameras provided that small latency does not bother me, is there any advantage of having WebRTC installed? What I may consider a plus is reducing the number of video streams/connections from camera, but how WebRTC helps here provided that I view cameras from HomeAssistant entity? Another confusing moment is use of go2rtc / resteaming in Frigate (docs.frigate.video/guides/configuring_go2rtc/), which uses the same engine as custom:webrtc-camera (github.com/AlexxIT/WebRTC). Maybe in that case the last component is not needed? What would be the most simple configuration then? Thanks in advance! P.S. Another confusing moment (github.com/dermotduffy/frigate-hass-card#specifying-the-webrtc-card-camera): "The WebRTC Card live provider does not support use of Frigate-provided camera entities, as it requires an RTSP stream which Frigate does not currently provide." which is not true.

[@revealingfacts4all]

Frigate works on remote storage. I run frigate in a docker container and I map the media to a NFS share from a Synology. The side benefit of this is I can browse the raw video from a desktop. Also, that frigate config.yml is atrocious to understand. The documentation while plentiful is just vague and not very clear. Also, I run frigate on its own little mini computer using an Intel N100. I had to custom build a kernel for the Intel GPU (/dev/dri/RenderD128) and associated firmware and that might be seen as a nit against frigate up and running in 10mins for some as it really depends on that marriage of OS and hardware.

[@mostlychris]

Since making this video, I run my frigate storage on my NAS so I take advantage of that now.

[@gg-gn3re]

So this is getting built in now or something in the new versions, is that true?

[@mostlychris]

It's an HACS add-on, if you're talking about the WebRTC stuff. I just released a new video using RTSPtoWeb that uses the HA native picture glance cards.

[@gg-gn3re]

@@mostlychris Thanks I'll check it out. I found that answer too. some other guy was talking about new version releases saying home assistant itself uses webrtc by default now and it's built in but can't find that to be 100% true

[@mostlychris]

They use LL HLS, which does work in some cases as I mentioned in the video. Progress is being made on a number of fronts and at some point it'll be preference more than anything (until the latest new shiny thing comes out).

[@benoitd94]

hi i like your videos , i put a thumb. Please help me to define a dedicated space for media (snapshot and video) on a usb drive on my raspberrypi thx in advance

[@mostlychris]

Thanks Benoit. I'll put that in my list of requests.

[@technix2837]

Blue iris is the best, All motions alert get set aside for quick view and all feeds can be 4k instead of sub stream.The zoom on the mouse roller is the best. The ability to transfers all recordings to a hidden NAS to make it harder for a thief to steal your recordings is the big seller imo.

[@mostlychris]

I like Blue Iris. It's a well built NVR. I just didn't like having to run a powerful computer all the time and being locked to Windows for it though.

[@gg-gn3re]

blue iris is easily worse in every way. also his last part with the check boxes frigate does have face and specific person detection (as well as very good face training) and you can also mount external drives for it so it pretty easily.

[@technix2837]

@@gg-gn3re Not true at all. BL is the best i can have 6 cams or more all broadcasting 4k instead of sub-stream on all my TVs with ethernet connection

[@gg-gn3re]

@@technix2837 I can do that with no NVR software so not saying much...