Video streaming: what is RTSP streaming?

The recent installation of our Tapo C200 allowed us, once the system was installed, to learn a new protocol: RTSP

The Tapo C200 actually supports this standard protocol. In other words, it offers this RTSP stream, which allows third-party applications to broadcast this stream without having to install the Tapo app.

Here’s a quick how-to for activating this feed on the Tapo C200.

In the Tapo app, go to Settings then Advanced Settings.

Then go to the account. Camera

And you set a login and password to secure access to the RTSP stream.

That’s it for the camera side. To access this stream, you need to use a player capable of playing this RTSP stream. The most popular, and one you’re probably familiar with, is VLC.

RTSP Stream Address

On the Tapo C200, the stream address is in the following format: rtsp://camera_ip_address:554/stream1.

After entering the correct IP address, simply open the stream in VLC, enter the login and password you created earlier, and your camera’s video will be displayed.

Getting your camera’s IP address

This information will be provided by the router (or router) you paired your camera to.

 

Digging into the details of the C200

In my case, the C200’s local IP address is 192.168.1.27. Therefore, the RTSP stream address will be: rtsp://192.168.1.27:554/stream1

Note that VLC player is available on most devices: smartphones, PCs, FireTVs, etc.

Learn more about RTSP

RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) is an application-level communication protocol used to control the streaming of media such as audio and video over an IP network.

Simply put, RTSP acts as a kind of “network remote control” for media servers. It allows a client (e.g., a video player like VLC, a streaming application) to send commands to a streaming server to manage content playback.

Here are the key points to remember about RTSP

Main Operation

• Session Control: RTSP establishes and controls streaming sessions. It does not carry the media data itself.
• Controls: It uses commands similar to those of a traditional video player, such as “play”, “pause”, “stop”, “record”, etc. These commands are exchanged between the client and the server.

Complementary protocols: RTSP generally works in conjunction with other protocols for the transmission of actual data:

• RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol): This is the protocol responsible for the actual transport of audio and video data.
• RTCP (Real-time Transport Control Protocol): This is used for quality of service control and stream synchronization.

Common use cases

RTSP is particularly popular in the following areas:

• IP surveillance cameras: This is the standard protocol for streaming live video streams from security cameras. This allows images to be viewed in real time on a computer or mobile device.
• Video Surveillance: It is widely used in video surveillance systems (NVR, DVR) to retrieve and record video streams.
• Video Conferencing Systems: For transmitting live audio and video with low latency.
• Live Media Streaming: While other protocols like RTMP or HLS are more common for large-scale web broadcasting, RTSP can be used for specific applications requiring low latency.

Advantages of RTSP

• Low Latency: RTSP is designed for real-time streaming with minimal latency, which is crucial for surveillance and video conferencing applications.
• Control Interactive: It offers precise control over the media stream (play, pause, search, etc.).
• Versatility: It supports different addressing schemes (IPv4, IPv6) and transport types (TCP, UDP), as well as various audio and video codecs (H.264, H.265, AAC, MP3, etc.)
• Ubiquity in IP cameras: It is the protocol of choice for most IP cameras.