Use VLC as server for Wyze Cams

I found a simple way to use the VLC media player to cycle through my Wyze Cams. I just created an m3u playlist as follows:

With the repeat checkbox checked it cycles to the beginning and starts over after it plays. It’s working great so far. If anyone can think of a better way or an enhancement feelf free to join in.

To use my Wyze cams as rtp streams I followed the following process:

  1. Load RTSP software from Wyze website on your Wyzecams.
    See Wyze website. Save each rtp url into a text file:

  2. Open VLC. Select playlist. Drag the text file you created into VLC. Double click the playlist and it will open VLC to the first camera in the list. Then hit the >> button to cycle to the next camera. Save the playlist as an m3u file.

  3. Using VLC you can render the streams on a TV using a Chromecast. Here is the VLC generated playlist file saved as wyzeplaylist.m3u

#EXTM3U
rtsp://camname:password@192.168.7.79/live
rtsp://camname:password@192.168.7.93/live
rtsp://camname:password@192.168.7.92/live
rtsp://camname:password@192.168.7.94/live
rtsp://camname:password@192.168.7.99/live

With the file as it is above, you have to cycle through each camera manually with the next button in the player.

  1. By adding some modifiers in the m3u file with a text editor, I am able to have VLC play each camera for 60 seconds and then cycle to the next one. If you check the “repeat all” box on, it will cycle over after it gets to the end. I have a Chromecast on my big TV and I use it to render the VLC output. That way, my cameras cycle over and over on the big TV when I am not watching regular programming. Here’s the final m3u playlist file.

#EXTM3U
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=1
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=60
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.79/live
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=1
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=60
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.93/live
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=1
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=60
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.92/live
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=1
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=60
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.94/live
#EXTVLCOPT:start-time=1
#EXTVLCOPT:stop-time=60
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.99/live

https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=154500&p=507292#p507292

6 Likes

Shame on you for tempting me to buy additional cameras in order to experiment with RTSP and VLC. :slightly_smiling_face:

I assume you can equally just open multiple tiled VLC windows with one stream each.

Yes you can, however on my Mac I have to use a little script to do so. Of course, the Wyze app on a phone or iPad works great, but for a pc or Mac you need VLC.

I know. I felt the same way when I started the project. I just bought a couple more each time. Now I have six. The first one is too old to work with RTSP.

Here’s a more streamlined playlist file that works fine. Change the time to suit your own preferences.

#EXTM3U
#EXTVLCOPT::run-time=15
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.79/live
#EXTVLCOPT::run-time=15
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.93/live
#EXTVLCOPT::run-time=15
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.92/live
#EXTVLCOPT::run-time=15
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.94/live
#EXTVLCOPT::run-time=15
rtsp://login:password@192.168.7.99/live

On my Mac I just set VLC as the default app to use when opening an .m3u file. That way I have the .m3u file on my desktop and I can just click it to open VLC and run the playlist.

haha…that’s brilliant! Small caveat being the delay is significant right? I’m actually doing this exact thing but with local traffic live cams.

It depends on each situation. My house has a lot of rebar in the concrete walls. I have an Eero mesh for wifi coverage. My delay seems to be between .1 to .2 seconds. Not too bad. That’s just an estimate. I haven’t measured it.