How to view Hikvision IP camera on iPhone and Mac using RTSP and VLC
Bought a Hikvision camera recently? There is more then one way to view the camera feed on your iOS device. Read now to know your options!
HikConnect App from Hikvision
The standard & easy way to access your Hikvision camera is by downloading the HikConnect app. From there on it's pretty straight forward. You can add your new device from the control panel inside your app.
For devices that don't support ONVIF, you can add them manually. You will need the following camera information to add the camera manually
IP Address: You will find this on the camera box or on the back of the camera. Alternatively, you can use a software like iSpy or Fing to scan your network for camera equipment
Port: 8000 (default)
username: admin (default)
password: You will be prompted to setup a password when you access the device for the first time. Otherwise, use any previously set password. You are all set!
Hikvision web interface and RTSP access with VLC
If you don't want to use the HikConnect app, you can also connect and view the camera from any browser on your computer or phone or use software like VLC to stream your camera on your local network. Here is how you can do this. First, you will need the local IP address of your Hikvision camera. You will find this on the camera box or on the back of the camera. Alternatively, you can use a software like iSpy or Fing to scan your network for camera equipment
Once you have the IP address, open up a browser on your computer (must be connected to the same WiFi/LAN as the camera) and key in the local IP address of your Hikvision camera.
If you are accessing your device for the first time, you will be asked to setup a password. The username is usually 'admin' by default. Otherwise, you will see a login screen as below.
If you have the username and password, you are all set to access your Hikvision camera using RTSP. The last thing you need is a RTSP address URL. For Hikvision cameras, this is of the following format: rtsp://<username>:<password>@<camera_ip_address>:<port>/Streaming/Channels/<channel_number> Replace the <> above with your actual values. For example, the URL to my camera looks like the following:
rtsp://admin:myPwd@192.168.1.64:554/Streaming/Channels/101 If you are connecting a single camera, the channel number by default is generally 101. If you have a DVR, the different cameras will be exposed on different channels - so change the channel numbers accordingly (they are usually monotonically increasing numbers like 101, 102, 103 etc.) Now, that you have your complete RTSP URL ready, you can now use this URL to access your Hikvision camera over RTSP using any software like Cam Hero or VLC. In Cam Hero, you can use the above URL by clicking "Add Cameras (+)" > "Manual" > URL > Paste the above URL and click "Test Connection". A quick connection test will check if everything is ok and will give you an option to save the camera to your dashboard if URL was setup correctly. Learn more how to access camera using the generated URL with Cam Hero and protect your privacy
To open the link with VLC, open VLC > File > Open Network then input the above RTSP URL and click "Open", it should start playing your camera stream.
That's it for today!
Let us know if you found this guide useful :)
