Connecting cameras

Rerinku View supports six ways to connect. You add the first four in the console. The last two are devices that connect on their own and show up in the device list automatically.

Method	Good for	How to add
ONVIF	Most IP cameras	Auto-discovery, or enter the IP manually
RTSP	Cameras, recorders and streaming services that only provide an RTSP URL	Enter the URL manually
GB28181	GB28181 cameras and recorders	The device registers with Rerinku View, then you add it from the discovery list
USB (UVC)	USB cameras plugged into the Rerinku View host (Linux only)	Auto-discovery
Rerinku View SDK	Devices whose firmware is built with the SDK	Shows up automatically once the device registers
Rerinku Cam	Android phones	Shows up automatically once connected in the app

Discover and add

Open Devices in the sidebar. There are two buttons above the content area:

• Discover devices: Rerinku View keeps scanning your LAN in the background. ONVIF cameras are probed every 10 seconds, GB28181 devices list their channels once they register, and USB cameras connected on Linux show up as soon as you plug them in. When a new device appears, a New device found card also pops up on the page.
• Add manually: for devices that auto-discovery can’t find (for example, ones on another subnet), enter their details here to add them.

In the discovery list, click Add and enter the username and password (not needed for GB28181 and USB). You can also pick a group at the same time. When you add a device, Rerinku View actually connects to it once to verify, and tells you right away if the details are wrong. Devices you Ignore won’t be suggested again.

ONVIF

To add one manually, you need the IP address, port (default 80), username (default admin) and password. After it’s added, Rerinku View reads all of the camera’s streams (each ONVIF profile counts as one stream) and supports its PTZ automatically.

• ONVIF auto-discovery relies on LAN multicast (UDP 3702). Cameras are not discovered automatically across subnets, on networks with multicast turned off, or when Rerinku View runs in Docker Desktop on macOS / Windows. Add them manually instead.
• The host firewall may block discovery replies. If nothing is discovered, check the firewall first.

RTSP

Enter the full rtsp:// or rtsps:// URL. Put the username and password in their own fields, not in the URL. URLs with credentials in them are rejected.

RTSP devices have no online status, commands or PTZ: Rerinku View only pulls the stream, and thumbnails are also grabbed from the stream. If a camera supports ONVIF, we recommend adding it with ONVIF.

GB28181

Rerinku View has a built-in GB28181 platform (SIP server). The config file generated on first start has it on by default, listening on port 5060, with the registration password change-me. Change the password before connecting devices, and turn the platform off if you don’t use GB28181.

1. Open Settings → GB28181, make sure Enable the GB28181 platform is on, change the registration password, and click Save and apply. Device-side parameters on that page lists the values to enter on the device.
2. In the GB28181 settings of the camera or recorder, enter the SIP server IP (the page lists this machine’s addresses), SIP port, platform ID, realm and registration password.
3. Once the device registers, its channels appear under Devices → Discover devices. Add them one by one. Each channel is a separate device.

A recorder (NVR) itself doesn’t appear in the list. What you add are its individual channels. The media transport is automatic by default: 2022-edition devices use TCP and others use UDP, and media ports are assigned at random. If another program is using port 5060, the GB28181 platform can’t start, and the settings page shows “The GB28181 platform is enabled but the listener is not running”.

USB cameras

Linux only. The camera must be able to output H.264, H.265 or MJPEG. Cameras that can only output raw video (YUYV, NV12) are not supported. Capture defaults to 1280×720 at 30 fps, and a microphone on the same device is matched automatically as the audio source.

• The user that runs Rerinku View must be in the video group (sudo usermod -aG video <user>). In Docker, pass the device into the container (--device /dev/video0).
• A USB camera can only be opened by one program at a time. While you’re watching its video, refreshing the thumbnail fails, and the interface keeps showing the previous one.

Rerinku View SDK devices

Devices built with the Rerinku View SDK register with Rerinku View on their own. Once registered, they appear in the device list, with no need to add them in the console. The device must be able to reach Rerinku View on port 8080 and port 1883 (MQTT).

By default, any device can register. To allow only your own devices to connect, set the device key DEVICE_KEY in the configuration. See the Configuration reference.

Phones (Rerinku Cam)

Install Rerinku Cam on an old phone, then enter Rerinku View’s address or scan the QR code under Settings → Quick Connect → Phone app. After it connects for the first time, it appears in the device list with a name starting with RLIVE-…. If Rerinku View has a device key set, enter it in the app’s settings.

Streams and codecs

Multiple streams. Each profile of an ONVIF camera counts as one stream. There’s usually a main stream and a substream. Live view plays the highest-resolution H.264 stream by default; you can switch in the player’s Quality menu. RTSP, USB and GB28181 devices have just one stream.

Codec	Live view	Notes
H.264	Forwarded as is	Uses almost no CPU, and plays in every browser
H.265	Forwarded as is	Needs a browser that supports H.265 decoding over WebRTC (Safari does; Chrome needs hardware decoding). If it isn’t supported, you’re prompted to switch to an H.264 stream
MJPEG	Converted to H.264	One transcoding process per device; uses CPU
Others (such as MPEG-4)	Not supported

Audio: Opus and 8 kHz mono G.711 are forwarded as is, and AAC and other formats are converted to Opus. Audio in recordings is always saved as AAC.

For cameras whose main stream is H.265 and substream is H.264, live view picks the H.264 stream by default. That may be the substream, so the picture can look blurry. If your browser supports H.265, you can switch back to the main stream in Quality.

Managing devices

The Devices page lists all devices. You can search, change groups and switch recording on or off. The menu at the end of each row has Playback, Device log, Re-read device info, Commands and Delete device.

Groups: pick a group when adding a device or in the device settings. Type a new name to create a new group. Groups can’t be renamed or deleted yet.

Device details: click a device name to open its details page.

• On the left is the video. Below it are the uptime, current viewer count, network latency, device info and channels. Devices connected with the Rerinku View SDK also show runtime status such as temperature and CPU.
• Tabs on the right:
  • Settings: name, description, group, recording and smart detection. ONVIF and RTSP devices can change their username and password (Rerinku View first connects to the device with the new password, and doesn’t save if the device rejects it).
  • Commands: standard commands for ONVIF and GB28181 devices; built-in and custom commands for Rerinku View SDK devices.
  • Logs: the device’s connection and activity records.
• When the protocol supports it, the title bar has a Reboot button.

Deleting a device doesn’t delete its recordings. They are cleaned up when they expire under the storage policy.

PTZ

ONVIF and GB28181 devices support PTZ. The PTZ controls are in a drawer on the right edge of the video, collapsed by default. Every pane of the live video wall has one, and so does the video on the device details page:

• Eight directions, zoom and speed.
• Presets: add the current position, go to one, delete one.
• After you click the PTZ panel, you can also use the arrow keys or WASD.

If the browser disconnects, PTZ stops automatically within 3 seconds, so the camera won’t keep turning.