Reolink

Reolink Cameras That Can Work With ZoneMinder

PoE camera: RLC-410, 520, 522, 423, 511, 510A, 520A, 810A, 820A, 1220A, 1210A;

WiFi camera: E1 Pro; E1 Zoom; 410W, 510W;

Learn more about these cameras in Reolink official site: https://reolink.com/

Please note:

1. 1. The list doesn't include the discontinued products. If you want to learn about these discontinued device, please ask Reolink employee in reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/ . Thanks!

1. 2. The models that have "A" in the name are the cameras having on-board Person/Vehicle Detection, that is, RLC-510A, 520A, 810A, 820A, 1220A, 1210A. You may not use this local smart detection with Zoneminder, but you can use the advanced AI powered detection feature supported by the ZM.

1. 3. When there are new products, this list will be updated.

Reolink Cameras (Recommended)

The latest step-by-step guide here

https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comments/jnurzm/adding_reolink_cameras_to_zoneminder_nvr/

RLC-410

There is a lengthy forum thread here: https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=25874

RLC-423

Soooo, after lots of reading and just as much trial and error, I came up with this config that seems to work best:

Source Type: ffmpeg
Source Path: rtmp://10.0.0.165:1935/bcs/channel0_main.bcs?channel=0&stream=0&user=admin&password=password
Method: UDP
Options: reorder_queue_size=5000,allowed_media_types=video,buffer_size=10000000
Capture Resolution: 640x480
Controllable: yes
Control Address: admin:password@10.0.0.165:8000
Auto Stop Timeout: 0.25

The high quality stream is "channel0_main", the low quality on "channnel0_sub". Strangely, the high quality channnel only works when I put the low quality resolution. So instead of 2560x1920 I need to put 640x480. That was a hard thing to find.

On the camera the following settings seem to provide the best results in ZM:

Clear Stream:
Resolution: 2560x1920
Frame Rate: 30
Maximum Bitrate: 6144
H2.64 Profile: Base

Fluent Stream:
Resolution: 640x480
Frame Rate: 7
Maximum Bitrate: 160
H2.64 Profile: Base

Ref: https://forums.zoneminder.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=30078

RLC-520

Learn more about this camera: https://reolink.com/product/rlc-520/

First: In a browser connect to the cam, config.gear, IN: Network Settings, Advanced, Port Settings, enable RTMP and Save. IN: System, User Managment, Change Password and Save.

Source Type: ffmpeg
Source Path: rtmp://10.0.0.165:1935/bcs/channel0_main.bcs?channel=0&stream=0&user=admin&password=password
Method: UDP

The default username/password on this model is "admin" and an empty password, but I had to set a password before the source path above would work.

If you want audio with the video recordings place this in the "Options" field of the "Source" tab:

allowed_media_types=video,audio

And use this option in the "Video Writer" field of the "Storage" tab:

H264 Camera Passthrough

4K Cameras, Firmware, and RTSP

The cameras below are 4K (8MP) cameras. As of this writing, the latest firmware for both the RLC-810A and RLC-820A is v3.1.0.956, released April 2022. I had mixed results with the 4K RTSP stream with these cameras. If you find the 4K RTSP stream unstable with lots missed packets, image degradation, and artifacts, you have two options:

• Contact Reolink support. They are very prompt and helpful. They provided me with beta firmware, v3.1.0.1983, which solved the RTSP issues. With this firmware, you should use TCP rather than UDP. Maybe by the time you are reading this, these improvements have already made their way into an official firmware update that you can download from Reolink's support site.
• Switch the main stream to 5MP and use RTMP instead of RTSP. This has been perfectly stable in my experience, but of course then you miss out on 4K (RTMP doesn't do 4K, at least on these cameras).

There are other Reolink cameras with 4K and even higher resolution. The above may or may not apply to them also. If someone has experience with them, they can add it...

RLC-810A

Camera detailed on: https://reolink.com/product/rlc-810a/ This is a 4K camera

Most of the information for the RLC-820A (below) is relevant for the 810A also. Make sure you have the latest firmware (from April 2022 as of this writing, version v3.1.0.956_22041503), as it has updates to the RTSP server that significantly improve usability. I still got some artifacts on the 4K stream with TCP method, but so far UDP has been clean, so I recommend that. (See notes about beta firmware in the section above.)

For use with ZoneMinder, I recommend RTSP for both the substream and main stream, as RTMP does not work for the 4K main stream. The substream is only 640x360, but this is sufficient for motion detection. Use one monitor for motion detection on the substream in Modect mode, and another monitor in Nodect mode linked to the first one for saving 4K recordings of events. Make sure you have large enough pre- and post-event image buffers. I use 15 pre- and post-event frames on the substream (set at 7FPS) and 30 on the main stream (set at 15 FPS). The 4K stream is h265-encoded, so to avoid unnecessarily high CPU usage, turn off decoding on the main stream monitor and set the video writer as "Camera Passthrough." Unfortunately, you will probably not be able to view the 4k videos on the web interface due to the encoding, but you can view them in an offline player that supports that codec.

Here are the RTSP urls:

rtsp://admin:password@IP:554//h264Preview_01_sub (substream)

rtsp://admin:password@IP:554//h265Preview_01_main (main stream)

Note that RTSP is not enabled by default in the camera; you have to log into the web interface and enable it there. (The same probably applies to all other Reolink cameras.)

I did not need to set reorder_queue_size as mentioned for the RLC-820A below.

RLC-820A

Camera detailed on: https://reolink.com/product/rlc-820a/ This is a 4k camera

Camera firmware version 3.0.0.494 works. Camera firmware version 3.1.0.764 also works BUT you must go into the cameras Network Settings, Advanced, Ports and enable rtsp or rtmp. The main difference between firmware appears to be the addition of more hardware motion sensing analysis in the camera and that after a factory reset the camera boots with rtsp and rtmp disabled until you turn whichever one you are using back on.

Reports with some Reolink cameras say they get smearing using RTSP and recommend RTMP. I did not find this to be the case with this model of camera and apparently only the low res substream works with RTMP, the 4K stream only works with RTSP

Here are the links for RTSP (substitute your own information)

rtsp://admin:12345678@192.168.96.23:554//h264Preview_01_sub

rtsp://admin:12345678@192.168.96.23:554//h265Preview_01_main

With the 4K stream set reorder_queue_size=1000

or higher in Monitor->Source->Options

Older versions of ZM may require hard coding the CODEC to MJEPG. zm 1.36.14 worked with the Auto setting, however.

Trackmix POE

Camera detailed on: https://reolink.com/product/reolink-trackmix-poe/ This is a PTZ 4K camera with POE

Camera came with firmware v3.0.0.1817_23022700 seems to be working well so far.

rtsp://admin:password@hostname:554/Preview_01_main

I'm seeing some smearing occasionally that causes an event. Tried the reorder_queue_size option that the 820A has listed above, that doesn't seem to affect the problem. Waiting to hear back from ReoLink support.

Control seems to work if you select the RLC-423, but I'm not confident it's complete and accurate. I wouldn't know how to start figuring out how to change any of that to get it working better. Also waiting on any advice ReoLink support might have on that.

ZM 1.36.33 on Rocky Linux 8.8

Biloxigeek (talk) 08:17, 27 August 2023 (EDT)