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Testing VMS Gateway using VLC
Updated over 5 months ago

This test should be the last test you perform when diagnosing issues.

It is recommended to use ONVIF Device Manager as the first diagnosis tool, as this will test both the ONVIF and RTSP aspects on your network.

ONVIF is the standard for adding IP cameras to VMS and handle many different aspects of setting up and using cameras, including:

  • Automatic discovery of your ip cameras

  • Listing available camera services within your VMS

  • Video and audio streaming (achieved using the RTSP standard)

If you have tried unsuccessfully to add your virtual ONVIF devices to your VMS using ONVIF, then the simplest test you can perform is to attempt to stream the video/audio from a single output stream into VLC.

VLC is a free open-source Swiss-army knife program for playing back video from most sources, and can the raw RTSP feeds directly from VSM Gateway.

You can download VLC direct from their website.

Steps:

  • Download and install VLC onto a machine on the same network as your VMS

  • Log in to VMS Gateway, and go one of your virtual ONVIF device's details pages

  • Each of your added output streams will have a three dots button to the right - select one and click the button:

    Menu illustration
  • This will bring up a small menu - select Copy RTSP URL which copies the address to your clipboard.

  • Open VLC, and from the Media menu selec the Open Network Stream... menu item:
    ​

    VLC illustration

  • In the resulting dialog box paste the RTSP URL in the text.
    ​This RTSP URL include the username and password as well!
    ​

    RTSP in VLC illustration
  • Press the Play button. The main window will now attempt to connect to VMS Gateway (this can take up to 20 seconds to begin playback):

    Video playing in VLC
    Offline video playing in VLC

  • If you see live video (or a blue screen with an error message) then you are successfully connected to VMS Gateway.

  • Instead if you see an error (such as the one below) it is likely you have networking issues (see a list of common networking issues):

    Networking settings in VLC

If you have managed to stream successfully into VLC then you should be use the same RTSP URL to add your camera to many different programs, including ONVIF compatible VMS.

NOTE: Using RTSP will only provide video/audio streaming - no other features (such as PTZ) will operate.

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