Webcams
To be able to add a stream to Mainsail, it must be available as a so-called “MJPEG stream”.
So either you have a network camera that offers such a stream by itself, or you use a conventional webcam (USB camera, Raspberry Pi Camera, …) that is connected to your system. For a non-network cameras, you need to install and configure a streamer software on your system, such as Crowsnest.
MainsailOS comes preinstalled with Crowsnest as streamer. If you wish to install Crowsnest on your system, or need assistance in configuring Crowsnest, please refer to its documentation.
Once such a stream is available, you only have to configure it in the Mainsail settings.
The stream of your IP camera needs to be compatible with your browser. More information:
In this view, you can add new webcams, or edit and remove existing ones.
While adding or editing a webcam, you will see the following screen.
[Insert Image....]
On the right side, you can check the settings in a preview.
At first, you have to give the camera a name, and you can assign an icon to it.
You also need to specify stream and snapshot URL. For network cameras, please consult the manufacturer's manual or search the Internet.
Note: In MainsailOS, by default, four webcam ports are mapped to URLs. Notice that the first URL doesn't contain a number. Check which port you have configured in your streamer and add the URLs.
Port | Stream URL | Snapshot URL |
|---|---|---|
8080 | /webcam/?action=stream | /webcam/?action=snapshot |
8081 | /webcam2/?action=stream | /webcam2/?action=snapshot |
8082 | /webcam3/?action=stream | /webcam3/?action=snapshot |
8083 | /webcam4/?action=stream | /webcam4/?action=snapshot |
You also need to select a streaming mode. Below are descriptions of the different modes, so you can decide. Try out what works best for you.
Mode | Description |
|---|---|
MJPEG-Streamer | The streamer mode extracts individual frames from the stream URL and streams them. This is to prevent the buildup of delay in case of insufficient bandwidth.
IMPORTANT: This mode does currently not work on iOS devices for technical reasons. |
Adaptive MJPEG-Streamer | The adaptive mode takes the snapshot URL and pulls individual images. Also, this is intended to prevent a delay. |
UV4L-MJPEG | The classic mode is the plain MJPEG stream embedded in an image tag. In this case, it can happen that after some runtime a delay steadily builds up, because frames cannot be skipped. Only a browser reload will help. |
IP-Camera | The stream URL is embedded in an HTML5 video element. We can't really provide support for this. Browser plugins may be required. |
WebRTC (camera-streamer) | This stream is very bandwidth efficient.
IMPORTANT: This mode is currently only available on Raspberry devices. |
HLS Streamer | This mode is for IP webcams with RTSP support. |
Only in adaptive MJPEG mode, you also have to set the target frame rate. This is how often per second an image is requested.
Flip the webcam vertically and/or horizontally. Both at the same time corresponds to a 180° rotation.
Last modified 23d ago