Get your cameras into Home Assistant without a cloud subscription. RTSP streams, go2rtc, TinyCam Pro, and full Fire TV control — from a setup running 24/7 in a real home.
This guide covers the complete camera streaming chain — hardware selection through RTSP firmware, go2rtc relay, Home Assistant dashboard, TinyCam Pro viewer, and Fire TV ADB control. You don't need all of it — read what applies to your setup.
Working Home Assistant in Docker and basic familiarity with your server. If you're starting fresh, Vol. 1 covers the Docker/server setup and Vol. 2 is a free HA starter guide at benchnotes.net/ha. You'll also need cameras with RTSP support — Chapter 1 covers which ones and what to avoid buying.
Cameras streaming via RTSP through go2rtc. No cloud subscriptions, no Wyze app, no monthly fees. Streams work during internet outages.
Live camera feeds in Lovelace. Tap to full-screen, view from your phone via Companion App, get motion and doorbell alerts as HA automations.
All cameras in one app with a web server interface. Access from any browser on your network. Embeddable in HA as an iframe card.
Doorbell rings → HA automation → ADB command → Fire TV wakes and launches TinyCam showing the front door camera. No buttons required.
Wyze cameras require custom RTSP firmware that is no longer actively maintained by Wyze for newer models. The V3 Pro, OG, and Cam Pan v3 have no RTSP path at all. If you are buying new cameras for local streaming, buy Reolink instead. If you already have Wyze cameras, §1.1 and §2.2 cover the full firmware process — it works, it just has real tradeoffs.
Your camera choice determines how much friction you accept up front and how reliably things run long-term. Wyze cameras are cheap and work — but they require a firmware hack and come with real limitations. Here is the full picture before you spend anything.
Wyze cameras are cheap, small, and widely available. They also require a secondary firmware to enable local streaming. Here is the honest picture after running four of them for over two years.
Wyze cameras were designed as cloud-first devices. The RTSP firmware is an official but largely abandoned secondary firmware Wyze released for V2 and V3 models — and then mostly stopped supporting. It works, but it freezes your firmware version permanently, has a single-stream limit, and Wyze occasionally drops the RTSP stream in ways that require a power cycle. None of this is a dealbreaker if you go in with realistic expectations.
V2 and V3 RTSP firmware is stable once flashed and on a smart plug for weekly power cycling. Stream quality is solid at 1080p. At $25–35 each, coverage is cheap. Physical form factor is excellent — small, magnetic base, weatherproof (V3).
Firmware version lock — no OTA updates ever again. Single simultaneous RTSP connection (go2rtc solves this). Occasional stream dropout requiring power cycle. No native HA motion events without a workaround.
| Model | RTSP Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wyze Cam V2 | ✅ Official firmware | Stable and widely tested. Download from support.wyze.com. Good for indoor use. |
| Wyze Cam V3 | ✅ Official firmware | Best Wyze option. Weatherproof, color night vision, 1080p. What we run outdoors. |
| Wyze Cam Pan v1 | ⚠️ V1 only | Pan v1 has RTSP firmware. Pan v2 and v3 do not. |
| Wyze Cam V3 Pro | ❌ No RTSP path | Cloud-only. Do not buy for local streaming. |
| Wyze Cam OG | ❌ No RTSP path | Cloud-only. Avoid entirely for homelab use. |
| Wyze Cam Pan v2/v3 | ❌ No RTSP path | Same situation as OG. No local streaming option. |
When you flash RTSP firmware your camera stops receiving Wyze OTA updates — forever. Newer Wyze firmware breaks RTSP, so this is intentional. For cameras on an isolated IoT VLAN with no internet access, this is acceptable. Think of it as: these cameras are now a dedicated local streaming device, not a Wyze product.
go2rtc reconnects automatically but Wyze sometimes needs a full power cycle. Fix: smart plug on a weekly schedule (Wednesday 3am, 5-second delay between cameras). Eliminates 90% of dropout issues without any manual intervention.
Wyze RTSP firmware supports only one simultaneous RTSP client. go2rtc connects once and re-serves to unlimited clients. Never connect HA, TinyCam, and VLC directly to the same Wyze camera — only go2rtc should be the direct connection.
If a Wyze camera develops persistent stream instability — frequent dropouts, slow reconnects, or degraded quality that doesn't clear with a power cycle — formatting the microSD card often resolves it. The RTSP firmware logs and clip fragments accumulate on the card over time and appear to cause performance degradation. Format via the Wyze app (Settings → Advanced Settings → Format SD Card) or remove and format FAT32 on a computer. Every few months is a reasonable cadence for cameras that run continuously.
Assign a static DHCP lease to each camera by MAC address in your router. If the IP changes, your go2rtc config breaks silently. Set this once during initial setup and never think about it again.
If you are buying cameras specifically for local HA streaming, Reolink is the right answer. Native RTSP, no firmware hacks, no version lock, and a dedicated HA integration that gives you real entities for motion and doorbell events.
Reolink cameras ship with RTSP enabled out of the box. There is no secondary firmware to flash, no version freeze, and stream dropout is rare. The HA integration uses Reolink's API directly — motion sensors, person detection, vehicle detection, and doorbell presses all become native HA entities you can use in automations without any workaround.
4K PoE bullet. Best stationary outdoor coverage. Person/vehicle detection. ~$65. No Wi-Fi dependency.
PoE · 4K · OutdoorSolar + battery, Wi-Fi. No cable runs. Good for detached garage or shed where running cable is impractical. ~$60.
Solar · Wi-Fi · 2KPoE doorbell with full HA integration. Ring and motion both fire as native HA binary sensor events. ~$80.
PoE · HA EventsThe main stream runs 4–8 Mbps. For your Lovelace dashboard thumbnails and mobile viewing, use the sub stream (640×360 or 720p at ~1 Mbps). It is far more appropriate for embedded cards. Configure go2rtc with both streams and point dashboard cards at the sub stream — save the main stream for full-screen viewing.
ONVIF is a standard that allows IP cameras to communicate with platforms regardless of brand. If a camera properly implements ONVIF, Home Assistant can pull its RTSP stream and control it via the ONVIF integration — no brand-specific driver needed.
Hikvision, Dahua, Amcrest, Hanwha. Business-grade cameras. More expensive ($80–200) but more reliable than budget options. ONVIF implementation is correct and HA integration is stable.
Many cheap Amazon cameras claim ONVIF compatibility but implement it partially. Test with ONVIF Device Manager (free Windows tool) before buying in bulk — it will probe the camera and show exactly what it supports.
IP cameras are cheap Linux computers with a network stack. Many phone home to manufacturer servers by default. An IoT VLAN blocks outbound internet access while still allowing your server to pull RTSP streams.
Assign a static DHCP lease to every camera using its MAC address in your router. A camera at 192.168.10.21 must always be 192.168.10.21. When the IP changes your go2rtc config breaks silently and streams stop. Assign leases during the initial install and your RTSP URLs are stable permanently.
You've read camera selection — Wyze, Reolink, and ONVIF. The full guide covers getting RTSP streams running, go2rtc as the backbone, Home Assistant integration, TinyCam Pro multi-cam viewer, Fire TV ADB control, and the debug playbook. About ~75 pages.
v1.1.0 · Last updated May 2026