These docs are not up to date yet. The app is moving faster than we can describe it. These pages cover Watchpost 0.1.0 alpha (build 444) and may be incomplete or out of date. Details
ONVIF cameras
ONVIF is the standard that most network cameras support. Watchpost reads the camera’s streams over ONVIF Profile S and shows them in Live. A camera of any brand that speaks ONVIF can be added this way.
Add a camera
Section titled “Add a camera”Choose ONVIF in the protocol switch of the Add Device form. The port is 80 by default, but many cameras listen on another one. A Xiongmai camera answers on 8899, for example. The camera’s manual or its network settings give the port.
If the test fails, check two things: that ONVIF is switched on in the camera, and that the login is allowed to use it.
Live view works as it does for other devices. The camera appears in the grid. See Live.
Camera control
Section titled “Camera control”Pan, tilt and zoom go through the ONVIF PTZ service. The app can’t ask a camera which axes it has, so tick the ones it really has. See Camera control.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”The sections follow the standard:
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Information | The name, the identity and the functions the camera reports |
| Date & Time | The clock and NTP |
| Encoding | The video encoding of the streams |
| Image | The camera’s image settings |
| Address and Ports | The camera’s address, DNS and gateway |
| Access and Protocols | The network protocols the camera serves, such as HTTP and RTSP, and their ports |
| Users | Read only. Adding users and changing passwords is not available yet |
| Maintenance | Restart the camera. Its video stops for a minute or two |
| Advanced Editor | Every block as the camera gives it |
After a change, the app reads the block again and shows what the camera kept.
What the app doesn’t do yet
Section titled “What the app doesn’t do yet”- It doesn’t search the camera’s recordings, so there is no archive.
- It doesn’t show the camera’s motion events.
- OSD, privacy masks and motion zones have no settings yet.
On Android
Section titled “On Android”Android supports ONVIF live view, snapshots and camera control on the axes you enable. Device settings open in the advanced editor rather than the full set of Apple forms. Watchpost does not read ONVIF recordings or events.
See Device information and time and Video, image and privacy masks for the ONVIF forms and their limits. Watchpost does not offer the Xiongmai/Hikvision recording, recorder-channel or OSD/mask forms for ONVIF.
See Device address, ports and protocols for address and DNS changes and reconnecting. Watchpost has no ONVIF detector or vendor-service forms.
See Device users and Device log and maintenance for account permissions, log tools and restart, including platform differences.