reostream

A camera proxy for Reolink cameras. It sits between your cameras and Frigate (or any NVR), pulls video over Reolink's own Baichuan protocol, and serves it as RTSP and HTTP MPEG-TS.

It does not replace Frigate. Frigate still does detection and recording; reostream only changes where Frigate gets the video from.

Reolink cameras --Baichuan--> reostream --RTSP--> go2rtc / Frigate / Blue Iris
                                        --HTTP--> mpv / VLC / scripts

Why

Reolink's RTSP server is broken on some models. On a Duo 3 it gave green blocks, grey frames and smearing. Same camera, same encoder, same thirty minutes, both transports:

Reolink's own NVR looks fine because it uses Baichuan, not RTSP. A fisheye here also loses about 21% of its frames over RTSP. Method in docs/measurements.md.

Neolink did this first and made the protocol understandable. It has had no commits since January 2025. reostream is a new implementation, not a fork.

Quickstart

docker run -d --name reostream --restart unless-stopped \
  -v reostream-data:/data \
  -p 8560:8560 -p 8561:8561 -p 8562:8562 \
  ghcr.io/volttech21/reostream:latest

docker logs reostream

1. The log prints a one-time token. Open http://<host>:8562/claim and paste it.
2. Keep the password it gives you.
3. Add a camera: its IP, admin, and its password. Port 9000 on the camera must be reachable; it is on by default.

Your streams are at rtsp://<host>:8561/<camera> and http://<host>:8560/<camera>.ts.

Prefer compose, Unraid, a plain binary or systemd? See docs/setup.md.

Using it with Frigate

Feed go2rtc from reostream's RTSP, and point Frigate at go2rtc. One camera connection then serves detect, record and live view.

go2rtc:
  streams:
    driveway:
      - rtsp://reostream:8561/driveway
      - ffmpeg:driveway#audio=opus
    driveway_sub:
      - rtsp://reostream:8561/driveway_sub

cameras:
  driveway:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/driveway_sub
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles: [detect]
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/driveway
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles: [record, audio]

The #audio=opus line is optional; it gives browsers and apps audio in live view.

Without go2rtc, Frigate can read http://reostream:8560/driveway.ts directly.

Endpoints

Also on port 8560:

What it does

• One connection per stream, held open whether anyone is watching or not.
• Timestamps from the camera's own clock, so frame rates come out right.
• A slow client is disconnected, never buffered. No client can stall a camera.
• New clients start at a keyframe. Audio is carried when the camera sends it.
• Two-way audio: on cameras with a speaker, Frigate's talk button works through it.
• Sessions are closed cleanly. A camera left with an open session refuses connections for minutes.
• A web page on port 8562 for status, live view, config, logs and camera settings.

No ffmpeg, GStreamer or RTSP server in the serving path.

Tested on

reostream has been the only video path for this fleet's Frigate since September: 23 streams, 69 Mbps, about 60% of one CPU core, 29-59 MB of memory. Numbers in docs/measurements.md.

Not yet tested:

• Battery cameras. They sleep and wake, and the protocol client has not seen them yet. Reports welcome.
• Other models and firmware.

Camera control

The web page has a settings page for each camera: image, overlay, IR, status LED, floodlight, time and accounts.

reocam, a separate command line tool, reads and changes camera settings over the same protocol. Streaming does not need it.

reocam -address 192.0.2.50 -password secret probe

probe reports which messages the camera answers. See docs/control.md for reading and writing settings and what to watch out for.

More

• docs/setup.md: other ways to run it, the config file, the control page, RTSP, the frames feed
• docs/control.md: camera control with reocam
• docs/protocol.md: what the Baichuan wire actually does
• docs/measurements.md: how every number above was measured

License

AGPL v3. Free to use, run and modify. If you distribute a modified version or run one as a service for others, you must publish your changes.

A commercial license without that obligation is available. See COPYRIGHT.