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ONVIF Management & PTZ Controls

VibeNVR supports advanced camera management via the ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum) protocol. This allows the system to interact with your camera's hardware features beyond just receiving a video stream.

🎮 Key Features

  • Real-time PTZ: Control Pan, Tilt, Zoom, and Home Positions directly from the Live View.
  • ONVIF Edge Motion: Offload detection logic to camera hardware to save server resources.
  • Advanced PTZ Home: Native support for SetHomePosition and GotoHomePosition with intelligent software fallbacks for restrictive hardware.
  • Probing: Automatically discover camera details (Manufacturer, Model, RTSP profiles, and hardware capabilities) as visual badges.
  • Credential Fallback: Automatically attempts to use RTSP streaming credentials if management credentials are not explicitly set.
  • Network Discovery: Securely scan your local network for ONVIF and RTSP devices using an optimized SSE (Server-Sent Events) stream.

🔍 Network Discovery (Scanner)

VibeNVR includes a secure, high-concurrency network scanner to help you find cameras without needing to check your router's DHCP list.

How it works

  1. Select Range: Enter an IP range (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24 or 192.168.1.1-100).
  2. SSE Streaming: The scanner uses Server-Sent Events to provide real-time feedback. Results appear as they are discovered, rather than waiting for the entire scan to finish.
  3. Secure Probing:
    • The scanner attempts to probe ONVIF ports (80, 8080, 8899, etc.) and RTSP ports (554).
    • It uses HTTP Headers (X-Scanner-User, X-Scanner-Password) to securely pass test credentials during discovery, ensuring that passwords never leak into URL logs or browser history.
  4. Auto-Verification: If discovery succeeds, the system identifies the manufacturer, model, and whether authentication is required.

[!IMPORTANT] To use the scanner, navigate to the Add Camera modal and click the "Scan Network" button. Ensure you provide the base credentials for your cameras to allow the scanner to verify specialized profiles.

⚙ī¸ Configuration

To enable ONVIF features, navigate to the ONVIF tab in the camera settings modal.

Settings Fields

Field Description
ONVIF Host The IP address or hostname for management (usually the same as the RTSP IP).
Port The ONVIF port (Default: 80, common alternatives: 8080, 8899, 8000).
Username Management user (e.g., admin).
Password Management password.

[!TIP] Use the "Test ONVIF Connection" button to verify that VibeNVR can communicate with your camera's management service before saving.

🕹ī¸ Live View Controls

Once ONVIF is configured, a Move icon (four arrows) will appear in the action bar of the camera's live view.

  1. Toggle Controls: Click the Move icon to show the joystick overlay.
  2. Move: Click and hold the directional arrows to move the camera.
  3. Zoom: Use the + and - buttons on the right to control optical/digital zoom.
  4. Presets: Click the Bookmark icon to open a dropdown menu of your camera's saved hardware presets. Select a preset to move the camera to that position instantly.
  5. Stop: Releasing any button sends a mandatory Stop command to prevent the camera from moving indefinitely.

🧠 Intelligent Capability Detection

VibeNVR does not simply "guess" if your camera supports PTZ based on the presence of a PTZ service. Instead, it performs a Deep Capability Probe that inspects the actual ONVIF Vector Spaces defined by the camera manufacturer.

  • Selective UI: PTZ buttons (Pan/Tilt, Zoom, and Home) are only displayed if the camera explicitly supports their corresponding movements. For example, if a camera supports panning but has no optical zoom, the Zoom buttons will automatically hide.
  • Home Fallbacks: VibeNVR implements a 3-stage fallback for Home positions. If the camera rejects the native ONVIF command, the system will attempt to use presets named "Home" or "1", or even create a new "Home" preset if one is missing.

  • Centralized Probing: Configuration details and hardware capabilities are refreshed by clicking the "Test ONVIF Connection" button in the camera settings modal. This removes setup clutter from the Live View while ensuring capabilities are always synchronized.

  • Exit: Click the X in the top-right of the overlay or toggle the Move icon again to hide the controls.

🛡ī¸ Security & Privacy

  • RBAC: Only users with the Admin role can access ONVIF configuration and PTZ controls.
  • Log Redaction: All ONVIF passwords and management URLs are automatically redacted in system logs.
  • Isolated Network: VibeNVR only requires access to the camera's management port (usually port 80/8899). It does not require the camera to have internet access.

🔧 Troubleshooting

Connection Failed

  • Firewall: Ensure port 80 (or your configured port) is open between the VibeNVR container and the camera.
  • ONVIF Enabled: Some cameras (e.g., Tapo, Reolink) require ONVIF to be explicitly enabled in their native mobile app or web interface.
  • Separate Account: Some cameras require a dedicated "ONVIF Account" separate from the main web/app login.

Movement is Jerky or Laggy

  • Network Latency: PTZ commands rely on low-latency SOAP requests. Ensure your camera is connected via a stable link.
  • Browser Performance: The Live View uses WebCodecs or MJPEG polling. Ensure your browser supports hardware acceleration for the smoothest experience.

2: 3: ## 🤖 ONVIF Edge Motion Detection 4: 5: VibeNVR can subscribe to camera-side motion events via the ONVIF PullPoint service. This allows the camera's hardware to decide when motion is occurring, bypassing the NVR's CPU-intensive image analysis. 6: 7: ### Benefits 8: - CPU Efficiency: The NVR server does not need to decode and analyze video frames for motion, drastically reducing overall system load. 9: - Native Accuracy: Take advantage of manufacturer-specific tuned sensors and onboard AI algorithms. 10: - Bypass Bounding Boxes: Reduces false triggers by using the camera's internal logic. 11: 12: ### Configuration & Logic 13: 14: 1. Go to Camera Settings -> Motion tab. 15: 2. Select "ONVIF Edge (Camera-side Hardware)" in the Detection Engine dropdown. 16: - Note: This option is only available if an ONVIF Host is configured and the camera supports event subscriptions. 17: 3. Intelligent UI: When ONVIF Edge is active, the Motion Zones tab is automatically hidden from the interface. Since the camera hardware handles the detection, local NVR exclusion zones are ignored. 18: 4. Privacy: Privacy masks are still respected as they are burned into the stream before recording. 19: 20: --- 21: 22: