Use your cameras with Frigate and Home Assistant

BombeCam turns each camera into a stream on this PC that Frigate, Home Assistant, VLC or any NVR on your network can open. Video and sound come straight from the camera over your network. Pick the address below, then follow the steps for Frigate or Home Assistant. Every value has a copy button.

1. The address other devices use

Frigate and Home Assistant reach this PC by its network address. If this PC is on more than one network, pick the one your Frigate or Home Assistant machine is on.

Stream names come from the camera names when you add them and don't change when a camera is renamed. Change one on the Cameras tab. The older form, rtsp://<this PC>:8554/<camera ID>, keeps working.

2. Where do Frigate or Home Assistant run?

On another device (a mini PC, NAS, Raspberry Pi, or Home Assistant OS) In Docker Desktop on this PC Directly on this PC (without Docker)

They use this PC's network address, shown above. Windows has to let them in: see If other devices can't connect.

3. Frigate

Open your Frigate configuration: in Frigate, Settings → Configuration editor (or the config.yml file).
Copy the cameras below into it. If your configuration already has a go2rtc: or cameras: section, put these entries under the existing one (each section may appear only once).
Save and restart Frigate. Each camera shows up with live view (with sound) and recordings. Recordings keep the camera's own sound.

Add to your Frigate configuration

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Starting Frigate from scratch? A complete configuration

Complete config.yml

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Frigate looks for objects 5 times a second, on the stream's own picture size. The snippet suggests a smaller size when the camera sends more than 1280 pixels across.
Frigate and BombeCam on the same Linux machine with host networking both want port 8554. Change BombeCam's ports under Options.
For Home Assistant's Frigate integration, Frigate needs MQTT turned on (with your broker's address).

4. Home Assistant: the camera

Home Assistant sets up cameras like these with its Generic Camera integration, in its own screens (not in configuration.yaml). Do this once per camera:

Recent Home Assistant versions play the stream with low delay through their built-in go2rtc.
If the live view stutters or keeps restarting, open the camera in Home Assistant's Devices & services → Generic Camera, click Configure, open More options and turn on Use wallclock as timestamps.
Already using Frigate? Its Home Assistant integration adds the cameras for you, and you can skip this step.

5. Home Assistant: controls and status (MQTT)

With an MQTT broker (most people use Home Assistant's Mosquitto broker add-on), each camera appears in Home Assistant as a device, with no YAML: night vision, status light, motion and sound detection, spotlight (on models that have one), pan and tilt buttons, and whether the stream and the controls are connected. Commands go to the camera the same way as BombeCam's own buttons (through Osaio's cloud, like the Osaio app).

6. Options

Stream password

Off: any device on your network can open the streams, like most cameras. On: other devices need a user name and password, which BombeCam adds to the addresses on this page for you. It stays off until you turn it on, so Frigate or Home Assistant setups that already work keep working; after turning it on, copy the new addresses into them.

Checking the running video server...

User · Password

Snapshots for other devices

A still-picture address for each camera (Home Assistant's still image, notifications), served on port 8655. It only serves pictures: nothing else of BombeCam is reachable from the network. Needs FFmpeg on this PC. Windows may ask whether bombecam.exe may use the network: allow it on Private networks.

Ports

Change these only if another program already uses them (Frigate's go2rtc uses 8554, 8555 and 1984). Frigate and Home Assistant need the new addresses afterwards.

RTSP HLS WebRTC WebRTC media (UDP) Snapshots

7. Check it from another device

VLC: Media → Open Network Stream, paste a camera's stream address, click Play.
FFmpeg: ffprobe -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://… lists the video (H.264) and sound tracks.
BombeCam's own viewer must show the camera as LIVE: other devices get the same stream.

If other devices can't connect

Windows firewall. The first time BombeCam starts, Windows asks whether mediamtx.exe may use the network. Allow it on Private networks. Missed it? Open Windows Security → Firewall & network protection → Allow an app through firewall, find mediamtx and tick Private (and bombecam too, for snapshots).
Public network. Windows blocks incoming connections on networks it treats as Public. Open Settings → Network & internet, click your Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection, and set Network profile type to Private.
Wrong address. Pick the address of the network your Frigate or Home Assistant machine is on (step 1), then copy the addresses again.
PC asleep. Streams stop while this PC sleeps. Set Windows to never sleep while plugged in if you record around the clock.
Port in use. If the video server reports a port that is already used, another program (often Frigate's go2rtc) has it: change the ports under Options.

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