Add a camera

Scan and pick

Open Add camera. The hub scans your network over ONVIF and RTSP and lists the cameras it finds, recognising popular brands and often the exact model.

Pick your camera. If it isn’t listed, choose its brand tile, or one of:

• Any ONVIF camera: Unicam asks the camera for its stream links. You only type the username and password.
• RTSP / other URL: paste any RTSP, RTMP, HTTP-FLV, MJPEG or HLS link.

Sign in to the camera

Unicam asks which app you set the camera up with, because people know the app, not the hardware maker inside (Imou and CP PLUS are Dahua inside; EZVIZ is part of Hikvision). Then it names the password the way that app does.

The password is the camera’s own password. It is not your Wi‑Fi password and not your app or cloud login. See Which password does my camera want?

Unicam tests it first

Before saving, the hub tries the login and tells you exactly what happened: wrong password (and how many tries are left before the camera locks itself), streaming switched off, wrong address, or a different stream path. See Camera won’t connect.

Main and sub-streams

Most cameras offer a full-quality main stream and a low-resolution sub-stream. Unicam records the main stream and uses the sub-stream for the camera grid and motion detection, which keeps the hub and your phone light. Brand tiles set both up for you.

NVRs and DVRs

Any NVR or DVR that exposes RTSP works. Add each channel as its own camera: on Hikvision-style recorders channel 2 is /Streaming/Channels/201, on Dahua-style ones it’s channel=2. Automatic NVR channel discovery is coming soon.

After adding

Give the camera a name and pick its record mode. In camera settings you can also mark an indoor camera as Private at home, so it stops completely in Home mode.

Brand-specific steps: Tapo · Imou · CP PLUS · Reolink · Hikvision · Dahua · all brands.