home-assistant.io/source/_components/camera.markdown

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layout	title	description	date	sidebar	comments	sharing	footer	logo	ha_category	ha_qa_scale	ha_release
page	Camera	Instructions on how to integrate cameras within Home Assistant.	2015-11-09 08:36	true	false	true	true	home-assistant.png	Camera	internal	0.7

The camera integration allows you to use IP cameras with Home Assistant.

{% linkable_title Streaming Video %}

If your camera supports it, and the stream integration is setup, you will be able to stream your cameras in the frontend and on supported media players.

This option will keep the stream alive, and preload the feed on Home Assistant startup. This will result in reduced latency when opening the stream in the frontend, as well as when using the play_stream service or Google Assistant integration. It does, however, utilize more resources on your machine, so it is recommended to check CPU usage if you plan to use this feature.

Example showing the Preload Stream option in the camera dialog.

{% linkable_title Services %}

Once loaded, the camera platform will expose services that can be called to perform various actions.

Available services: turn_on, turn_off, enable_motion_detection, disable_motion_detection, snapshot, and play_stream.

{% linkable_title Service play_stream %}

Play a live stream from a camera to selected media player(s). Requires stream integration to be set up.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	no	Name of entity to fetch stream from, e.g., camera.living_room_camera.
media_player	no	Name of media player to play stream on, e.g., media_player.living_room_tv.
format	yes	Stream format supported by stream integration and selected media_player. Default: hls

For example, the following action in an automation would send an hls live stream to your chromecast.

action:
  service: camera.play_stream
  data:
    entity_id: camera.yourcamera
    media_player: media_player.chromecast

{% linkable_title Service turn_on %}

Turn on camera. Not all camera models support this service, please consult individual camera page.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name(s) of entities to turn on, e.g., camera.living_room_camera.

{% linkable_title Service turn_off %}

Turn off camera. Not all camera models support this service, please consult individual camera page.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name(s) of entities to turn off, e.g., camera.living_room_camera.

{% linkable_title Service enable_motion_detection %}

Enable the motion detection in a camera.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name(s) of entities to enable motion detection, e.g., camera.living_room_camera.

{% linkable_title Service disable_motion_detection %}

Disable the motion detection in a camera.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	yes	Name(s) of entities to disable motion detection, e.g., camera.living_room_camera.

{% linkable_title Service snapshot %}

Take a snapshot from a camera.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	no	Name(s) of entities to create a snapshot from, e.g., camera.living_room_camera.
filename	no	Template of a file name. Variable is entity_id, e.g., {% raw %}/tmp/snapshot_{{ entity_id }}{% endraw %}.

The path part of filename must be an entry in the whitelist_external_dirs in your homeassistant: section of your configuration.yaml file.

For example, the following action in an automation would take a snapshot from "yourcamera" and save it to /tmp with a timestamped filename.

{% raw %}

action:
  service: camera.snapshot
  data:
    entity_id: camera.yourcamera
    filename: '/tmp/yourcamera_{{ now().strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S") }}.jpg'

{% endraw %}

{% linkable_title Service record %}

Make a .mp4 recording from a camera stream. Requires stream integration to be set up.

Both duration and lookback options are suggestions, but should be consistent per camera. The actual length of the recording may vary. It is suggested that you tweak these settings to fit your needs.

Service data attribute	Optional	Description
entity_id	no	Name(s) of entities to create a snapshot from, e.g., camera.living_room_camera.
filename	no	Template of a file name. Variable is entity_id, e.g., {% raw %}/tmp/{{ entity_id }}.mp4{% endraw %}.
duration	yes	Target recording length (in seconds). Default: 30
lookback	yes	Target lookback period (in seconds) to include in addition to duration. Only available if there is currently an active HLS stream. Default: 0

The path part of filename must be an entry in the whitelist_external_dirs in your homeassistant: section of your configuration.yaml file.

For example, the following action in an automation would take a recording from "yourcamera" and save it to /tmp with a timestamped filename.

{% raw %}

action:
  service: camera.record
  data:
    entity_id: camera.yourcamera
    filename: '/tmp/{{ entity_id }}_{{ now().strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S") }}.mp4'

{% endraw %}

{% linkable_title Test if it works %}

A simple way to test if you have set up your camera platform correctly, is to use Services from the Developer Tools. Choose your service from the dropdown menu Service, enter something like the sample below into the Service Data field, and hit CALL SERVICE.

{
  "entity_id": "camera.living_room_camera"
}