Cameras
IP camera & NVR runbooks for the home
Operator-grade troubleshooting and planning for self-hosted cameras — Frigate, Blue Iris, Scrypted, and Synology Surveillance Station. Get the stream connected (RTSP/ONVIF), stop false alerts, keep cameras online, and size the system with real calculators. Every page is source-backed and self-hosted-first; compatibility is stated as protocol-verifiable (RTSP/ONVIF), never a fake per-model matrix.
Camera calculators
Plan the system before you buy: drive space, switch PoE budget, network bandwidth, and how many cameras a detector can handle.
From choosing to private & local — the operator path
A local camera system is a sequence of decisions. Each step links the source-backed runbook or comparison that settles it.
1 · Choose
Pick the NVR software & detector
Map your use case across Frigate vs Blue Iris vs Scrypted, then choose a detector — Coral vs Hailo vs an Intel iGPU.
Compare platforms2 · Pick cameras
Choose cameras on protocol, not hype
Buy on protocol-verifiable criteria — standard RTSP + substream, ONVIF Profile T, PoE class — then size storage and PoE budget with the calculators above.
Selection criteria3 · Connect & tune
Get frames and cut false alerts
Fix Frigate 'no frames received', connect ONVIF/RTSP, and get low-latency live view with go2rtc.
Connect & tune4 · Keep it local
Stay off the cloud
Isolate cameras on a VLAN so they can't phone home, and view them remotely without the cloud via a mesh VPN.
Local & privateFrigate & NVR software
The self-hosted NVR layer — decoding Frigate's 'no frames received' error and cutting false alerts the right way (min_score vs threshold, zones, masks).
Decode Frigate's 'No frames have been received' error — the RTSP path, the codec, and the go2rtc restream wiring behind it.
Open runbookCut Frigate false positives the right way — min_score vs threshold, object min/max area, zones, and the limits of motion masks.
Open runbookPick the right self-hosted NVR — a use-case map of Frigate, Blue Iris, and Scrypted by platform, AI detection, HomeKit, and cost. Not a 'winner'.
Open runbookStreams & connection
Getting the camera connected at all — building a working RTSP URL by vendor family, and fixing ONVIF discovery/control across VLANs and clock-skew auth.
Fix ONVIF discovery and control failures — VLAN multicast, the Profile S sunset, separate ONVIF accounts, and clock-skew timestamped auth.
Open runbookBuild a working RTSP URL — the per-vendor path families (Reolink, Hikvision, Dahua/Amcrest), password encoding, and ffprobe testing.
Open runbookFix laggy in-browser camera viewing — why RTSP/HLS is seconds behind, and how go2rtc's MSE and WebRTC give near-real-time live view (ports 1984/8554/8555).
Open runbookPower, network & reliability
Why a camera keeps dropping — PoE budget, DHCP lease/IP conflicts, cable voltage drop, and inter-VLAN firewall reachability.
Find why a PoE camera keeps dropping offline — switch PoE budget, a short DHCP lease or IP conflict, cable voltage drop, or a VLAN firewall change.
Open runbookPut cameras on their own VLAN the right way — let the NVR reach them, block their internet and LAN access, and give internet-blocked cameras local NTP.
Open runbookReach your NVR and cameras from anywhere without a camera-vendor cloud — a mesh VPN (Tailscale/WireGuard) to the NVR instead of port-forwarding a camera.
Open runbookHardware & planning
Choosing detectors and sizing the system — Coral vs Hailo vs Intel, plus the calculators for storage, PoE, bandwidth, and Frigate capacity.
Coral is no longer recommended for new Frigate installs. Hailo-8/8L vs Coral vs Intel iGPU/NPU by inference time, and how many cameras each supports.
Open runbookChoose a PoE camera on protocol-verifiable criteria — standard RTSP, ONVIF Profile T, a substream, PoE class within your switch budget, and local recording.
Open runbookHome cameras: common questions
Which NVR software should I run — Frigate, Blue Iris, or Scrypted?
It's a use-case map, not a winner: Frigate is free, local-first, with strong object detection; Blue Iris is a paid Windows app; Scrypted shines for HomeKit Secure Video. The Frigate vs Blue Iris vs Scrypted breakdown matches each to a use case.
Coral, Hailo, or an Intel iGPU for object detection?
Coral is no longer recommended for new installs; Hailo-8/8L and modern Intel iGPU/NPU (via OpenVINO) are the current options. The Coral vs Hailo vs Intel NPU guide covers the cameras-per-detector math and that decode is separate from detection.
How much storage do I need for my cameras?
It depends on resolution, bitrate, frame rate, and retention. Use the NVR storage calculator above to size the drives, and the bandwidth calculator to check your network and detector load before you buy.
How do I keep my cameras off the internet?
Put them on an isolated VLAN with a one-way NVR→camera rule and no internet route (use local NTP), and view them remotely without the cloud over a mesh VPN — never port-forward a camera.
11 camera runbooks and four calculators, and growing. New IP-camera and NVR operator pages are added as each theme is built out.