frigate/docs/docs/configuration/live.md

id	title
live	Live View

Frigate has different live view options, some of which require restream to be enabled.

Live View Options

Live view options can be selected while viewing the live stream. The options are:

Source	Latency	Frame Rate	Resolution	Audio	Requires Restream	Other Limitations
jsmpeg	low	same as detect -> fps, capped at 10	same as detect	no	no	none
mse	low	native	native	yes (depends on audio codec)	yes	not supported on iOS, Firefox is h.264 only
webrtc	lowest	native	native	yes (depends on audio codec)	yes	requires extra config, doesn't support h.265

Audio Support

MSE Requires AAC audio, WebRTC requires PCMU/PCMA, or opus audio. If you want to support both MSE and WebRTC then your restream config needs to use ffmpeg to set both.

go2rtc:
  streams:
    test_cam: ffmpeg:rtsp://192.168.1.5:554/live0#video=copy#audio=aac#audio=opus

However, chances are that your camera already provides at least one usable audio type, so you just need restream to add the missing one. For example, if your camera outputs audio in AAC format:

go2rtc:
  streams:
    test_cam: ffmpeg:rtsp://192.168.1.5:554/live0#video=copy#audio=copy#audio=opus

Which will reuse your camera AAC audio, while also adding one track in OPUS format.

If your camera uses RTSP and supports the audio type for the live view you want to use, then you can pass the camera stream to go2rtc without ffmpeg.

go2rtc:
  streams:
    test_cam: rtsp://192.168.1.5:554/live0

Setting Stream For Live UI

There may be some cameras that you would prefer to use the sub stream for live view, but the main stream for recording. This can be done via live -> stream_name.

go2rtc:
  streams:
    test_cam: ffmpeg:rtsp://192.168.1.5:554/live0#video=copy#audio=aac#audio=opus
    test_cam_sub: ffmpeg:rtsp://192.168.1.5:554/substream#video=copy#audio=aac#audio=opus

cameras:
  test_cam:
    ffmpeg:
      output_args:
        record: preset-record-generic-audio-copy
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/test_cam?video=copy&audio=aac # <--- the name here must match the name of the camera in restream
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - record
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/test_cam_sub?video=copy # <--- the name here must match the name of the camera_sub in restream
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - detect
    live:
      stream_name: test_cam_sub

WebRTC extra configuration:

WebRTC works by creating a TCP or UDP connection on port 8555. However, it requires additional configuration:

• For external access, over the internet, setup your router to forward port 8555 to port 8555 on the Frigate device, for both TCP and UDP.

• For internal/local access, unless you are running through the add-on, you will also need to set the WebRTC candidates list in the go2rtc config. For example, if 192.168.1.10 is the local IP of the device running Frigate:

  go2rtc:
    streams:
      test_cam: ...
    webrtc:
      candidates:
        - 192.168.1.10:8555
        - stun:8555
  

:::tip

This extra configuration may not be required if Frigate has been installed as a Home Assistant add-on, as Frigate uses the Supervisor's API to generate a WebRTC candidate.

However, it is recommended if issues occur to define the candidates manually. You should do this if the Frigate add-on fails to generate a valid candidate. If an error occurs you will see some warnings like the below in the add-on logs page during the initialization:

[WARN] Failed to get IP address from supervisor
[WARN] Failed to get WebRTC port from supervisor

:::

:::note

If you are having difficulties getting WebRTC to work and you are running Frigate with docker, you may want to try changing the container network mode:

• network: host, in this mode you don't need to forward any ports. The services inside of the Frigate container will have full access to the network interfaces of your host machine as if they were running natively and not in a container. Any port conflicts will need to be resolved. This network mode is recommended by go2rtc, but we recommend you only use it if necessary.
• network: bridge creates a virtual network interface for the container, and the container will have full access to it. You also don't need to forward any ports, however, the IP for accessing Frigate locally will differ from the IP of the host machine. Your router will see Frigate as if it was a new device connected in the network.

:::

See https://github.com/AlexxIT/go2rtc#module-webrtc for more information about this.