Local webcam stream#639

Right now the entire video stream is being routed through SP’s servers, so it would be worth adding a config option that lets users connect to a local stream instead. That would take load off the servers and internet links, and it would allow smooth, uninterrupted viewing

I get that it could be done in a way where it’s over HTTPS, but that would normally not be the case, and modern browsers is really what’s killing this being an option I’m afraid :/ As the merged-into-post talks about, it’s due to us as a cloud service with an SSL certificate not being able to talk to non-HTTPS local endpoints without being branded as an unsafe website - even trying to make the connection, in case you’re outside the network where this device is, brands us unsafe - so, even though we had it back in the day, we had to remove it.

There are 2 ways this could work; via WebRTC, a custom browser extension that takes care of the “security”-related issues, or a secure port-forwarded camera endpoint; it may be local, but it could be [mydomain.com/camera] and via DNS still point to a local IP; it could be HTTPS and that would take care of some of the issues (though another issue is the security risks of letting the client connect to unknown and essentially untrusted sources; we naturally wouldn’t let it load any JavaScript that could have it steal your details, but it’s a security risk we have to think about).

So, while it kinda sucks that I merged this into a closed/archived post, this is done to not give hope to the seemingly simple solution, which doesn’t work in reality. I will open a door slightly to a specific suggestion that tackles this directly, by recommending the possible ways to do it that I mentioned - branded as a more advanced option now for everyone (thereby being quite a different suggestion, targeting another audience that would champion this suggestion).

Lastly, we are going to offer more smooth, uninterrupted viewing experiences via a WebRTC stream of ~30 FPS in the future (but still through our servers).

Hope all this makes sense! :)