Configuring streaming with a Tapo Camera

[PopOnTheAir]

Hello,
I hope I can find help on this matter.
I have follow a guideline to stream Tapo Camera with RTSP within VLC:

1/I have defined ID/Password in Tapo
2/ Open 554 port in router and define static IP adresss for the camera
3/ try open a stream network in VLC with syntax: rtsp:// IPadress:554/stream1

well it asked me the ID and Password and start streaming BUT just for 2 seconds, then it freeze. and is never able to display more after that.
what other setting am i supposed to do?

Thank to all of U.

[dzoey]

It could be a couple of things.
1. You've configured the firewall to permit UDP from the camera -> your application but not from your application -> the camera. Some RTP stacks require RTCP data be sent back from the receiver to the camera to validate connectivity. VLC sends an empty RTCP response. Not ideal, but it generally works.
2. There's a misconfigured router or VPN along the path between the camera and your application and it's dropping large packets.

If you use wireshark (windows) or tcpdump (linux) to view what's going on in the network, you'll be able to see what's going on in the network.

[PopOnTheAir]

Hello dzoe,
thanks for your reply but i dont undertand it all. Sorry.

Well i am still pretty much at the same point , just a little bit further.
I have noticed in the Tapo application on my mobile, this app only have a mobile app, that if i change the password and ID, I wait a little bit, then I try in VLC with the RTSP string, it will work
and I can stay for hours with a live stream.
If I close VLC and try again with the same string I get error message saying it cant open .

Any idea ?

[John Aaron Rose]

I also can't get streaming to work from a Tapo C310 camera. I have port forwarding for TCP & UDP on ports 554 & 2020 to my Desktop Ubuntu 2024 computer. Computer has firewall (ufw) open both in & out for 554 & 2020.
Desktop address is 192.168.2.11 and camera address is 192.168.2.21. URL for VLC Network Stream is rtsp://192.168.2.21:554/stream1. I've run tcpdump an dlines containing 192.168.2.21 are:
09:08:51.392058 IP 192.168.2.11.46186 > 192.168.2.21.rtsp: Flags [S], seq 1512384806, win 64240, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 3258753139 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
09:08:51.395212 IP 192.168.2.21.rtsp > 192.168.2.11.46186: Flags [S.], seq 753242085, ack 1512384807, win 28560, options [mss 1440,sackOK,TS val 59109555 ecr 3258753139,nop,wscale 3], length 0
09:08:51.395305 IP 192.168.2.11.46186 > 192.168.2.21.rtsp: Flags [.], ack 1, win 502, options [nop,nop,TS val 3258753142 ecr 59109555], length 0
09:08:51.395377 IP 192.168.2.11.46186 > 192.168.2.21.rtsp: Flags [P.], seq 1:244, ack 1, win 502, options [nop,nop,TS val 3258753142 ecr 59109555], length 243: RTSP
09:08:51.398940 IP 192.168.2.21.rtsp > 192.168.2.11.46186: Flags [.], ack 244, win 3704, options [nop,nop,TS val 59109556 ecr 3258753142], length 0
09:08:51.401079 IP 192.168.2.21.rtsp > 192.168.2.11.46186: Flags [P.], seq 1:75, ack 244, win 3704, options [nop,nop,TS val 59109556 ecr 3258753142], length 74: RTSP: RTSP/1.0 400 Bad Request
09:08:51.401134 IP 192.168.2.11.46186 > 192.168.2.21.rtsp: Flags [.], ack 75, win 502, options [nop,nop,TS val 3258753148 ecr 59109556], length 0
09:08:51.401175 IP 192.168.2.11.37491 > 192.168.2.10.domain: 54528+ PTR? 21.2.168.192.in-addr.arpa. (43)
09:08:51.401198 IP 192.168.2.11.46186 > 192.168.2.21.rtsp: Flags [F.], seq 244, ack 75, win 502, options [nop,nop,TS val 3258753148 ecr 59109556], length 0
09:08:51.403843 IP 192.168.2.10.domain > 192.168.2.11.37491: 54528 NXDomain 0/1/0 (127)
09:08:51.447231 IP 192.168.2.21.rtsp > 192.168.2.11.46186: Flags [.], ack 245, win 3704, options [nop,nop,TS val 59109561 ecr 3258753148], length 0
09:08:51.586517 IP 192.168.2.21.rtsp > 192.168.2.11.46186: Flags [F.], seq 75, ack 245, win 3704, options [nop,nop,TS val 59109574 ecr 3258753148], length 0
09:08:51.586544 IP 192.168.2.11.46186 > 192.168.2.21.rtsp: Flags [.], ack 76, win 502, options [nop,nop,TS val 3258753333 ecr 59109574], length 0

I don't understand the above lines. Any ideas anybody?

PS I have the full tcpdump output. But not able to attach it here.