Cannot View Single Camera from Web Browser (Any) says switch to "Plug IN Mode"

[Gery Abay]

Cannot View Single Camera from Web Browser (Any) says switch to "Plug IN Mode"

[GW Customer]

Which browser are you using? I have problem viewing the cameras from Chrome, but in IE the plugin works just fine.

[Jeff Hawkey]

I previously installed the H265 extension in Chrome and it was working fine until yesterday. I had a problem on another website that caused me to clear my cookies. Now I have the same issue as Gery Abay. The error reads, "It needs plug-in to support H265 video stream, please use another browser or switch to plug-in mode." 

[Jeff Hawkey]

I resolved the issue. Apparently deleting the cookies caused the video display setting to get reset to "RealTime good / Record bitrate" This causes H.265 live view of a single camera to give the very misleading error message about needing a plug-in. I changed the video settings to "Fluency good / Network bitrate" and everything works as it should. FYI I am using the Chrome H.265 / HEVC player extension by Struktur AG.

[Brian Peyser]

If you are viewing with "Fluency good / Network bitrate" and it's working in Chrome, it's probably using H.264. Do you have your camera's substream set to H.264 or H.265?

The "Network bitrate" option uses the substream so if your camera is using H.264 on the substream, that's why it's working.

[Jeff Hawkey]

My camera settings for all cameras are Stream Type = "Main Stream" and Video Encoding = "H265". After further experimentation it appears that the bitrate setting is the culprit since both fluency settings work fine with "Network Bitrate." Additional clue: the multi-camera view live stream works fine regardless of bitrate settings. It is only the single camera view that has the problem.

[Brian Peyser]

What is your substream encoding set to?

I'm guessing that if you set your substream to H.265 you'll find that "Network Bitrate" does not work in Chrome any more. I haven't verified by examining the actual stream data, but the labels for stream types are kinda stupid in my opinion. It's not really clear what is supposed to happen when you choose different options.

I'm pretty sure the "Network bitrate" actually uses the substream.

[Jeff Hawkey]

I guess I'll have to show my ignorance here. I don't know where to set substream other than in camera video settings. All of our cameras are set to "Main Stream (normal)" with encoding set to "H265." Is there another setting that you are talking about?

[Brian Peyser]

This system is confusing, even for someone who understands the underlying technology. It's not clear what they are actually doing. It's taken me some trial and error to figure out what most of the settings mean. I'm still not entirely clear on how everything works, other than they are probably running a Linux OS with busybox:

Aggressive OS guesses: Linux 2.6.32 (94%), Linux 3.10 (93%), Linux 3.4 (93%), Linux 3.1 - 3.2 (93%), Synology DiskStation Manager 5.1 (93%), Linux 2.6.18 - 2.6.22 (93%), Linux 2.6.32 or 3.10 (92%), WatchGuard Fireware 11.8 (92%), Linux 2.6.39 (91%), Linux 2.6.32 - 2.6.39 (91%)
No exact OS matches for host (test conditions non-ideal).

(BTW, those results are good news for security. I still don't trust the NVR and keep it isolated from the internet, but I trust it more than the cameras I have. Those are riddled with back doors.)

There are multiple places to set the substream video settings. One is through the GW NVR directly, using the mouse. Go to Main menu > Record > Record settings. Then choose the channel number and then choose Stream = Substream.

The other is through the web interface of the GW NVR: Configuration > Camera Settings > Video Settings. Again, select the Channel No and select Stream Type = Sub Stream. You have to save the video settings, but I am not sure if you then have to select the main stream and save that in the record settings. I would do it that way: change substream settings, save, choose main stream, save again. The interface is not entirely intuitive.

The last way is through the web interface of your actual camera. If it's a GW camera, it's in Configuration > Video & audio > Video. If it's not a GW camera, it will depend on your IP camera firmware. This is the most reliable way to do it. If you set the sub stream video encoding directly in the camera web interface (you did log in to your cameras individually and change the default username/password, right?), you won't have to worry about making sure the NVR is set to record the main stream. A lot of cameras will reboot following a video encoding change.

I expect you have Video Encoding set to H264 for the substream. If you change the substream video settings to H265 save the setting, it won't work in Chrome any more, since the H.265 player extension that you have (and I have) doesn't allow the GW web interface to use H.265 video. The GW web interfaces (both for the individual cameras and the NVR) use Flash, and don't support H.265 in anything but IE. If instead of using Flash, they had HTML <video></video> elements, it would work in Chrome (and Firefox). The web interface for these is not written to support that. Just be glad they aren't using ActiveX, which would be even worse.

The video you're seeing now via the web interface is the low resolution substream. If you pull the video file off the NVR (using a USB drive, since the video download option in the web interface is still broken as far as I know), then make it a usable file with either their player (I've never used it, I think it's a MS Windows program and I use Linux) or something like ffmpeg, you can then play the H.265 full-resolution video. The other way to see full-resolution video is to view it directly from the NVR on a 4K monitor/TV.

If you change the main stream to H.264, you'll also be able to see it in Chrome. But you'll also use a lot more storage space. I've kept mine at H.265 for the main stream, and if I want to see the main stream video, I transfer a file via USB (I wish they would fix the video download) and use ffmpeg to copy the video stream into a .mp4 container. That works starting from either .DAT or .AVI as the container. Most of the time the substream is enough for me to review, and I only need to see the full-res video occasionally.