Access IP Camera in Python OpenCV

Question

How do I access my IP Camera stream?

Code for displaying a standard webcam stream is

import cv2
import numpy as np

cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

while(True):
    ret, frame = cap.read()
    cv2.imshow('frame',frame)
    if cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF == ord('q'):
        break

cap.release()
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

How do I do the same exact thing but with the IP Camera?

My system:

• Python 2.7.14
• OpenCV 2.4.9
• Teledyne Dalsa Genie Nano XL Camera

Help will be highly appreciated

You can use video capture Object as

camera = cv2.VideoCapture("IP:PORT/video")

Answer 1

An IP camera can be accessed in opencv by providing the streaming URL of the camera in the constructor of cv2.VideoCapture.

Usually, RTSP or HTTP protocol is used by the camera to stream video. An example of IP camera streaming URL is as follows:

rtsp://192.168.1.64/1

It can be opened with OpenCV like this:

capture = cv2.VideoCapture('rtsp://192.168.1.64/1')

Most of the IP cameras have a username and password to access the video. In such case, the credentials have to be provided in the streaming URL as follows:

capture = cv2.VideoCapture('rtsp://username:password@192.168.1.64/1')