No transcoding · No cloud · Zero dependencies

Your old CCTV DVR,
speaking RTSP.

Thousands of 2008–2018 analog DVRs have no RTSP and no ONVIF — so Frigate, Home Assistant and Scrypted can't see them. dvrbridge talks the board's own closed protocol and re-serves every channel as standard RTSP. Same H.264, stream-copied, no new hardware.

Get started — free ▸ Revive my board ▸

MIT-licensed core · runs on a Raspberry Pi · verified live on a 4-channel board

dvrbridge — bash

# 1 · find your channels
$ dvrbridge probe 192.168.1.108 -u admin -p ••••
  ch1: OK 352×288  ch2: OK  ch3: OK  ch4: OK
  # → prints ready-to-paste config

# 2 · run the bridge
$ dvrbridge serve -c dvrbridge.toml

# 3 · watch, anywhere
$ ffplay rtsp://host:8554/dvr/ch1

dvrbridge DVR channel 1 — night CCTV camera view of a forecourt

REC2026-08-03 02:14:07CH01

dvrbridge DVR channel 2 — night CCTV camera view of a car park

REC2026-08-03 02:14:07CH02

dvrbridge DVR channel 3 — night CCTV camera view of a waterfront yard

REC2026-08-03 02:14:07CH03

dvrbridge DVR channel 4 — night CCTV camera view of a storefront

REC2026-08-03 02:14:07CH04

The problem

“My DVR has no RTSP port — only the mobile app.”

It's one of the most common walls in the self-hosted-camera world, and it stays unsolved for years. Every existing DVRIP tool assumes the standard protocol on port 34567 and sends a login packet that desyncs these older boards. dvrbridge is built for exactly the boards nothing else can reach.

“My DVR model doesn't have an RTSP port, only mobile and media port.”

Home Assistant community forum

“Timeout while loading URL… maybe HA doesn't support some old RTSP protocol?” — resolved only at 176×144.

HA — “Connecting ancient DVR to HA”

“Struggling to find the right string to connect it.” ffmpeg loops on Invalid data found.

Frigate issue #6893

Users hunting the mobile-app stream format precisely because there is no documented RTSP.

ZoneMinder forums

How it works

Talk the old protocol. Strip the wrapper. Serve the bytes.

The DVR is already emitting standard H.264 — it's just wrapped in proprietary framing behind a locked handshake. dvrbridge is the translator, and it never re-encodes, so it's light enough to bridge dozens of channels on a Pi.

Connect & handshake

A pluggable driver speaks the board's native binary protocol and parses its frame headers, resyncing on corruption.

Fan out on demand

The hub multiplexes many viewers over one device socket — and only connects while someone's watching, respecting the board's tiny connection budget.

Serve standard RTSP

A built-in RTSP server (TCP + UDP, RFC 6184) hands clean H.264 to Frigate, HA or VLC at rtsp://host:8554/dvr/chN.

Why it's better than a box of dongles

Built for the homelab, not the landfill

◢ NO NEW HARDWARE

Runs on your Frigate host

No per-channel encoder dongles, no power bricks, no ONVIF negotiation to babysit. One process, on hardware you already own.

◢ STREAM COPY

Zero transcoding

Forwards the DVR's own H.264 untouched. No quality loss, negligible CPU — a Raspberry Pi bridges all four channels.

◢ SELF-HEALING

Reconnects & resyncs

Capped-backoff reconnect and mid-stream resynchronisation mean a device hiccup is invisible to Frigate.

◢ PRIVATE BY DEFAULT

No cloud, ever

Everything stays on your LAN. Keep the DVR on an isolated VLAN; the bridge is the only thing that talks to it.

◢ ONE COMMAND

Probe & go

dvrbridge probe detects channels, checks credentials and prints your whole config. Paste, serve, done.

◢ OPEN & TESTED

121 tests, MIT license

Adversarially reviewed, soak-tested against real hardware, and open source. Fork it, audit it, trust it.

Compatibility

Compatible DVR brands — XMEye, NetDvrV3, Zosi, Sannce & more

Most cheap 2008–2018 analog DVRs are the same handful of Xiongmai boards behind a different sticker. If your recorder's web UI says NetDvrV3, its phone app is XMEye / MEye, and it listens on port 8888 — dvrbridge already speaks its language. Standard DVRIP tools can't: their port-34567 login desyncs these older boards. The reference build is verified live on a 4-channel PNI H2664.

XMEyeNetDvrV3Xiongmai / Sofia ZosiSannceHiseeuFloureon AnranMaisiKKMoonPNI (H2664) Swann (older)Night OwlQ-SeeLorex (older) CantonkNadatelgeneric OEM

✔ Confirmed NetDvrV3 / XMEye-class on :8888 — verified live on a 4-channel PNI H2664 ◐ Community-reported send a capture, we'll confirm ▷ Roadmap Night Owl, orphaned Q-See

And it doesn't matter what your cameras are — dvrbridge bridges the DVR, so whatever it has already digitised is what comes through. Reuse your existing HD-TVI, AHD, HD-CVI, 960H or plain analog cameras in Frigate through one compatible recorder, instead of a rack of per-channel IP encoders.

HD-TVIAHDHD-CVI960H / analoghybrid DVR

Don't see yours — or not sure what's inside the box? Run dvrbridge probe <ip> to fingerprint it, or use Revive my board and we'll reverse-engineer it for you.

All product and brand names are trademarks of their respective owners, listed only to describe hardware compatibility. dvrbridge is not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by any of them.

Pricing

Free to run. Pay only to reach a new board.

The bridge is open source and always will be — that's the point. Revenue comes from the hard part: reverse-engineering boards nobody's cracked yet, and supporting the pros who deploy them.

Start here

Open Source

$0 / forever

Self-hosters with a supported board (NetDvrV3 / XMEye-class today).

The full bridge — all channels, all features
Built-in RTSP server, TCP + UDP
Docker image & systemd unit
Community support on GitHub
MIT licensed — yours to keep

Install it ▸

Revive My Board

from $149 / board, once

Your DVR isn't supported yet? Mail us a capture — we write the driver.

You send a packet capture of the vendor app
We reverse-engineer the protocol & ship a driver
Typically ~2 weeks, fixed price agreed up front
The new driver is open-sourced for everyone
Money-back if we can't crack it

Request a quote ▸

Integrator & Pro

from $399 / year

Installers & MSPs deploying to clients who need a name on the invoice.

Priority support with an SLA
Commercial-use assurance & indemnity
Priority queue for new board drivers
Deployment help & config review
Your logo on supported hardware, optional

Talk to us ▸

Love it but on a supported board? Sponsor on GitHub from $5/mo — it keeps the drivers coming.

Straight talk

A $30 dongle can also do this. Here's when software wins.

We won't pretend otherwise: a generic AHD-to-IP encoder is ~$25–40 a channel and is genuinely plug-and-play. dvrbridge earns its place when you'd rather not run four more boxes and power bricks on the wall — when you want one auditable process on the host you already own, no ONVIF lottery, no added hardware to fail, and your footage never leaving the LAN. If that's you, welcome. If you just want the fastest path and don't mind the boxes, buy the dongles — we'll still be here when you outgrow them.

FAQ

Questions worth asking

Does my DVR support RTSP?

Many 2008–2018 analog DVRs don't. If there's no RTSP or ONVIF option in the menu and it only works through a phone app like XMEye, MEye or vMEye, your DVR has no usable stream on its own — which is exactly what dvrbridge fixes.

How do I add RTSP to a DVR that doesn't support it?

Run dvrbridge on any Raspberry Pi or Linux box on the same network. It speaks the DVR's own protocol, strips the proprietary framing and re-serves each channel at rtsp://bridge:8554/dvr/chN. No firmware change, no new cameras, no cloud.

My DVR only works with the XMEye / mobile app — can I still use Frigate?

Yes. Those XMEye / NetDvrV3-class boards are the exact devices dvrbridge was built for. It hands Frigate a normal RTSP input while the vendor app keeps working.

Which software can use the stream?

Anything that speaks RTSP: Frigate, Home Assistant, Scrypted, go2rtc, Blue Iris, VLC and ZoneMinder.

Which DVR brands are compatible?

The XMEye / NetDvrV3 / Xiongmai “Sofia” family and its many rebrands — Zosi, Sannce, Hiseeu, Floureon, Anran, PNI, older Swann and countless generic boards on port 8888. Not sure which you have? Run dvrbridge probe, or send a packet capture and we'll tell you.

I have HD-TVI / AHD / analog cameras — can I still use Frigate?

Yes. Analog cameras (HD-TVI, AHD, HD-CVI, 960H) can't emit RTSP themselves — they run over coax into a DVR that digitises them. dvrbridge bridges that DVR, so the camera signal type doesn't matter: plug them into a supported recorder (XMEye / NetDvrV3-class) and every channel becomes an RTSP feed for Frigate — no per-camera IP encoders. Note: video today; PTZ control over ONVIF is on the roadmap.

Does dvrbridge re-encode or add latency?

No re-encoding — it stream-copies the DVR's own H.264 byte-for-byte, so quality is identical to the source, CPU use is negligible and latency stays sub-second on a LAN.

What hardware do I need — will a Raspberry Pi handle it?

A Raspberry Pi or any always-on Linux host on the same LAN is plenty. dvrbridge is one process with zero dependencies and does no transcoding, so a Pi bridges all four channels comfortably.

Is it really open source, and is my footage private?

The core is MIT-licensed — run it, fork it, audit it. Nothing leaves your network: dvrbridge is a local daemon with no cloud and no telemetry. Keep the DVR on an isolated VLAN and let only the bridge reach it.

Your old CCTV DVR,speaking RTSP.