RTSP can be tested completely outside of Sureview with third party tools - if it doesn't work following these steps then it will not work in Sureview either so it is recommended you follow these steps first.

Creating the RTSP URL

To begin with you will need the following information:

1. The device's Host name/IP address and RTSP Port number (the default port for RTSP is 554 TCP)
   1. Don't forget to check that the port is open from the Sureview server - nothing will work if the port is not open first
2. The username and password for the device if it is set to require authentication.
3. The RTSP URL Ending (Path and Query parameters) that the device uses - please refer to the particular integration's support page to find this information.

The device information is then used to create the RTSP URL as follows:

rstp://[username:password@]host[:port]/some/path?param1=X&param2=Y

Note that the authentication details are only required if your device is set up to require this, and you only need to provide the port if it is something other than the RTSP default of 554.

Playing the RTSP URL

Important: don't forget to check that the RTSP port is open from the Sureview server first. Nothing is going to work until you can get to the port.

There are two third party tools that can be used to open and play RTSP URLs:

1. VideoLAN's VLC Media Player 
   1. Download it (note there is a .zip option available if you want to avoid installing anything) and install/extract it then run "vlc.exe"
   2. Click the "Media->Open Network Stream" menu, paste your RTSP URL, then click "Play"
2. FFMPEG's FFPlay included in the Static build
   1. Download and extract it (choose the Static build)
   2. Open up a Command Prompt and use the "cd" command to get to the "bin" folder which contains the "ffplay.exe" file
   3. Run the following command, entering your RTSP URL in that you found above:

      ffplay rtsp://your/rtsp/url?and=params -rtsp_transport tcp

      (note you can omit the " -rtsp_transport tcp" part to try using UDP but usually it will only work using TCP as UDP is often blocked)
   4. Some information will show in white and after a pause a new window will open showing the video if the RTSP is working.
   5. Press Ctrl+C to stop playing the video and return to command prompt