Subscriber Discussion

Does A Device Exist That Would Integrate A Surveillance Video Pop Up On Your Den TV?

JR
John Robinson
Mar 30, 2017

Like the shoemaker's barefoot children, I'm finally (nearly 15 years) about to go live on my own residential video system. I'm thinking some sort of wedge device that would sit idly until a certain alarm parameter from the NVR triggered a video output.  It's easily doable with a dedicated monitor, but  could it integrate with an existing main TV?  You're at home watching TV and a motion sensor or doorbell triggers an alarm input and then either in a PIP or full screen you could get a  pop up of what triggered the alarm.  

 

Seems like it would be very popular if it could be tweaked to a user's particular level of interruption tolerance

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Josh Hendricks
Mar 30, 2017
Milestone Systems

I'd be interested in this as well. I use Kodi for my media center and I'm pretty sure a plugin exists to show an RTSP stream in PIP on event. So that'll work well for me, but most people aren't using Kodi for their primary media center so some kind of intermediary device would be handy.

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Simon Barnes
Mar 30, 2017

Great question and exactly the type of thing that would sell well. The trick would be the tv integration as not all work the same. some tv's change channel automatically when a HDMI input becomes live at switch on so a device that would somehow boot the screen on activation may work. I wish more manufacturers would make use of the apple tv and develop there IOS app to work on the apple tv as it would make for a cheap way of creating a public display unit.

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 30, 2017

IMO,

HDMI CEC unit with trigger would solve lots of our "problem"

(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Mar 30, 2017

This has been requested by the market for a longtime, but no TV manufacturers has stepped up to support this.

TV manufactures or the set-top box manufactures have to get involed to make the whole experience seamless.

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Brian Karas
Mar 30, 2017
IPVM

This was easier to do in the old days of analog, modulate your cameras onto unused CATV channels, and just call up that channel via an IR device.

The best way I have found to do this now is with a TV that supports discrete IR codes for HDMI inputs. Use a small PC to display 1 or more camera streams, either with a video wall application from your VMS, or via stand-alone players. Configure the PC so it does not go to sleep and is always playing video from key cameras (driveway, front door, etc.). (This will incur some bandwidth hit on your network, but should be minimal). Plug the PC into an HDMI port on your TV, and when an event occurs use an IR blaster with an API/network interface to send an input-change command to the TV.

Some TV's also support control over a network, though these APIs are usually not very easy to find, so it is hit or miss.

The biggest hurdle can be sending an IR command to your TV on event to trigger the input change. One option I've heard people have success with (but I have not yet used) is the Mini 3. I do this as part of my home automation system (Indigo, FWIW).

I have found it is best to just switch TO the input, and not try to automate the switch back to previous input, as it is unpredictable how long the viewer will want to view the cameras for.

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