The latest developed IP-based bird box camera can live stream the video from birdhouse to mobile devices. It is convenient to watch the birdhouse through mobile phone, tablet and PC computer. How can we view the bird box camera on the Mac OS? Viewing the bird box on the Apple Mac OS could be a little bit of a trick. We have covered all the possible solutions here from directly URL like RTSP command to more sophisticated solutions like Mac software.
Generic URL.
The most easiest way is to grab the snapshot from URL. The camera only delivers the standard resolution snapshot over the URL. It is a static image instead of the live video. What you need to do is copy the URL below and paste it to safari. Every time when you refresh the browser, it will pull up a new image from the Wi-Fi bird box camera. This is the only way to upload the image to a web page without involving 3rd party platform.
http://192.168.1.12/webcapture.jpg?command=snap&channel=1&user=admin&password= (replace the IP address and fill in the password if the camera is password protected.)
VLC player
The VLC player is free open source software which allows you to view the camera on Mac. You can watch the live video directly. You can even hear the audio from the birdhouse if your camera has a built-in microphone. You can even record the live video and save as avi files to your Mac. There is functions such as digital zoom available with VLC players. The downside of the VLC player method is you can’t manipulate the camera. Only live video is available with the player. You can’t watch the video either when you are on travel with your Mac unless you have tweaked the port forwarding setting on your router. The RTSP command could be different from different suppliers. The below is the RTSP command from Green-Backyard’s WiFi birdhouse camera.
Example:
rtsp://10.6.10.6:554/user=admin&password=&channel=1&stream=0.sdp?real_stream (replace the IP address and fill in the password if the camera is password protected.)
Free VMS software
If you want to have full control with the birdhouse camera, such as watching the bird house when you are in different locations, you can’t do much better than VMS. This is the free Mac software provided by Green-Backyard. Currently we have released beta Mac OS software, you are able to test the software with your bird house camera. We can’t guarantee the software working perfectly with your Mac OS so you will have to download and install the software manually as it is not available in the Mac Store.
VMS software download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/koac0ys1zmlc0wg/VMS_Mac_V120014.dmg
This software supports P2P connection which means you don’t need to change the settings on your router, you will be able to watch the camera remotely. If you have chosen a WiFi birdhouse camera that supports micro SD card recording, you can download and view the recording files on the Mac. Once the video is downloaded to the Mac, it can be shared with friends or family easily in 1080p high definition video quality. Below is the screenshot of the software.
SecuritySpy
The SecuritySpy is a paid software. SecuritySpy is good, reliable and works extremely well on Mac OS. It allows you to easily monitor your birdhouse camera wherever you are, from your iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. As this is the 3rd party software. You will need to make sure your birdhouse camera to be compatible with the SecuritySpy. The Onvif is the protocol which can be used to integrate the camera video with SecuritySpy.
SecuritySpy provides a 30 days free trial, so you do have enough time to test it before you make the purchase. As the Onvif protocols basically cover the video and audio, you definitely can’t access the recording files from the camera’s micro SD card by using the SecuritySpy. The biggest investment will be the Mac OS, because you will need to keep the Mac OS 24/7 running if you want the features like instant notifications of motion events. All the video will go through SecuritySpy before passing to your mobile phone or tablet.
Synology NAS station
Synology NAS is the online driver for data storage that is designed to provide a solution of file storage and sharing in your home or commercial environment. The good thing is the Synology NAS has a web-based operation system (DSM) built-in which can be accessed directly by Mac and other OS and Synology NAS has default plugins which can take in the IP based bird box camera. There are workarounds to view the camera on the Mac. Similar to Securtiyspy, you will need to integrate the bird box camera to Synology NAS station. There are two ways to connect the camera to Mac, either by using the Onvif protocols or the RTSP command. The below is the example to use the RTSP command to connect the bird box camera to Synology NAS.
Once you complete the settings, the camera will start live streaming to the NAS, and you can access the camera on your Mac though the NAS. At the same time, the video will be recorded to the hard drive inside the NAS. Just be aware that the bird box camera could take up your hard drive space very soon. One 1080p bird box camera needs 1TB for 30 days recording. The Synology NAS also forwards the live video to your mobile phone, however, I don’t recommend you to take this way, because it has very serious delays. I guess the reason is synology needs to transcode before forwarding the video. The synology is good at recording, the files are saved in mp4 format which can be shared and uploaded to different social platforms.
