One of the most inexpensive home security products available is Wyze camera. Priced competitively, ranging from $17 to $25, the camera packs impressive features on its small stature, with some exclusive features that are unavailable even on a more expensive camera. For example, with the Wyze camera, you get a free cloud storage space for two weeks’ worth of surveillance videos that can be accessed using Wyze app for Android and iOS.
How about viewing the stream from PC or Mac? Unfortunately, Wyze still doesn’t support viewing the footages from PC and Mac due to its reliance on the proprietary Wyze app, and Wyze app for PC and Mac still hasn’t been developed yet. However, there are two workarounds: Installing Wyze Android app through Android emulators or flashing a beta software that will allow you to access the RTSP stream from any RTSP supported device in your local network.
If all of the tech jargon scared you, keep in mind that the process is actually simple and you can view the stream in no time. Ready to start? Read on.
Installing Wyze app through Android emulator
There are a lot of Android emulators that you can use to install Wyze’s Android app. In this guide, we cover Bluestacks since it is one of the most reliable and lightweight Android emulators.
You can also use Nox or other Android emulators you prefer. Download Bluestacks from https://bluestacks.com, and install the software. After installation, start Bluestacks. You will then be presented with a virtual Android desktop. Select Google Play Store, and search for Wyze camera app. Once found, download Wyze app as usual. Log in to your Wyze account, and you can view the stream as if you use your own phone.
However, do note that Bluestacks can consume a fair share of your computer’s resources, such as RAM, even after you close it. Bluestacks works best if your computer is equipped with 4 GB of RAM and quad-core CPU.
Installing beta firmware from the Wyze and using RTSP
If you have spare time, microSD card ready, and willing to try beta software, we recommend that you use this method to enable RTSP in your Wyze camera. To start, download the beta firmware from https://support.wyzecam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026245231-Wyze-Cam-RTSP, unzip the file, and rename it to “demo.bin”. Transfer the file to the microSD card’s root directory, and insert the microSD card to your Wyze cam. Ensure that your Wyze cam is unplugged while following this instruction.
Afterward, hold the camera’s Setup button while plugging in the USB cable. Continue holding it until the light turns into solid blue. After the light becomes solid blue, release the Setup button, then wait for 3-4 minutes. Your camera will be rebooted, and you can monitor the process with the change of light. Once finished, your camera should be able to be accessed from the Home tab as long as the camera was previously paired to your account.
Then, after the camera reboots and detected by the app, you can enable the RTSP stream. By enabling the RTSP stream, you can view the video through a special URL that is displayed in the Wyze app. The URL is supported by various applications in PC and Mac, such as VLC Media Player. Enabling RTSP after installing the beta firmware is also a straightforward process.
First, open the “Settings” menu on your Wyze App, followed by “Advanced Settings” then “RTSP”. The camera will detect whether the firmware on it supports RTSP. If you have installed the RTSP beta firmware, you will be able to turn on RTSP. In the next step, you will be prompted to enter a username and password.
The username and password should be 4-10 characters without any special characters, which means a-z, A-Z, and 0-9 only. The credentials you entered is unique to just a camera and will be needed to access the stream. After entering the username and password, you will see the RTSP URL that can be used to access the RTSP stream of Wyze cam in the local network.
What’s next? After enabling RTSP and setting the credentials, we can test the RTSP stream with VLC Media Player, which can be downloaded for free from https://videolan.org. Click “Media” > “Open Network Stream” from the menu. Use the URL displayed in the Wyze app and the stream will be displayed on the screen.
