Is it possible for RTSP cameras to record video directly to router's USB HDD?

[Razzmatazz]

I have an ASUS RT-N66U running Merlin version 380.70 (the latest available) with Entware installed on an attached 32GB USB flash drive, and a 4TB USB HDD attached (for MiniDLNA & SMB/NAS functionality).

I'm thinking about buying an RTSP capable, 2k WiFi security camera (like the Eufy S210 or TP-Link Tapo C320WS) so that I can have the camera record motion-sensor-activated video to the router's 4TB HDD. I noticed that the router's WAN/NAT settings allow RTSP pass-through. (I assume that's to pass-through to a separate NVR or NAS box). But can I have the camera record directly to the 4TB USB HDD that's attached to my router? Would it require implementing an RTSP server (and a storage share) on the router or something? And if so, is that even possible-- especially on an ancient, low-horsepower router like mine?

I don't know crap about RTSP. Hopefully my question makes sense. I'm thinking that in order for me to send files by FTP and SMB to my 4TB HDD, the router needs to run FTB and SMB servers. So I'm guessing that maybe the router would need to run an RTSP server?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Crimliar]

Where to begin!
The idea of RTSP was to allow cameras to be accessed for remote viewing over the internet, it's not really designed to feed streams to a (makeshift) NVR, though it has been done. Your RT-N66u is an old router. If you dedicated the MIPs CPU in your router to decoding a single RTSP stream it would probably struggle with a single thread. You've then got the constant data stream eating up bandwidth, and SMB/FTP are not the same as taking a stream and recording it. Add to that that there is no software to do this in entware, your router probably doesn't have enough RAM, and the version of Merlin on your router is 5+ years old. I could go on and on (and often do).

So maybe a better idea would be to tell us what goal is here rather than how you'd like to achieve that goal!

 

[Razzmatazz]

Thanks Crimliar! I really appreciate the help!

My goal is to implement ~3 relatively-inexpensive, consumer-grade outdoor WiFi security cameras (with motion-detection) that would alert me (via smartphone app and/or email/text) if motion is detected (e.g. from a burglar) and record video of any such events/intrusions (maybe 1-3 minute video clips) to the HDD that is attached to my router. I don't want to pay monthly service fees to the camera-maker for cloud-recording to their cloud-servers. Several such (local, not cloud storage) cameras are available but most of them record only to an internal SD card which is useless if a burglar steals the camera containing the SD-card-- which happens. A few of these cameras (in addition to SD-card recording) enable NVR/NAS storage via RTSP. But I don't want to buy or power a dedicated NVR in order to record an occassional video-clip. I'd like the cameras to send any motion-detected video-clips to the 4TB HDD that's attached to my ancient RT-N66U (for safer indoor storage and remote access). I'd be willing to upgrade my router if that would help.

I was not thinking that the RT-N66U's (lowly 600MHz MIPS) CPU would be decoding video. I was thinking that it would just be allowing the camera to write a compressed video stream or file to the 4TB HDD, sort of like my PC sending a file via FTP or SMB to my 4TB HDD. But I THINK you're saying that RTSP (Real Time Streaming) isn't like FTP or SMB in that the storage device (NAS/NVR) needs to be able to drink from a fire hose and process the stream... And maybe that RTSP is driven from the server side, not the camera side... And that since there is no Entware solution, it can't be done (as a practical matter) even if I upgrade my router to one with more horsepower and memory-- which I was thinking about doing anyway.