KC200 Cam - How to Access Live Video from the Web (not Phone App)
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Isn't there a way to do this? Tried with tpCamera but it doesn't list the kc200 model
should mention - on Windows would be nice
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TP-Link does attempt to give the best product and service experiance possible to our customers. Sometimes there are extinuating circumstances that may limited those offerings though. Sometimes these are internal, such as the decision not to launch the Kasa Cameras with a web portal. Some however are external such as with intergrations that require partnerships and cost resources and money. Sometimes these costs do not make buinsess sense so we allocate the resources to more suitable areas. For instance Cameras do not respond to voice assistants, not because we do not want to make them easy to use but for securirty. It wouldn't be a good idea to give the guy who breaks into a hourse the abilty to shut of a camera just by telling a voice assistant to do so. We do however allow the livestream of a camera to be viewed on a Smart assistant screen device like NestHub or Alexa Show. As you stated we are only trigger devices on IFTTT, but our solution to that is Smart Actions which is active and intergrated into the Kasa App. Also you mentioned Smart Things. We actually do have a partnership with Samsung and our Kasa devices do work in that eco-sphere. The funtions may very based on the devices in use.
As with all manufactures we design the Kasa devices to best funtion in our dedicated eco-system. We may add new features or intergrations as we are able to and as resources are available. We may not always be able to give customers what they want or even when they want it but we do the best we can. As I previously stated these comments and request will be forwarded to the proper teams and if any updates are made available we will update the community with a Official Annoucement.
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@Carl you're not understanding. Read post #13 and you'll see that this person knows exactly what i'm talking about. There are no triggers for Kasa in IFTT - meaning i can't connect a motion alert from the camera to other non tp-link devices or services via IFTT. And you are not in samsung smart things for cameras, only lights.
Building up your in app abilities is great, and i like the new light trigger feature and am using it for my porch - but when you're the underdog in the market, you can't rely on that. If somebody has spent thousands of $ on built in z-wave light switches with another manufacturer, they're not going to rip all those out and replace it with tp-link just to tie it to their cameras - they'll go with another camera if it's important to them. I have a couple tp-link lights - i have thousands of dollars of lights from another manufacturer.
Your story about security & Alexa is completely irrelevant to the conversation. Please re-read my post and post #13. PS i'm a programmer and work for an IT company, so i understand security.
On that note, you very much can create secure APIs and secure browser access to video feeds...and honestly it shouldn't be that hard to port a full blown app over to a simple web interface.
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I do understand fully what you are saying, There does seem to be a break down though between what you are saying and what I have stated. Like you mentioned being a programer and employee of an IT firm you know about all the working peices involved in having features outside of a company's own internal eco-sphere. There are partnerships, API intergrations and development cost that have to be considered. This is no different with IFTTT. They make their money off the partnerships and intergrations they allow on their platform. We like any company have to weigh the value over cost and sometimes we simply cannot provide a specific feature a customer may want. It doesn't mean it will always be like that, just that at that specific time the requested feature or service is not available.
The story about security and Alexa are very much relavant because they show examples of why a specific feature may or may not be available such as controlling a camera with voice commands.
You have mention how easy you feel making a web URL is, and in most cases you may be right but it was not part of the product's design. Right now there is known plan to add one either. We have sent this thread up along with the request for said feature. We do not share roadmaps as they can change at a moments notice, but if we get any confirmed response and it is something we are allowed to share we will make an Official Annoucement about it in the community section located here: https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/237
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I forgot to mention that in discussion of this today I was made aware that a new camera from our networking Tapo line the Tapo C200 does have a RTSP stream feature that you can use from a web platform. This camera is in many ways like our Kasa line but also in some ways different. For instance at this time there is no cloud storage, Only local Micro SD storage up to 128GBs
Instructions on how to setup RTSP are here: https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/2680/
The camera can be purchased from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Tapo-Wireless-Security-C200/dp/B0829KDY9X/ref=sr_1_33?keywords=C200&qid=1580341936&sr=8-33
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Kind of comming to the same conclusion with the cams, got 4 of them and yeah they works fine although had one replaced.
The ecosystem is just not there as you noted no IFFT and no URL.
I also have a few smart plugs, KASA, but I just got in to Shelly and they are way better. -it's not plug and play, you need to know a few things about electricity, but works like a charm and they are hidden in the wall outlet and you can meassure the power consumption. So, I'm letting go of KASA as I move on as it is not so smart after all.
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@Carl Just created an account so I could chime in as another user in favor of a web app for Kasa. This would greatly improve the user experience for me (and clearly others) here as it would allow me to keep my camera feed open in a browser tab instead of having to use the Android app every time I want to check on my dog.
Either that or access to an API allowing users to grab a secure camera feed. That way someone else could develop your web app for you!
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I will forward this to our Kasa development team but i do not expect any positive results, at least not at this time. The Kasa brand was designed to be an App based cloud service so I don't forsee API sharing or the creation of a web client anywhere in the near future.
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@Carl I would not really call a web app much of a departure from the original intent of it being app based. And a fair amount of app based cloud services provide access to an API.
And if a web app is what customers want, why not entertain the idea? It seems to me that you already have you mind made up and are being pretty dismissive of the idea.
Lastly, if you development team is the one making the decision, have them come on here and explain to us directly why they aren't willing to do it.
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I'm not being dismissive, I simply do not want to give a flase sense of hope. My comments are based on knowledge and previous conversations with the team. The products for the Kasa line were designed specically with Android and iOS in mind. For instance even though it is based on android FireOS does not have compatiblity with our Kasa line. Things can always change but right now in my honest opinon its not likely, at least at this time.
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