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Reolink in Gladys: RTSP URL and camera setup

Reolink cameras are an affordable, widely used choice, and they work great with Gladys Assistant. They are actually the cameras we recommend for Gladys.

Reolink cameras expose a standard RTSP stream, so they connect through the generic camera integration. Gladys talks to the camera directly on your local network, which means your video feed stays at home and never transits through the Reolink cloud.

Reolink exposes two RTSP streams on port 554: a high resolution main stream and a lighter sub stream. Replace username, password and the IP address with your own values:

# Main (high resolution) stream, H.264:
rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/h264Preview_01_main

# Sub (low resolution) stream, H.264:
rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/h264Preview_01_sub

If your Reolink camera streams in H.265 (HEVC), swap the codec in the path:

rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/h265Preview_01_main

A few things worth knowing:

  • The 01 in the path is the channel number. On a standalone camera it is always 01. If the camera is connected through a Reolink NVR, increment it for each channel (02, 03, and so on).
  • For a smooth live view on your dashboard, the sub stream is often enough and puts less load on your Gladys server. Use the main stream when you want full resolution.
  • Some battery powered Reolink models (for example the Argus range) do not expose an RTSP stream. On those, RTSP is not available and the camera cannot be added to Gladys.

RTSP is enabled by default on most Reolink cameras, but if the stream does not respond you can check it:

  1. Open the Reolink app (or the web interface at the camera's IP address) and log in.
  2. Go to Settings → Network → Advanced → Port Settings (or Server Settings depending on the model).
  3. Make sure RTSP is enabled and note the port (554 by default).

It is also good practice to create a dedicated user for Gladys instead of using the admin account, so you can revoke it at any time.

Test the URL in VLC​

Before adding the camera to Gladys, confirm your RTSP URL works in VLC: open File → Open Network..., paste the URL and check that the stream plays. If it works in VLC, it will work in Gladys.

Once your RTSP URL is confirmed, adding the camera to Gladys takes a minute:

  1. In Gladys, go to the Integrations tab and open the Camera integration.
  2. Click New, then paste your Reolink RTSP URL and give the camera a name.
  3. Click Test connection, then Save.
  4. Add the camera to your dashboard, and optionally ask Gladys to show it from the chat or on Telegram.

The full walkthrough with screenshots is on the camera integration page.

Frequently asked questions​

Reolink cameras expose two RTSP streams on port 554: the main (high resolution) stream at rtsp://username:password@CAMERA_IP:554/h264Preview_01_main and a lighter sub stream at rtsp://username:password@CAMERA_IP:554/h264Preview_01_sub. Replace the username, password and IP with your own. If your camera uses H.265, swap h264 for h265 in the path.

Yes. Gladys connects to your Reolink camera directly over your local network using its RTSP stream, so the video never goes through the Reolink cloud and keeps working without an internet connection.

The most common causes are a wrong channel number (01 for a single camera), the wrong codec (h264 vs h265, main vs sub), incorrect credentials, or RTSP being disabled in the camera settings. Test the URL in VLC first: if VLC cannot open it either, the problem is with the URL or the camera, not with Gladys.

Yes. Use the NVR's IP address and increment the channel number in the path for each camera, for example h264Preview_02_main for the second channel.

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