Improve support for HA 2024.11.0 WebRTC streaming

[felipecrs]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Home Assistant now ships with WebRTC support out of the box:

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/11/06/release-202411/#low-latency-cameras-using-webrtc

Fun fact: they also use go2rtc:

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/go2rtc

But that doesn't matter. The problem is: streaming Frigate cameras over WebRTC doesn't work. I found this in my browser console logs:

{
    "code": "webrtc_get_client_config_failed",
    "message": "Camera does not support WebRTC, frontend_stream_type=hls"
}

And the stream never loads. I believe this is a bug in Home Assistant, because they mention in their release notes that it would fallback to HLS player if WebRTC doesn't work.

This is why I'm logging this as a feature request here. :)

Describe the solution you'd like
To allow to stream cameras from Frigate integration using HA's native WebRTC.

Describe alternatives you've considered
N/A

Additional context
N/A

[NickM-27]

Webrtc in 2024.11.0 works fine for me when webrtc is enabled in the frigate integration configure menu

[NickM-27]

We likely will want to enable this by default when go2rtc has webrtc setup in the integration

[felipecrs]

I can confirm it works again after enabling that option in the integration configuration:

Thank you!

[felipecrs]

We likely will want to enable this by default when go2rtc has webrtc setup in the integration

Or maybe removing this option entirely, and instead automatically enable it during initialization in case go2rtc integration is loaded (and disable it otherwise).

[NickM-27]

It sounds like we can support HLS and webrtc at the same time, need to figure out how that is done.

[felipecrs]

When I enable WebRTC in the Frigate integration configuration, Home Assistant can still play the stream in my TV (which uses HLS and is 10-15 seconds delayed).

So maybe it's already the case? All it takes is to have WebRTC enabled?

[felipecrs]

Or maybe in this case HA is using go2rtc to relay the WebRTC stream to a HLS one. Maybe that's why it's working.

[NickM-27]

Or maybe in this case HA is using go2rtc to relay the WebRTC stream to a HLS one. Maybe that's why it's working.

oh yeah that would make sense

[IetIesAai]

Enabled the option, but I still see the described fallback to HLS, and no stream....

[johnpc]

Enabled the option, the live stream loads, but the previews and recordings do not play (just the preview thumbnail successfully loads).

When you download a clip, it successfully downloads the clip associated with the thumbnail, so you know that it's correctly referencing the media.

I'm using HAOS on raspberry pi 4.

Is there any workaround?

---

UPDATE: I have rolled back HA version 2024.10.4 and now its working fine

[kgiedrius]

please fix this annoying bug

[felipecrs]

To be clear, this issue does not refer to a bug, it refers to a new feature to be implemented. You probably meant home-assistant/frontend#22755 instead.

[felipecrs]

Or maybe in this case HA is using go2rtc to relay the WebRTC stream to a HLS one. Maybe that's why it's working.

oh yeah that would make sense

I was able to confirm that this is NOT the case. In fact, what seems to be happening is that the HLS player simply calls stream_source function, and handles it in case a value (RTSP link) is returned.

This is good news :). But it's a bit different than what documentation says (see the third bullet here).

[s9550110]

I can confirm it works again after enabling that option in the integration configuration:

Thank you!

A screenshot! - I love a screenshot. It's taken me ages to find out where this tick-box was - Thank you