Registering Cameras with RTSP for COVA

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Affected Roles: Administrator

Related DW Product: COVA

Last Edit: March 27, 2026

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RTSP Camera Streaming

There may be circumstances where users and integrators are unable to use direct PoE connection or ONVIF registration through the network while adding cameras to a COVA recorder. A camera is added via ONVIF primarily when ONVIF compatibility is unavailable, such is the case with older, non-compliant cameras.

When dealing with cheaper, generic, or proprietary cameras that lack proper ONVIF implementation or use outdated ONVIF profiles, users can utilize a camera’s RTSP stream, which is usually used as a fallback to stream video directly when automatic device discovery fails.

This article will outline how to manually register a camera to a COVA recorder using a camera’s RTSP stream.

Supported/Affected Devices:

DW COVA Recorder Series
- DW-COVA16xT
- DW-COVA8xT
- DW-COVA4xT

Camera Registration with RTSP

Part 1: Create a Custom Protocol

To add a camera to a COVA recorder using RTSP, first create a custom RTSP protocol.

Open the COVA Settings menu and navigate to the Camera menu.
Click the Camera Management button then select “Add Manually”.

The Add Manually pop-up window will display.

Use the drop-down and set the Protocol to “Custom”.

In the Custom setup window, set the Status to “Enable”.

[Optional] You can enter a name in the “Show Name” field to label the custom protocol (ex. “RTSP1”).

When registering a camera using an RTSP address configure the following:
- Type – select “RTSP”.
- Transfer Protocol – select “TCP”
- Port – enter the RTSP port that appears after the colon (:) in the RTSP URL address.
- Resource Path – enter the path of the URL that appears after the slash (/) in the RTSP URL address.

Example:

Main Stream – rtsp://192.168.0.246:554/profile1
Sub Stream – rtsp://192.168.0.246:554/profile2

Click the OK button when finished.

Part 2: Manually Add with the Custom Protocol

After creating the custom RTSP protocol:

In the Camera Settings menu, click the Add Manually button again.
In the Add Manually pop-up, configure the following:
- Address – enter the IP address of the camera
- Protocol – select the custom RTSP protocol that was created
- Username – enter the camera’s login ID
- Password – enter the camera’s login password