OpenIPC Viewer

Cross-platform desktop and mobile viewer for OpenIPC IP cameras. Built with .NET 9 / 10 and Avalonia 12.

Status: release polish — feature-complete for the first beta. Pending packaging (installers / in-app auto-update), code signing, and the v0.1.0-beta tag. Targets: Windows / Linux / macOS desktops + Android + iOS.

See the Roadmap for phase status and what's left before the betas.

Features

• Live RTSP — h264 / h265, software + hardware decode (D3D11VA / VAAPI / VideoToolbox / Android MediaCodec), auto-reconnect.
• Multi-camera grid — up to 25 streams, custom layouts, drag-reorder.
• Single-camera view — PTZ joystick + presets, telemetry overlay, digital zoom (pinch / Ctrl+wheel), snapshot to disk + share.
• Recording — segmented MP4 via -c copy (desktop ffmpeg subprocess; Android in-process libavformat behind a foreground service).
• Camera discovery — ONVIF probe + WS-Discovery, manual add, QR-code add.
• Majestic integration — read / apply config with diff preview, raw JSON editor, RTMP push, day / night / auto mode.
• Events — motion ingestion + persisted log.
• Camera groups, English / Russian UI (runtime switch), responsive layout (sidebar ↔ bottom tab strip).

Screenshots

Desktop (Windows / Linux / macOS)

Library + ONVIF discovery	Add camera

Events	Settings

Mobile (Android)

Live grid 2×2	Live grid 3×3

Download

Pre-built standalone binaries are attached to each GitHub release. No installer is required for the beta — download, extract, run:

OS	Asset	Run
Windows x64	openipc-viewer-win-x64.zip	extract, run OpenIPC.Viewer.Desktop.exe (accept the SmartScreen prompt — builds are unsigned for now)
Linux x64	openipc-viewer-linux-x64.tar.gz	extract, chmod +x, run ./OpenIPC.Viewer.Desktop
macOS arm64	openipc-viewer-osx-arm64.tar.gz	extract, right-click the app → Open (Gatekeeper blocks unsigned builds on first launch)
Android arm64	*-Signed.apk	sideload (debug-signed, not Play-signed)

Each build is self-contained (bundles the .NET runtime), so there's nothing to install alongside it. Native installers and in-app auto-update may come in a later release.

Runtime requirements

• Windows — none. FFmpeg DLLs ship inside the archive.
• Linux — system FFmpeg + libsecret:

  sudo apt install ffmpeg libavcodec-extra libsecret-1-0 libsecret-tools
  

  VAAPI hardware decode needs /dev/dri/renderD128 and your user in the render (or video) group. Credentials use secret-tool against the GNOME/KDE keyring, with an AES-GCM file fallback if D-Bus is unavailable.
• macOS — Homebrew FFmpeg (brew install ffmpeg). VideoToolbox HW decode works on any Mac 12+. Credentials live in the Keychain via security.

Validation caveat. Linux / macOS / Android / iOS code paths build + link in CI but aren't yet end-to-end tested on real devices for every commit. Feedback is welcome — open an issue with OS version, what you did, and what happened.

Building from source

dotnet restore OpenIPC.Viewer.slnx
dotnet build   OpenIPC.Viewer.slnx
dotnet test    OpenIPC.Viewer.slnx --no-build
dotnet run --project src/OpenIPC.Viewer.Desktop

Build runs with TreatWarningsAsErrors=true; any warning fails the build. On Windows, run tools/fetch-ffmpeg.ps1 once to download the bundled FFmpeg shared-build DLLs (n7.1 ABI) from BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds into runtimes/win-x64/native/. Linux / macOS use the system FFmpeg (see Runtime requirements).

Android

dotnet workload install android
dotnet build src/OpenIPC.Viewer.Android/OpenIPC.Viewer.Android.csproj -c Release

CI cross-compiles FFmpeg n7.1 for android-arm64 via NDK r27c on every build (cached when version/script unchanged). Recording uses in-process libavformat + a foreground service (foregroundServiceType=dataSync) and needs POST_NOTIFICATIONS on Android 13+, prompted on first record. Credentials use an AES-GCM file keyed off Settings.Secure.AndroidId.

iOS

dotnet workload install ios
dotnet build src/OpenIPC.Viewer.iOS/OpenIPC.Viewer.iOS.csproj -c Release    # Mac-only for the link step

iOS recording is foreground-only — Apple doesn't grant 24/7 background captures to surveillance apps. Credentials use an AES-GCM file keyed off UIDevice.identifierForVendor. CI builds an unsigned .app/.ipa; TestFlight signing arrives in the release-polish phase.

Project layout

src/
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Core/            netstandard2.1 — domain, no IO, no UI, no package deps
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Infrastructure/  net9.0         — SQLite, secrets, decoder factories
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Video/           net9.0         — FFmpeg pipeline (FFmpeg.AutoGen + SkiaSharp)
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Devices/         net9.0         — ONVIF, Majestic HTTP
  OpenIPC.Viewer.App/             net9.0         — Avalonia views and viewmodels (cross-platform)
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Composition/     net9.0         — shared DI registrations (used by every head)
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Desktop/         net9.0         — Win/Lin/Mac host, classic-window lifetime
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Android/         net10.0-android — Android host (min API 31), foreground-service recording
  OpenIPC.Viewer.iOS/             net10.0-ios     — iOS host (min 16), foreground-only recording
tests/
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Core.Tests/      xUnit
  OpenIPC.Viewer.Video.Tests/     xUnit + MediaMTX integration

App references Core only. Infrastructure, Video, Devices and the platform trio (IFileSystem / ISecretsStore / IHwDecoderFactory) are wired into each head via OpenIPC.Viewer.Composition.SharedComposition.AddSharedServices().

Test fixture: MediaMTX

The video integration test and manual smoke depend on a local RTSP source. A MediaMTX container synthesises a 1280×720@25 h264 test pattern on demand at rtsp://localhost:8554/test.

docker compose -f tools/mediamtx/docker-compose.yml up -d
# ... do your testing ...
docker compose -f tools/mediamtx/docker-compose.yml down

The integration test auto-skips itself if the container isn't reachable.

User data

Per-platform AppData root:

OS	Path
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenIPC.Viewer\
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/openipc-viewer/ (default ~/.local/share/openipc-viewer/)
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/OpenIPC.Viewer/
Android	/data/data/org.openipc.viewer/files/ (app-private; uninstall wipes)
iOS	~/Library/Application Support/OpenIPC.Viewer/ (sandbox; Files-app visible via UIFileSharingEnabled)

Inside the root:

logs/openipc-viewer-{date}.log    rolling daily, 7-day retention
appsettings.json                  optional override over the one shipped with the app
usersettings.json                 settings written by the in-app Settings page
openipc-viewer.db                 SQLite (cameras, recordings metadata, events)
secrets.bin / secrets.salt        encrypted credential fallback (used when no native keystore)
snapshots/{camera}/*.jpg          manual snapshots
recordings/                       MP4 segments (Linux/macOS may override via XDG_VIDEOS_DIR / ~/Movies)

Credentials live in the native keystore when available (Windows DPAPI / macOS Keychain / Linux libsecret); the encrypted-file fallback is used otherwise.

License

MIT. Bundled FFmpeg DLLs and self-built FFmpeg .so are LGPL — shipped as side-by-side shared libs, replaceable by the user.