7.2.0 🎥 🖼️ ⚡

New Features

Recording previews, without downloading the recordings

Integration now downloads the camera's own detection-event thumbnails during the initial media scan. You can see what happened before choosing which recording to download, even with Media Sync disabled.

Each recording uses the thumbnail of its first detection event. Existing thumbnails are reused, and kept until a subsequent startup scan finds that the recording is no longer on the camera. They are no longer removed when your Media Sync retention period expires.

If your camera does not provide event thumbnails, or a recording has no matching event, a thumbnail is still generated once the video is downloaded.

Background downloads & progress notifications

Requested recordings now download in the background, with progress shown in Home Assistant notifications. You can leave the media browser and come back when the download finishes.

While a download or Media Sync is running, the media browser shows already downloaded recordings, which remain playable. Once the download finishes, select the recording again to play it.

Direct stream FFmpeg parameters

You can now customize FFmpeg parameters for Direct streams and snapshots via Configure device -> Direct stream FFmpeg parameters.

This allows trying different settings for cameras that need them, for example the settings reported for C560WS by @diaznet in #1279:

-probesize: 50000
-analyzeduration: 1000000
-vsync: null

These settings have not been verified across all cameras. Remove content to restore defaults. Changes apply to new streams; reload the integration to stop existing streams.

Show camera on map

Add #1436: You can now choose whether your camera appears on the Home Assistant map. Open Configure device and change Show camera on map. Enabled by default, preserving the existing behavior.

Media Sync improvements

• Automatic recovery when a sync task stops reporting activity for more than 5 minutes, cancelling the old task before another sync can start
• Media Sync sensor updates immediately as downloads progress or the sync switch changes
• Additional sensor attributes for sync start, last activity, last success, stall count and progress, including for hub-connected cameras
• Failed initial media scans are retried on the next update cycle
• Switching Media Sync off lets the current recording finish before stopping
• More detailed debug logging for missing or slow recording thumbnails

Library improvements

This release uses pytapo 3.4.22, with safer Direct stream handling and a fix for an index out of range error when downloading snapshots.

It also includes the improvements introduced in pytapo 3.4.20:

• Support for the new SPAKE2+ camera login through TPAP transport
• Faster recording downloads using the camera's download request, with playback as fallback. Around 8-10x faster as reported upstream, depending on the camera and connection
• Support for fetching the camera's own recording thumbnails, used by the new previews above
• Option to keep raw MPEG-TS recordings when using pytapo directly. This is a library option; integration downloads remain MP4

Fixes

• Fix #1403: Media Sync now respects the battery polling interval on battery-powered cameras instead of polling every minute, thank you @agu2347
• Fix #1417: Repeated pipe closed by peer log entries when stopping Direct streams and snapshots
• Fix: Overlapping recording downloads during preparation or when toggling Media Sync
• Fix: Manual downloads continuing after integration unload or Home Assistant shutdown
• Fix #1428: Stuck media downloads, cleanup of unfinished files and retrying media scans for cameras that were offline, thank you @hvoss-tech
• Update #1437: Tapo Recordings now uses the custom device name set in Home Assistant, thank you @hvoss-tech

Breaking Changes

Requesting a recording that has not been downloaded now starts a background download. Track progress in notifications, then select the recording again once it finishes. Already downloaded recordings play as before.

Thank you

• @freeKC for faster recording downloads, camera thumbnails and documentation, the MPEG-TS library option, and the protocol research used for TPAP support (pytapo #221, #222, #223, #224)
• @RBARC5 for implementing TPAP support for the new camera login (pytapo #220)
• @hvoss-tech for media sync fixes and using custom Home Assistant device names in Tapo Recordings (#1428, #1437)
• @diaznet for the C560WS FFmpeg settings and testing that informed the new Direct stream options (#1279)
• @agu2347 for the battery polling fix (#1444)