Integrating Ezviz Cameras with Home Assistant

Bringing your surveillance cameras into Home Assistant is one of the most effective ways to unify your smart home. If you’re using Ezviz cameras, the official integration makes it possible to monitor streams, detect motion, and build automations around camera activity—all within your existing setup.

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to integrate Ezviz cameras into Home Assistant, explain the key components involved, and finish with a practical automation example you can adapt to your own setup.

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Why Use Ezviz with Home Assistant?

Ezviz cameras are popular for their affordability and solid feature set, including motion detection, night vision, and cloud connectivity. However, by integrating them into Home Assistant, you gain:

• Local control over your devices
• Integration with other smart home entities
• Automation possibilities based on motion or status
• A centralized dashboard for all devices

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Requirements

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• A working Home Assistant installation
• An Ezviz camera connected to your network
• The Ezviz mobile app installed and configured
• Your camera available on the same local network as Home Assistant

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Enable LAN Direct View (Critical Step)

This is the most important step—and the one most people miss.

To allow Home Assistant to communicate locally with your Ezviz camera, you must enable LAN Direct View in the Ezviz app.

Steps:

1. Open the Ezviz app
2. From the main screen, go to:
   • Account
   • Settings
   • LAN Direct View
3. You will see a list of cameras on your local network
4. Enable LAN Direct View for each camera you want to integrate

Without this, the integration may fail or not provide live streaming.

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Adding the Ezviz Integration

In Home Assistant:

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services
2. Click Add Integration
3. Search for Ezviz
4. Enter your Ezviz account username and password

Adding Cameras

1. Home Assistant should now autodetect all cameras on your network (you might need to restart HA first)
2. Under Devices, click on the camera you want to add
3. Enter the following credentials:

• Username: admin
• Password: (see below)

Finding the Correct Password

The password is not your Ezviz account password. Instead, you must use the verification code from the camera.

To find it:

1. Open the Ezviz app
2. Select your camera
3. Go to:
   • Settings
   • About
4. Look for:
   • QR Code for Device
   • The field labeled Verification Code

Use this code as the password in Home Assistant.

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Components Created by the Integration

Once added, Home Assistant will create several entities depending on your camera model.

1. Camera Entity

This is the live video feed from your Ezviz camera.

Example:

camera.front_door

You can display this in dashboards using a Picture Glance or Picture Entity card.

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2. Binary Sensors

These typically include motion detection:

binary_sensor.front_door_motion

This is extremely useful for automations.

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3. Switches (Optional)

Some models expose switches like:

• Motion detection on/off
• Alarm/siren control

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4. Sensors

Depending on the model, you may also get:

• Signal strength
• Battery level (for wireless cameras)

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Building a Useful Automation

Let’s create a practical automation:

Scenario:

When motion is detected by your Ezviz camera in the evening, turn on outdoor lights and send a notification.

This is especially useful for security and convenience.

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Automation Example (YAML)

alias: Ezviz Motion - Outdoor Lights and Notification
description: Turn on lights and notify when motion is detected
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door_motion
    to: "on"

condition:
  - condition: time
    after: "18:00:00"
    before: "06:00:00"

action:
  - service: light.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: light.outdoor_lights
    data:
      brightness: 200

  - service: notify.mobile_app_phone
    data:
      title: "Motion Detected"
      message: "Motion detected at the front door camera."

mode: single

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Expanding the Automation

You can extend this further:

• Add a snapshot from the camera
• Trigger recording
• Activate a siren if no one is home
• Integrate with presence detection

Example extension:

  - service: camera.snapshot
    target:
      entity_id: camera.front_door
    data:
      filename: "/config/www/snapshots/front_door.jpg"

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Energy and Environmental Integration

Even though cameras themselves don’t consume large amounts of power, integrating them with other systems can improve efficiency.

For example:

• Only enable motion detection when nobody is home
• Turn off unnecessary lighting after a timeout
• Combine with energy sensors measuring usage in kWh

You could create logic like:

• If outdoor lighting exceeds a certain kWh usage threshold, reduce brightness
• Use temperature (°C) sensors to avoid unnecessary alerts during extreme weather

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Dashboard Example

You can create a Lovelace dashboard card:

type: picture-glance
title: Front Door Camera
entities:
  - binary_sensor.front_door_motion
camera_image: camera.front_door

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Common Issues and Fixes

Camera Not Showing Stream

• Ensure LAN Direct View is enabled
• Confirm camera and Home Assistant are on the same network

Authentication Fails

• Double-check that you used:
  • Username: admin
  • Password: verification code

No Motion Events

• Verify motion detection is enabled in the Ezviz app
• Check if your camera model supports it in the integration

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Final Thoughts

The Ezviz integration is a powerful addition to Home Assistant, especially when combined with automations. While the setup has a few non-obvious steps—like enabling LAN Direct View and using the verification code—the payoff is worth it.

Once configured, your camera becomes more than just a viewer—it becomes an active part of your smart home logic.