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Video problems

Trouble getting a feed? Work through the checks below. For how the video feature works in the first place, see the Video guide.

A local camera / capture card doesn't appear

  • Connect it before opening the source list, then reopen the Camera dropdown — devices are enumerated when the list opens.
  • Close other apps using it. A webcam or capture card can usually be opened by one app at a time; quit anything else holding it (OBS, a browser tab, another GCS).
  • Check OS permissions. The operating system may need to grant camera access to Kite.

An RTSP stream won't start

RTSP playback uses a small bundled engine (go2rtc); Kite downloads it automatically the first time you start an RTSP source. If a stream won't come up:

  • Let the engine download finish. The Video panel shows the go2rtc status and offers the download if it's missing — RTSP can't play until it's installed. If the download fails (no internet, or an unsupported CPU architecture), you'll get a hint to install it manually.
  • Check the URL and reachability. A typo, a camera that's off, a firewall, or a source on a different network will all stop it. Confirm the exact rtsp://… URL works in another player (e.g. VLC) from the same machine.

The picture stutters or shows "frames out of order"

This is almost always the source encoder, not Kite. The live path uses WebRTC, which tolerates B-frames poorly:

  • Real FPV / DJI / IP-camera streams are usually fine (no B-frames).
  • OBS and similar software encoders must be set to B-frames = 0, a baseline / main profile and an ultra-low-latency tuning to play smoothly.

This is a property of the stream Kite receives — it can't be fixed downstream for a pass-through feed.

A specific RTSP server gives a black screen

Some servers (notably the OBS RTSP server) reject go2rtc's native reader. Kite automatically retries such sources through an ffmpeg fallback reader — but that needs ffmpeg, which is a separate optional download:

  • The Video panel offers an ffmpeg (fallback) download when it's missing. Install it and start the stream again.
  • The panel shows which reader is live (go2rtc native vs the ffmpeg fallback), so you can tell which path your source is using.

Latency is high

With a sensibly-configured encoder, end-to-end latency is low (roughly a couple of hundred milliseconds). If it's much worse, the cause is usually the source: a large keyframe interval, a big encoder buffer, or a non-low-latency tuning. Tune the encoder/camera for low-latency streaming.

Still stuck?

Grab a diagnostic log (Settings → Diagnostics → Log Level = Debug, reproduce, then Open Log Folder) and attach it when reporting the problem — it records the go2rtc / ffmpeg startup and any error. See the connection troubleshooting page for the log locations.