Use Your Lorex Camera Without a Subscription

Lorex (owned by Dahua) is built around local recording — footage lives on the NVR/DVR disk, not a mandatory cloud. Lorex Home and Lorex Cloud only add remote viewing. Cancel the cloud and your system keeps recording and streaming over RTSP/ONVIF on your LAN.

Does Lorex lock your camera when you cancel?

No. Lorex Cloud / Lorex Home remote handles remote viewing and off-site storage — not your local stream. Cancel it and the camera keeps working on your own network over RTSP/ONVIF.

Lorex RTSP and ONVIF stream URLs

Main stream:

rtsp://<user>:<pass>@<device-ip>:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

Sub-stream (lower bandwidth):

rtsp://<user>:<pass>@<device-ip>:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1

ONVIF: ONVIF on port 80 for the Dahua-based models; enable it in the recorder/camera settings.

Default ports:

Port	Protocol	Notes
554	RTSP
80	HTTP
37777	SDK

Lorex gotchas worth knowing

• Most Lorex gear is Dahua-based and uses /cam/realmonitor; a few older Lorex lines are Hikvision-based and use /Streaming/Channels/101 instead — the web UI look tells you which.
• Wi-Fi Lorex cameras route through the app more than wired PoE ones; PoE + NVR is the most RSC-friendly setup.
• Confirm the real path via ONVIF if RTSP looks empty.

How to cancel Lorex Cloud / Lorex Home remote and keep the camera

1. Drop any Lorex Home cloud plan — the NVR keeps recording locally.
2. Log in to the NVR or camera web UI and enable ONVIF/RTSP.
3. Point RSC at the RTSP/ONVIF URL; use channel=N per channel on the recorder.

Lorex vs a no-subscription setup

	Stay with Lorex	No-subscription with RSC
Monthly cost	optional; local recording is the default	$0 Free · $22/mo Pro
Who holds your footage	Vendor cloud	You — local + your own cloud
If you stop paying	Remote view / clips lost	Full local access continues
Extra hardware	None	None — reuse a phone or an ONVIF camera you own

Works with RSC

RSC connects over RTSP/ONVIF once enabled — no Lorex account required.

Get started

• Open the RSC app and add your camera
• See RSC pricing — free plan, Pro at $22/mo

Related guides

• Own a Dahua camera without a subscription
• Security cameras for a small business, cheap