There you go again with your generalisations.
You must not be an engineer... If identical files are released on both US and Euro sites then one can assume that it works on both. Otherwise they would cause great havoc. Could there be a firmware released that works on one but not on the other? Sure. But in this case that's not what's happening. Btw, as of right now nobody came forward and:
A) confirmed the various regional zones that Hikvision embeds in their cameras.
B) confirmed which regions have unique or non-working and/or incompatibility issues with which firmwares.
C) explain a method to find out which region a particular camera's hardware is tied to
These are the only questions I'm interested in getting answers to. The rest of it is a don't care as it doesn't affect me as I allegedly purchased a US unit that is US upgradeable. All I want is to verify this claim within the 30 day return window.
My original assertion that my camera was a Europe version was wrong. It very well could be a US version and the factory puts the latest firmware on it even if it's not available on the US website. However, as of right now nobody could state it with authority that there is even two different coding for EU and th US and nobody could provide evidence for such or method to test such claim.
Actually I think many people simply do the updates from the versions freely published on Hikvision's websites just assuming they will get some fixes / new features / as one does when updates are offered. I doubt they believe they are 'hacking'. Then looking for help when the unexpected occurs.
I never said people are 'hacking' their cameras. I said they're cheap, buy the Chinese one with a hacked firmware then get surprised that they can't update it from the legit regional distributor's sourced firmware.
My time is far more valuable than wanting to deal with that crap so I paid premium for what was sold as a US model. I just wanted to see if I could verify that. Given the discovery of identical firmware files on both EU and US sites makes me more confident that there is no difference between the two regions hardware wise and the ones I bought are legit and should upgrade just fine.
As for people buying Chinese crap, caveat emptor.