Hikvision DS-7608NI-I2 / 8P w/Dahua IPC-HFW4300R-Z - getting to work with ONVIF

[mtnears]

I have 4 Dahua IPC-HFW4300R-Z cameras, been running them for over a year now using Security Spy but am switching over to a Hikvision NVR that I picked up.

While on Security Spy, they were always setup using RTSP. Never really messed around with trying to get ONVIF working.

On the Hikvision I'd like to try and get that working, but I'm struggling as it looks like others have as well with the searching I've been doing.

I have the cameras setup fine on the NVR using RTSP. (after some struggles, UX is pretty poor and documentation is slim, again, as others have noted)

For RTSP I set them using a Custom Protocol, RTSP, Transfer Protocol is Automatic, Port 554 and stream path blank. Works fine, so credentials are good.

I switch this over to ONVIF, change the port to 80 (which is what I understand it is for Dahua) and it goes to Offline(user password error). for the status. Was thinking maybe it was port initially because I saw a refernce of a 37777 port, but if I switch to that port number it gives me an Offline(Parameter error) message. So that leads me to think that the port 80 is correct.

I've seen some mention of needing to create another account on the Dahua camera config for ONVIF, something different than the web logon account. I've created secondary accounts in the System/Account section on the web interface for the camera, but I get the same negative results with those other accounts I've created.

Feel like I'm missing something obvious. My understanding is if I can get ONVIF to work I can get audio with the recording (which I'd like to get), not sure what else I get with ONVIF over RTSP (these are fixed bullet cameras, so I don't really need controls).

Let me know if I can provide any other details

 

[alastairstevenson]

I've also see posts saying that Dahua cameras need to have ONVIF accounts created in order to use that method of connection. But I can't confirm as I don't have any Dahua cameras.
But I can suggest a way to independently check if the camera is available and responding as an ONVIF device - use the good Windows open-source tool 'ONVIF Device Manager' from sourceforge.net
Give ODM the ONVIF account details you created (top left of the window) and it will automatically find any ONVIF devices on the same LAN address range as the PC it's running on.
If you get nothing - you need to re-visit the ONVIF settings in the camera.
You can see the 'ONVIF port' in the URL at the bottom of the Identification page.
You will also be able to see if the camera is generating motion and other events that the NVR could take action on, in the Events page.
And see the true RTSP URL at the bottom of the Live Video page.

 

[mtnears]

Forgot to mention that, it's another reason why I'm suspecting authentication because when I ran that tool before it won't connect to the camera and give me any details.

I'll keep digging on this to see if I can find where those accounts are set! And I'll post info so hopefully others can find it, assuming I do!

 

[mtnears]

Well, that didn't take me long, I found it!

I had been looking for a way to setup an account or enable it for accounts. This time I just went through trying about anything I could find ONVIF related.

If you go to the web page for the camera, then go to the Setup tab in the top right.
From there, go to Network > Connection then choose the ONVIF tab (seems logical, right).

For me, the only thing on that tab is Authentication: Enable or Disable. It has always been Enabled, so I figured that meant ONVIF was enabled. In reality I think it means there is some additional authentication required to use ONVIF, that's a guess because the help is in Chinese. If that's enabled, I'm not sure where you set the authentication, but again, I thought this needed to be enabled. For the heck of it, I disabled it. Changed the settings on my NVR to port 80 and the ONVIF protocol and bingo, it worked! Changed the setting on all of my cameras, same thing made it work.

BTW, I did a Google translate on the help page, it didn't really help much. It was talking about the maximum number of connections.

 

[alastairstevenson]

For me, the only thing on that tab is Authentication: Enable or Disable. It has always been Enabled, so I figured that meant ONVIF was enabled.

That does seem reasonable ...

Well, that didn't take me long, I found it!

Well done!

And I'll post info so hopefully others can find it, assuming I do!

I'm sure that will be useful.

 

[mtnears]

I picked up a Hikvision camera, definitely easier to configure on their system than the other brand.

Still can't get audio to work for any of them though. Shouldn't this be able to record audio over these streams?