SOLVED: Do not upgrade to 5.6.0!!! Much worser exposure/focus performance

ethaniel

ethaniel

Young grasshopper
Feb 7, 2018
38
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I own a Hikvision camera. Today I decided to upgrade it from 5.5.3 to 5.6.0 and noticed that now it's night vision is very poor. Everything is much darker, "slow shutter" doesn't work and the focus can't keep hold of things. On top of that I can't downgrade back to 5.5.3 from 5.6.0.







 
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OK, you spotted that already.
Also - to check if the camera is emitting the probe for the tftp updater you'd need to do a network capture to check for the UDP packet.
There is a chance the source address has been changed.
That will be a good confirmation.
 
alastairstevenson said:
OK, you spotted that already.
Also - to check if the camera is emitting the probe for the tftp updater you'd need to do a network capture to check for the UDP packet.
There is a chance the source address has been changed.
That will be a good confirmation.
Click to expand...

Thank you for joining this thread. I'm posting Wireshark dumps from the host machine.

Looks like my camera is looking for 192.168.1.128, so I added 192.168.1.128 as a second IP to the VM (the first one is 192.0.0.128).
But apart from ARP (camera looking for 192.168.1.128), nothing happens:

upload_2019-5-21_16-13-9.png

However, when I start "ping -w 300 192.0.0.64" from the VM when I reboot the camera, I get interesting results.
Looks like the camera is now ARPing 192.168.1.128 and 192.0.0.128. But apart from that, nothing happens.

upload_2019-5-21_16-15-55.png

The ping exchange is happening for about 20 seconds and then the camera goes into regular boot.

upload_2019-5-21_16-18-49.png

So my guess is that after 5.6.0 they changed the way the firmware is uploaded via TFTP. Perhaps some other magic packet?
 

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ethaniel said:
Looks like my camera is looking for 192.168.1.128, so I added 192.168.1.128 as a second IP to the VM (the first one is 192.0.0.128).
But apart from ARP (camera looking for 192.168.1.128), nothing happens:
Click to expand...
That's interesting - I wonder what the purpose is?
It's what normally happens against 192.0.0.128 as a prerequisite to the UDP packet being sent to probe for the tftp updater.
With apologies for the dumb question - presumably the Windows firewall is off such that it's not blocking the inbound UDP packet?

ethaniel said:
The ping exchange is happening for about 20 seconds and then the camera goes into regular boot.
Click to expand...
That's a lot longer than the usual 2 or 3 seconds that it hangs around for when probing for the tftp updater.
 
ethaniel said:
Person with another camera has a similar problem:Updating laview firmware to hikvision
Click to expand...
Certainly on that post, the camera in question is known to probe for the tftp updater on 192.168.1.128
Maybe yours is set up like that also.

Also required the use of the Python tftpd clone due to the file size being over 32MB.
The symptoms when using the Hikvision tftp updater with large firmware are that it connects, transmits the file, but does not complete, and repeats.
 
alastairstevenson said:
Certainly on that post, the camera in question is known to probe for the tftp updater on 192.168.1.128
Maybe yours is set up like that also.
Click to expand...

Wireshark shows only ARP requests (it's looking who has 192.168.1.128 and then 192.0.0.128 if I'm pinging it) coming from the camera. There are no UDP, TCP, ICMP or any other request originating from the camera apart from the ARP. So it's not even reaching the tftp level yet.
 
alastairstevenson said:
Yes, it does look like it's not reaching out for an updater.
Click to expand...

One interesting thing that I've noticed is that Hikvision is sending out a ipv6 router solicitation request while still being attached to 192.0.0.64 (much much earlier than it starts asking for ipv4 DHCP).
Perhaps it's some their new way of updating firmware via ipv6?

upload_2019-5-22_4-25-34.png
 
Update: I hooked ethernet up to the camera directly (not via router) and hikvision's TFTP server at least tried sending the old (5.5.3) firmware to the camera, however the camera reboots and is still on 5.6.0. So no luck.

The RS232 (serial) interface is asking for some *.bin file (instead of the *.dav file), so I couldn't downgrade there as well.

I became a hostage to Hikvision with an expensive camera which doesn't work properly due to a firmware upgrade.
 
I'm in the same camp. Upgraded my G1 to v5.6.0 and can't downgrade. I bricked the camera with TFTP server trying to downgrade to v5.5.83 (transfer completed but after 30mins no confirmation). Eventually I revived the camera using Scot Lamb's hikvision_tftpd.py tool. It managed to upload v5.6.0 (no luck using earlier versions) and the camera works again.
 
It's impossible to downgrade from 5.6.0 via tftp/web or serial. There are also no known tools which would allow to modify the firmware headers to let it be downgraded. Trust me, I tried everything.

In the end, my problem was solved by Hikvision (they replaced my camera for free)

I contacted the local Hikvision support in my region. Explained to them that my camera is having issues with autofocus/exposure at night. They didn't know that 5.6.0 could not be downgraded and sent me the links to the 5.5.3 firmware (which obviously didn't work). Then they wanted to send the staff to my place to downgrade via Serial. I explained to them that I can do that myself and they granted me permission to do it. They didn't know that the serial interface is also blocked. They also tried connecting to me via Teamviewer from China, but it was very slow so they abandoned the idea of downgrading remotely.

Then they finally contacted the distributor in my country and granted a replacement. The distributor sent a new camera (same model, older firmware - 5.5.3) to the shop where I bought mine. And the shop swapped mine for the new one without any extra cost. Whole process from first email to finish took about 2-3 weeks.

I just finished installing the new camera and am extremely happy to be back at 5.5.3.
 
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Hi, have there been any updates regarding downgrading from v5.6.0 or has anyone received any information from Hikvision? I (stupidly) applied v5.6.0 to my DS-2DF8236IX-AELW and this version simply doesn't perform as well as (for example) v5.5.6. Issues with (as mentioned) auto-focus, noise reduction in IR mode, auto-exposure performs differently (worse) that v5.5.6 etc. I contacted Hikvision support and I was simply advised that I can't downgrade back to an earlier version. Hikvision wouldn't clarify the reason for why. They wouldn't even acknowledge the issues I have with v5.6.0 despite me sending them footage.

My authorised Hik distributor isn't any help either. Hikvision say speak with the distributor and the distributor advise that it's not a hardware issue, it's firmware - hence Hikvsion need to address the problem. I'm nearly at the point of calling it 'quits' with Hikvision. As a company they are woeful at support! It would appear if the questions are 'too difficult' Hikvision go quiet and simply don't reply. How can an organisation like Hikvision get to where they are by being totally rubbish at providing support!!!! Apologies for the rant however it's crap service and a shite way to treat customers!
 
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