You should only need it in vth. Then in storage mode you should see options for either ftp or sd. If you have a dahua nvr you can also add as a camera and record there as well.
Ran into a deal where smart pss had an option for time ‘auto check’ that was doing that everyday even though the customers computer had the right time.
This was a hik that I dropped and broke that black shroud and when I put the cover back on without it looked just like yours. Fortunately it was inside
Not even sure what’s what because of their worthless US website but this is what I see from wholesalers. Not clear what the differences are or even if that’s an annual cost. Seems every year they’re asking me to look into other manufacturers. For these costs I’ll go with genetech or milestone.