A Hikvision journey of discovery (tips and tricks for the perfect setup)

Jeremy Spiering

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After several months of playing around with various hardware, software and network configurations, I have finally arrived at a setup that works well for me. I am writing this post to share what I have learned about setting up Hikvision cameras, NVR and the various software packages available.

My journey began several months ago with a Ring Pro Doorbell. I quickly realized the Ring products were woefully inadequate for my needs. The video quality was poor, the WiFi connection was spotty, and I could not directly access the feeds without the Ring software, or record 24 hours. I quickly returned the Ring and looked into various surveillance options. I settled on Hikvision vs. Dahua mostly by 50/50 chance as they both seemed to be popular choices with similar price points and feature sets.

I started with a Hikvision 2CD-DS2142-FWD-IS camera. I set up the camera without an NVR and used QNAP QVR Pro software on my NAS to record 24 hours with various motion, intrustion and line crossing alerts. This setup worked pretty well, but the QVR Pro alerts did not work well. The QVR Pro Client software for the Windows PC was fantastic, I will say, much better than Hikvision's software. The ability to playback and view live/recorded footage was very intuitive. There was a single timeline that showed the continuous playback with lines drawn for every alert/event, and it was very easy to cycle forward and backwards through the alerts, something Hikvision's software lacks (sort of possible through iVMS-4200, but terrible interface).

As good as the QVR Pro client software was, there were shortcomings with recording to my NAS and sharing storage with other features of my NAS, as well as taking valuable processor time from my NAS, so I decided to ditch QVR Pro, and purchase a Hikvision NVR (DS-7608NI-E2 / 8P).

I purchased 2 more cameras and began using them with the NVR. I realized that connecting the cameras directly to the NVR POE ports, limited my access to the cameras directly, unless I did some tricks such as changing subnets, or using the virtual host option of the NVR to directly access the cameras. I was not happy with either of these solutions so I ended up connecting the cameras to a POE switch, and manually adding the cameras to the NVR, instead of using the POE ports of the NVR. This has several advantages, and I highly recommend it to anybody using an NVR with POE. POE switches can be purchased for as little as $30-35 ()

Having direct access to the camera allows you to fine tune your settings dramatically over what you can do from the NVR:
  • Fine tune image settings
  • Fine tune your alerts (NVR doesn't allow you to draw min and max size boxes which dramatically help you reduce false alerts)
  • Allow you record events only on the SD card of the cameras, while recording continuously to the NVR
The final bullet point is crucial, since in the mobile applications, if you are viewing a continuous playback timeline, you can't see or skip to events. Using Hik-Connect or iVMS4500 on your phone, you can add the NVR, as well as the individual cameras. This allows you easily watch through events by viewing the camera directly, or viewing the entire continuous recording by selecting the NVR. This wouldn't be necessary if Hikvision would just show the events on the timeline for continous playback with buttons to move forward and backward through events.

Software

iVMS-4200 (desktop app)

I personally can't stand iVMS-4200 for the desktop (Windows version). It is slow, clunky, and has WAY more options than any of my hardware supports, so there are hundreds of tabs, buttons, and screens that are pointless for me. The app takes a long time to start, long time to close, and uses a LOT of processor. It is powerful software, but I no longer use it for anything. I use the Web GUI for the NVR and for the cameras to do all of my setup, and occasionally for playing back video, although I usually use the phone apps for this.

Web GUI
The Web GUI is actually pretty good with one major drawback, and that is the ActiveX plugin that requires Internet Explorer for viewing the feed. Other than that, I find the Web GUI is much more suited than iVMS -4200 for making changes to my cameras or the NVR.

Hik-Connect (mobile app)
Just say no. The Hik-Connect software is terrible and buggy. The Hik-Connect software allows you to add devices using the Hik-Connect platform, as well as manually adding devices by IP address and ports. If you add devices using the Hik-Connect platform, you can enable PUSH notifications which work reasonably well, although they are sometimes delayed by a minute or more, which I find unacceptable. I think the reason for this is that alerts are sent from your device, up to the Hik-Connect servers, which then send them to your phone. There is a delay in using Hik-Connect as the middleman and I imagine they have some sort of queuing process for sending out PUSH alerts, and if there servers are busy, you have to wait a bit. Either way, Hik-Connect's interface is not easy to use, and playing back video has artifacts and pauses that do no occur on iVMS-4500. If you set up camera's manually by ip address/port using Hik-Connect, you cannot receive PUSH notifications.

iVMS-4500HD (mobile app)

Just say no. This app is terrible, and from what I understand was basically iVMS-4500 (non HD) but designed for tablets, so the orientation is always landscape instead of portrait. I don't think iVMS-4500HD is updated anymore, so it lacks features of the regular iVMS-4500.

iVMS-4500 (mobile app)

This is the app to use for mobile. It works reasonably well, and allows you to add phones manually via ip address/port, as well as using Hik-Connect (the platform, not the app). If you add via Hik-Connect, PUSH notifications will be turned on, and you cannot turn them off. If you add devices manually, you can turn alerts on/off at will for each device separately, which is very nice. There is an issue with PUSH notifications on the iVMS-4500 app. When setup correctly they work pretty well, but it takes some effort to make it work. I will go into more detail below in the PUSH Notifications section.

VLC (desktop app)
I know, VLC is not a Hikvision app, but it works great a simple live viewer for the desktop. I setup a playlist with several RTSP streams on it, and saved the playlist to my desktop. Now I can double-click the playlist, and cycle through all of my cameras easily. One tip is to enable channel zero on the NVR. This allows you to view an RTSP stream of all the channels at once. I make this the first track on the playlist so I can see all of my cameras at once. Then I add the main stream channel for all of my cameras. The "N" key cycles to the next track, and the "P" key goes to the previous track, so while I am working, if I notice motion on channel zero, I just hit "P" the appropriate number of times to pull up the HD feed of the camera I spotted motion in. Works great, and uses a lot less processor and bandwidth than the WebGUI, and iVMS-4200. (see attached image). I have also attached a sample playlist (rename the extension from .txt to .xspf for VLC to recognize it as a playlist). Just edit the file and insert your own credentials, ip addresses, and ports, and you will be on your way. Hitting Ctrl+H in VLC will remove the controls and give you a cleaner display.



Push Notifications

I spent considerable time getting PUSH notifications to work properly and there are several things you need to know in order to get them working consistently.

  • Notifications through the Hik-Connect platform are consistent, but often delayed, I do not recommend using Hik-Connect the app or the platform
  • You must forward not only the SERVER port but the HTTP port as well using iVMS-4500 in order for the PUSH notifications to work. I recommend not using port 80 or 8000 for any of the ports as those are defaults and more likely to be used in a hacking attempt. Once you have forwarded the Server and HTTP port (it HAS to be HTTP, it will not work over HTTPS port for some stupid reason), you can go the alarm menu, and click "Set Alarm Notification" at the bottom. If your ports are forwarded correctly, you should be able to enable the notifications for your devices.
*NOTE* This next part is crucial
Once notifications are setup you can start receiving PUSH notifications when events on the camera are triggered. However, I noticed I would only sometimes get the PUSH notifications. When I wouldn't receive a PUSH notification that I expected, I noticed if I went into the iVMS-4500 app the notification was there in the APP, it just didn't alert my phone as a PUSH notification. So clearly, the app was receiving the notification, it just didn't make my phone ding, and show up as an alert. I spent hours scouring the internet, and I was not alone in this, it seems to be VERY common, and most of you have probably noticed this as well. I did NOT want to use Hik-Connect, because I hate the app, and the notifications were delayed, so I spent a lot of time playing around trying to get them to work all the time in iVMS-4500 and I am happy to say I have figured out a method that works for me basically every time, and without a delay. The trick is to CLOSE iVMS-4500 when you exit the app. Don't just exit it, but close it afterwards. I think what happens is iVMS receives the PUSH notification and thinks it is open in the foreground, not the background, and decides not to alert the phone because it thinks you are already in the app. If you close the app, every time you exit it, you will receive PUSH notifications pretty much all the time.

TL; DR
If you use a Hikvision POE NVR, power your cameras via a POE switch and manually add them to the NVR so you can gain fine tune control over your cameras, as well as the ability to record events to the SD card (or NAS drive), while continuously recording to the NVR. This allows you to easily view events only by connecting to the cameras, or view continuously when connecting to the NVR.

Close iVMS-4500 when you exit the app, and you will receive PUSH notifications more reliably.
 

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alastairstevenson

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It's always interesting and helpful to read a thoughtful study of someone's journey of discovery - thanks for sharing, that will inform others.

A quick point though -
This wouldn't be necessary if Hikvision would just show the events on the timeline for continous playback with buttons to move forward and backward through events.
The NVR web GUI does show motion events (not smart events though) on the web GUI playback timeline.
Example : Hikvision motion detection
No skip buttons though.

Presumably you've looked at the equivalent VGA/HDMI playback screens?
It shows both motion events and allows skipping with in-between speedups.
Fiddly to use though, and no good if you're running the NVR headless.

One point I'd take issue with - the 'Virtual Host' facility does give full direct access to the camera web GUI so that you can do those detailed configurations that the NVR doesn't proxy for you. It works pretty well, in my view.
And it's also possible to fully access (not just HTTP) NVR POE-connected cameras directly with a small network tweak.
 

Jeremy Spiering

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It's always interesting and helpful to read a thoughtful study of someone's journey of discovery - thanks for sharing, that will inform others.

A quick point though -

The NVR web GUI does show motion events (not smart events though) on the web GUI playback timeline.
Example : Hikvision motion detection
No skip buttons though.

Presumably you've looked at the equivalent VGA/HDMI playback screens?
It shows both motion events and allows skipping with in-between speedups.
Fiddly to use though, and no good if you're running the NVR headless.

One point I'd take issue with - the 'Virtual Host' facility does give full direct access to the camera web GUI so that you can do those detailed configurations that the NVR doesn't proxy for you. It works pretty well, in my view.
And it's also possible to fully access (not just HTTP) NVR POE-connected cameras directly with a small network tweak.
Thanks for the comments. I was aware that the NVR web GUI can show motion events, but without the ability to see smart events, it is mostly useless to me.

I actually have not looked at the VGA/HDMI playback screens, I run the NVR headless in my basement with all of my networking equipment. The little time I spent in the NVR menus before making it headless, I was not impressed with the interface, but I knew I was never going to use the interface anyway.

As for the Virtual Host, I probably would have gone that route had I not already purchased the POE switch for my first camera which I setup before deciding to buy a Hikvision NVR. I take back what I said about needing a POE switch if the "Virtual Host" facility works well. Having the ability to connect to the cameras directly for both setup and playback capability is a must have for my purposes, for the reasons mentioned before regarding recording events only to the SD card.

I am really happy that I seem to have figured out the issue with iVMS-4500 and push notifications. They are working great now as long as I remember to close the app after exiting it EVERY time. This will get old soon enough, and I am already looking into coding a Node.JS app that I plan to run on my QNAP Nas (although could just as easily be run on Linux or Windows machine if anybody is interested) that polls the Hikvision cameras and looks for new events every couple of seconds, and then sends push notifications via Pushy, or Amazon SNS, or something like that so I have complete control over the Push notifications and ensure they arrive as quickly as possible. When I get to this, I'd be happy to share the source code on Github for anybody interested in using it.
 

Jeremy Spiering

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Just a quick update. I have created a small Node.JS app that listens for camera events, using nayr's code from the following location: nayrnet/node-hikvision-api
My code sends PUSH notifications via PUSHY (pushy.me) on the "start" event of various motion/smart events to my Android phone, via a simple Android App that I created. It works REALLY well and is super reliable and fast compared to using iVMS-4500 or Hik-Connect. I think the Hikvision apps wait until the "end" event to send PUSH notifications, which is partially why the notifications are delayed, because sometimes the "end" event is anywhere from 10-120 seconds after the start event. I am working on refining the app, so I when I click the PUSH notification it opens up the RTSP video stream of the camera that had the motion/smart event alert. One of my gripes with the Hikvision apps (other than the long delay sometimes in getting the notification) is clicking the notification and having it open the app, and then having to navigate to the live stream. I want the live stream to be immediate when I click the alert. I am close to getting that all worked out. When I do, I will post the code for both the Node JS back-end code, as well as the Android app code, so anybody else could build the app and just change the ip address/domain and credentials and have real-time reliable alerts, and an app that opens directly to the live stream.

Thank you @nayr for the node-hikvision-api code that I am using as the basis. Top-notch work that saved me several hours of looking through documentation and generating/parsing xml to use the Hikvision ISAPI api.
 

sw07tc

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Hi,

I have an issue with the Web GUI when I access it remotely at work with port forwarding. The Web GUI stays logged in if I forgot to log out, I end up with my ISP alerting that I almost hit my 1TB bandwidth limit because it kept running when I left work. When at home the Web GUI does timeout. But I what it works in reverse not to time out at home through direct connect and timeout when access the Web GUI remotely. I looked around didn't find what I needed, can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks
 

suzukifd

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Jermey all good stuff. I just have one concern it's having that http port open to the world . Is there any auth happening of that port? If so it's plan text . I am working on getting a nvr soon and have the doorbell cam by hik.
 

Mike Oz

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Does anyone use NVMS7000? That's what I've been using with good luck but not sure how it compares with IVMS4500..? Anyone have any thoughts?
 

Jeremy Spiering

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Hikvision has recently released iVMS-4200 Lite (for Windows PC only at the moment). It is a game changer for me. It a less bloated version of the full iVMS-4200. It loads much more quickly, and uses significantly less processor resources while displaying multiple streams. It has eliminated my usage of VLC as my primary live viewing software on my computer (as described in the first post above). It also works really well for Remote Playback, recording, downloading clips from single or multiple cameras at the same time. Definitely recommended.

Download | Client Software - Hikvision

Here is another post about it with more details: New Hikvision iVMS4200 Lite 1.0.0.4
 

gpower07

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I use hik-connect. I got PUSH notifications everytime. with 2 seconds delay. but only limit to 3mp camera or under. I tried 4MP camera and set it in 3mp. sometime work sometime don't. but if I changed to 3mp camera. it work every fucking time. don't know why.
 

proxybox

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The trick is to CLOSE iVMS-4500 when you exit the app. Don't just exit it, but close it afterwards. I think what happens is iVMS receives the PUSH notification and thinks it is open in the foreground, not the background, and decides not to alert the phone because it thinks you are already in the app. If you close the app, every time you exit it, you will receive PUSH notifications pretty much all the time.
I'm so glad you wrote this. I've been traversing the rabbit hole of ivms-4500 and am glad you made strides. At one point, I had notifications (not within app but on phone pull down notification window in Android Oreo on a Motorola Force Z2) working whether the app was open or closed. I couldn't find a pattern but now they only work when the app is closed.

For clarification, when you say close the app you mean to shut it down by swiping the app off in card view?
Screenshot_20190212-002047.png

Or do you mean to logout of the app?
Screenshot_20190212-002026.png

Presumably, exit means to just switch to another app with ivms running as a card.

And... why can't they just design the app to have notifications on the phone regardless if it is open or not like all other apps? Argh. I already placed feedback in the Play Store for this feature. Thanks for your work on the app and code.

Thanks.
 

proxybox

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I noticed if I change any settings on the camera, I lose notifications. To get them back, I switch notifications off , clear cache, clear data through settings.


This will reset the app to default. I then add the NVR back and turn notifications back on. Once I complete I get all my notifications to appear whether the app is closed or open. I have email notifications enabled and I noticed on a few remote occasions where I didn't get notifications on the phone but did via email. Not sure why this is happening.

Update: This worked for awhile but stopped. I only receive notifications when the app is closed. The email notifications work really well. It provides redundancy if the app fails.
 

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777hemi

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After several months of playing around with various hardware, software and network configurations, I have finally arrived at a setup that works well for me. I am writing this post to share what I have learned about setting up Hikvision cameras, NVR and the various software packages available.

My journey began several months ago with a Ring Pro Doorbell. I quickly realized the Ring products were woefully inadequate for my needs. The video quality was poor, the WiFi connection was spotty, and I could not directly access the feeds without the Ring software, or record 24 hours. I quickly returned the Ring and looked into various surveillance options. I settled on Hikvision vs. Dahua mostly by 50/50 chance as they both seemed to be popular choices with similar price points and feature sets.

I started with a Hikvision 2CD-DS2142-FWD-IS camera. I set up the camera without an NVR and used QNAP QVR Pro software on my NAS to record 24 hours with various motion, intrustion and line crossing alerts. This setup worked pretty well, but the QVR Pro alerts did not work well. The QVR Pro Client software for the Windows PC was fantastic, I will say, much better than Hikvision's software. The ability to playback and view live/recorded footage was very intuitive. There was a single timeline that showed the continuous playback with lines drawn for every alert/event, and it was very easy to cycle forward and backwards through the alerts, something Hikvision's software lacks (sort of possible through iVMS-4200, but terrible interface).

As good as the QVR Pro client software was, there were shortcomings with recording to my NAS and sharing storage with other features of my NAS, as well as taking valuable processor time from my NAS, so I decided to ditch QVR Pro, and purchase a Hikvision NVR (DS-7608NI-E2 / 8P).

I purchased 2 more cameras and began using them with the NVR. I realized that connecting the cameras directly to the NVR POE ports, limited my access to the cameras directly, unless I did some tricks such as changing subnets, or using the virtual host option of the NVR to directly access the cameras. I was not happy with either of these solutions so I ended up connecting the cameras to a POE switch, and manually adding the cameras to the NVR, instead of using the POE ports of the NVR. This has several advantages, and I highly recommend it to anybody using an NVR with POE. POE switches can be purchased for as little as $30-35 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075G2PM17/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Having direct access to the camera allows you to fine tune your settings dramatically over what you can do from the NVR:
  • Fine tune image settings
  • Fine tune your alerts (NVR doesn't allow you to draw min and max size boxes which dramatically help you reduce false alerts)
  • Allow you record events only on the SD card of the cameras, while recording continuously to the NVR
The final bullet point is crucial, since in the mobile applications, if you are viewing a continuous playback timeline, you can't see or skip to events. Using Hik-Connect or iVMS4500 on your phone, you can add the NVR, as well as the individual cameras. This allows you easily watch through events by viewing the camera directly, or viewing the entire continuous recording by selecting the NVR. This wouldn't be necessary if Hikvision would just show the events on the timeline for continous playback with buttons to move forward and backward through events.

Software

iVMS-4200 (desktop app)

I personally can't stand iVMS-4200 for the desktop (Windows version). It is slow, clunky, and has WAY more options than any of my hardware supports, so there are hundreds of tabs, buttons, and screens that are pointless for me. The app takes a long time to start, long time to close, and uses a LOT of processor. It is powerful software, but I no longer use it for anything. I use the Web GUI for the NVR and for the cameras to do all of my setup, and occasionally for playing back video, although I usually use the phone apps for this.

Web GUI
The Web GUI is actually pretty good with one major drawback, and that is the ActiveX plugin that requires Internet Explorer for viewing the feed. Other than that, I find the Web GUI is much more suited than iVMS -4200 for making changes to my cameras or the NVR.

Hik-Connect (mobile app)
Just say no. The Hik-Connect software is terrible and buggy. The Hik-Connect software allows you to add devices using the Hik-Connect platform, as well as manually adding devices by IP address and ports. If you add devices using the Hik-Connect platform, you can enable PUSH notifications which work reasonably well, although they are sometimes delayed by a minute or more, which I find unacceptable. I think the reason for this is that alerts are sent from your device, up to the Hik-Connect servers, which then send them to your phone. There is a delay in using Hik-Connect as the middleman and I imagine they have some sort of queuing process for sending out PUSH alerts, and if there servers are busy, you have to wait a bit. Either way, Hik-Connect's interface is not easy to use, and playing back video has artifacts and pauses that do no occur on iVMS-4500. If you set up camera's manually by ip address/port using Hik-Connect, you cannot receive PUSH notifications.

iVMS-4500HD (mobile app)

Just say no. This app is terrible, and from what I understand was basically iVMS-4500 (non HD) but designed for tablets, so the orientation is always landscape instead of portrait. I don't think iVMS-4500HD is updated anymore, so it lacks features of the regular iVMS-4500.

iVMS-4500 (mobile app)

This is the app to use for mobile. It works reasonably well, and allows you to add phones manually via ip address/port, as well as using Hik-Connect (the platform, not the app). If you add via Hik-Connect, PUSH notifications will be turned on, and you cannot turn them off. If you add devices manually, you can turn alerts on/off at will for each device separately, which is very nice. There is an issue with PUSH notifications on the iVMS-4500 app. When setup correctly they work pretty well, but it takes some effort to make it work. I will go into more detail below in the PUSH Notifications section.

VLC (desktop app)
I know, VLC is not a Hikvision app, but it works great a simple live viewer for the desktop. I setup a playlist with several RTSP streams on it, and saved the playlist to my desktop. Now I can double-click the playlist, and cycle through all of my cameras easily. One tip is to enable channel zero on the NVR. This allows you to view an RTSP stream of all the channels at once. I make this the first track on the playlist so I can see all of my cameras at once. Then I add the main stream channel for all of my cameras. The "N" key cycles to the next track, and the "P" key goes to the previous track, so while I am working, if I notice motion on channel zero, I just hit "P" the appropriate number of times to pull up the HD feed of the camera I spotted motion in. Works great, and uses a lot less processor and bandwidth than the WebGUI, and iVMS-4200. (see attached image). I have also attached a sample playlist (rename the extension from .txt to .xspf for VLC to recognize it as a playlist). Just edit the file and insert your own credentials, ip addresses, and ports, and you will be on your way. Hitting Ctrl+H in VLC will remove the controls and give you a cleaner display.



Push Notifications

I spent considerable time getting PUSH notifications to work properly and there are several things you need to know in order to get them working consistently.

  • Notifications through the Hik-Connect platform are consistent, but often delayed, I do not recommend using Hik-Connect the app or the platform
  • You must forward not only the SERVER port but the HTTP port as well using iVMS-4500 in order for the PUSH notifications to work. I recommend not using port 80 or 8000 for any of the ports as those are defaults and more likely to be used in a hacking attempt. Once you have forwarded the Server and HTTP port (it HAS to be HTTP, it will not work over HTTPS port for some stupid reason), you can go the alarm menu, and click "Set Alarm Notification" at the bottom. If your ports are forwarded correctly, you should be able to enable the notifications for your devices.
*NOTE* This next part is crucial
Once notifications are setup you can start receiving PUSH notifications when events on the camera are triggered. However, I noticed I would only sometimes get the PUSH notifications. When I wouldn't receive a PUSH notification that I expected, I noticed if I went into the iVMS-4500 app the notification was there in the APP, it just didn't alert my phone as a PUSH notification. So clearly, the app was receiving the notification, it just didn't make my phone ding, and show up as an alert. I spent hours scouring the internet, and I was not alone in this, it seems to be VERY common, and most of you have probably noticed this as well. I did NOT want to use Hik-Connect, because I hate the app, and the notifications were delayed, so I spent a lot of time playing around trying to get them to work all the time in iVMS-4500 and I am happy to say I have figured out a method that works for me basically every time, and without a delay. The trick is to CLOSE iVMS-4500 when you exit the app. Don't just exit it, but close it afterwards. I think what happens is iVMS receives the PUSH notification and thinks it is open in the foreground, not the background, and decides not to alert the phone because it thinks you are already in the app. If you close the app, every time you exit it, you will receive PUSH notifications pretty much all the time.

TL; DR
If you use a Hikvision POE NVR, power your cameras via a POE switch and manually add them to the NVR so you can gain fine tune control over your cameras, as well as the ability to record events to the SD card (or NAS drive), while continuously recording to the NVR. This allows you to easily view events only by connecting to the cameras, or view continuously when connecting to the NVR.

Close iVMS-4500 when you exit the app, and you will receive PUSH notifications more reliably.
Thanks for the great post. I am installing a DS-7608 in my utility room and am not sure if I should just use the NVR's PoE ports and be done with it, or choose your route. I was thinking of using Virtual host to access the cameras to set the parameters and then turn off that option once set up. Then view through ivms 4500 on my cell and ivms 4200 lite on my laptop?
Hopefull I'll be able to get an HDMI cable up to my kitchen for a monitor with a mouse through a LAN cable already in place to view live feed continuously.
Great post.
 
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Silas

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Does anyone use NVMS7000? That's what I've been using with good luck but not sure how it compares with IVMS4500..? Anyone have any thoughts?
I just installed it to see, I use IVMS4200 and TBH all I can see is that a 'skin' has been used for one or the other, both took the same time to load and operate.
I have tried the lite version, but it did not provide me with decent playback of motion events, and by now I am adept at the exact clicks I need to do to get that running under the full version. Whilst it does load faster, the only functions i tend to use is the playback of motion events.
I also use IVMS4500HD as IVMS4500 would often have issues with display, and this is the same for a number of people I know that use the similar systems to me.
Virtual Hosts is great until you need to do anything with the RTSP side of things and then it becomes a problem as ports need to be used...
 

Jeremy Spiering

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For clarification, when you say close the app you mean to shut it down by swiping the app off in card view?

Or do you mean to logout of the app?
I mean just swiping the app off in card view I assume logging out will prevent Push notifications.
 

normel

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Do you guys also have trouble with sharing video's to watsapp, which are clipped using ivms 4500?
as soon as i want to share video from ''picture and video section ;; whatsapp gives error that the codec is not supported
 

jc79

n3wb
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I agree with all of your summation. Especially with the apps.
One issue with ivms-4500 app is that I can connect to my NVR from offsite via my public IP. However, when on my LAN, I can only connect if I use my local IP, not the public. I'm sure there is a basic networking issue I am missing.
 

proxybox

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I agree with all of your summation. Especially with the apps.
One issue with ivms-4500 app is that I can connect to my NVR from offsite via my public IP. However, when on my LAN, I can only connect if I use my local IP, not the public. I'm sure there is a basic networking issue I am missing.
It depends on your router and it if allows loopback. If you setup another device with your local ip you can use that as a workaround unless you investigate router options.
 

proxybox

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I suddenly lost all notifications on my phone. I tried rebooting, powering down, etc to no avail. I tried another phone and nothing. I didn't change any settings on either the NVR, cameras or phone. I suspect the NVR isn't sending out the notification since multiple devices aren't receiving the notice. Email notifications still works without issue.

This morning at 6am I got three notifications and then it stopped working again. At that hour I'm on infrared and in that mode it doesn't run the NVR as hard. NVR overloaded?

Update: Really weird. I found a suggestion on here to change the region in Ivms 4500. I changed it from USA to United Kingdom and everything worked. When set on USA, I got the dreaded "Failed to register to the Push Server" error. On UK, everything works flawlessly. I suspect now that these notifications get pushed to Hikvision servers in the defined region and then back to the phone even though I'm not using Hikconnect. I thought the NVR sent the message directly to the phone. Perhaps, I've been blacklisted on the USA servers? Thoughts?
 
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obqo

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Your VLC setup is brilliant.... thank you for sharing.
 
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