Combining old Dahua Cameras with new NVR

[Peiler]

Hi everyone,

I would need some assistance for the following. I had purchased 3 Dahua IP Cameras 8 years ago from AliExpress, models are IPC-HDBW4421R, IPC-HDBW4421R-AS and IPC-HFW4421D.
All models came with English firmware as it was also mentioned in the website. They were connected fine with a QNAP NAS until the NAS died.

To replace the NAS I got a new Dahua NVR DHI-NVR4108-8P-4KS2/L locally (Cyprus,Europe) and cameras refuse to show any video feed.
I understand that Dahua set some geo-restrictions at some point but how can I identify if my NVR is incompatible with my IPC?
For reference I am attaching versions and models.

Thank you!

 

[bigredfish]

Are they plugged into the PoE ports on the new NVR?

if so it looks like they were previously plugged into a switch and assigned static IPs in the 192.168.10.x range.

The NVR PoE ports assign an IP in the 10.1.1.x range. So the NVR is seeing them but can’t communicate.

 

[bigredfish]

Two possible ways to fix, I say "possible: because Im not certain if those are Chinese region cams and if they are it may not work, or worse, lock something..

1- Manually change the cameras IP to DHCP mode. Connect them to a switch on that 192.168.10.X network and you should be able to access the camera GUI directly by IP address

2- Enable "Bridge Mode" on the NVR which will (in theory) allow the cameras on the local network to pass through (assuming your network is using 192.168.10.X)

 

[Peiler]

I have tried connecting them to both the POE ports of the NVR and on my POE switch. I have access on the GUI, cameras are also detected on the NVR but still refuse to show image.
Is there a way to identify if the cameras are Chinese region? Please note that after I factory reset them, they are only showing Chinese...

 

[bigredfish]

If you are certain they are passing the right login/pass to the NVR then I'm guessing they are indeed Chinese region and the NVR recognizes such and wont play nice with them.

Using the login/pass you know to be good on the cameras (by logging into them directly), make sure the password is updated in the Edit dialog box on the NVR Registration screen.

Click the pencil icon,
In the dialog box enter the password you know to be good for the camera.


*Note this does NOT change the password. It simply tells the NVR how to connect to the camera

 

[tigerwillow1]

If you're willing to risk it, you could try the IPC-HX4X2X-Themis firmware from this post Dahua Firmware Mod Kit + Modded Dahua Firmware . Two of your camera models are on the compatibility list. My understanding is that instead of this firmware hacking a chinese market camera to talk english, it hacks it to say it isn't a chinese market camera. I've used a different version of the mod'ed firmware on my chinese market 4431s, and the NVR is perfectly happy with it.

 

[Peiler]

If you're willing to risk it, you could try the IPC-HX4X2X-Themis firmware from this post Dahua Firmware Mod Kit + Modded Dahua Firmware . Two of your camera models are on the compatibility list. My understanding is that instead of this firmware hacking a chinese market camera to talk english, it hacks it to say it isn't a chinese market camera. I've used a different version of the mod'ed firmware on my chinese market 4431s, and the NVR is perfectly happy with it.

I want to try it but it seems that most of the links on that post are not valid anymore. Is there anywhere else that I could possibly find these firmwares?

Thanks in advance

 

[Flintstone61]

Get the camera's into DHCP mode. the IP addresses shown are not NVR IP addresses.

 

[tigerwillow1]

I want to try it but it seems that most of the links on that post are not valid anymore.

Dang, sorry I pointed you to a dead link. The only firmware I downloaded is for the IPC-HX4XXX-Eos cameras. The original project page is still here GitHub - BotoX/DH_IPC-HX4XXX-Themis: Dahua firmware mod - ONLY FOR TRACKING CHANGES DO NOT CLONE THIS TO BUILD FIRMWARE, GITHUB BREAKS PERMISSIONS ETC., but you'd have to figure out how to build it yourself.