DS7816N-E2/8P NVR - first impressions.

[alastairstevenson]

It’s been just 2 weeks and zero stalls or crashes since I took delivery of a Hikvision DS7816N-E2/8P NVR and time to share some thoughts and maybe get some feedback.

The summary is that I'm pleased with the NVR, it has met or exceeded expectations, with no big negatives. Especially compared with my existing QNAP Surveillance Station, the main problem with which is the TS-412 it's running on does not have high enough performance for what is quite a heavy application.

So - what are the highlights of the device with its 3.0.8 firmware? Without attempting to do a full review ...

The web admin access is refined, well organised and works well. Though there aresome missing features when compared with the rather different interface via theHDMI/VGA output. Such as:

• No 'shutdown' button in menus. And I couldn’t find a proper ‘shutdown –H now’ via telnet, just a ‘poweroff’ command that doesn’t fully shut down.
• Less detail in HDD management, ie no groups or quotas or per-camera consumption.
• No ability to organise and save the panes in Live View. Via HDMI you simply create your own placements.
• No info on POE status. It’s impressive that under HDMI it shows power per channel.

And the playback works very well via the web, at 720p.
At 1080p I was getting some stuttering on DS-2CD2032-I (5.2.0) on Live View andPlayback. Even after updating the Webcomponents 3.05.19 25Jun14 from a 5.2.0 camera to 3.05.21 11Jul14 from the NVR.
A little further checking, using another PC, showed that despite a Windows Performance graphics index of 6.8, the PC CPU isn’t quite fast enough. All was just fine on the faster PC.
The web admin is good enough that I'll be able to locate the box out of sight headless(without an attached screen).

I have a variety of 720p low-cost Chinese origin cameras (IP Cloud Camera IPCC-B10, Amovsion Q645R, Vanxse B-811, Dericam H502W) and all work well using both ONVIF and RTSP connections. I consider that to be a good result – I hadbeen expecting a Hikvision only flavour to appear here.

The ONVIF works better than that under QNAP SS, it gets all the camera settings choices right. And interestingly, the NVR offers RTSP live video streams from all inputs over the LAN, can be watched with VLC for example. I spotted this using ONVIF Device Manager (sourceforge.net, really handy for any ONVIF device).
The plug&play with Hikvision cameras (DS-2CD2032-I) simply works seamlessly- via both the POE and LAN connections.

I've just got 5 cameras on just now - awaiting 2 more Hikvision. Performance is good, smooth and responsive. It's using under 25% of LAN throughput capacity, and the dual-core ArmV7 processor is running at about 50% on one of the cores.

Be aware though that the model I bought is not one of the common ones - it'spretty new, 100Mbps rating, 16 channels, 8 POE, up to 6MP cameras, not widely on sale.

In summary - it's working well, I'm pleased I bought it, and I'm in the processof transferring all cameras over from my QNAP Surveillance Station.

 

[Kuno]

Does this series have the alarm input/output ports?

 

[alastairstevenson]

The particular model that I bought does not have alarm I/O ports, and I couldn't see any mentioned for others in the range on the Hikvision website.

 

[pbc]

You've got 5 cams and all have to be in 720p mode for non stuttering playback? Or did I misunderstand that? I was planning on 7 or 8 cams in 1080p mode and the 16ch (which I think has 8 poe ports?). Will that not work?

 

[pbc]

Oh.. And can you view the cameras when away from home with this unit?

 

[alastairstevenson]

You've got 5 cams and all have to be in 720p mode for non stuttering playback? Or did I misunderstand that? I was planning on 7 or 8 cams in 1080p mode and the 16ch (which I think has 8 poe ports?). Will that not work?

I'm progressively replacing my original eclectic set of cameras which were only capable of 720p resolution with Hikvision 3MP models. The older PC was the origin of the stuttering - it can't fully handle the higher resolution of the 3MP cameras / NVR video stream. The video is fine with a faster PC.

Oh.. And can you view the cameras when away from home with this unit?

That's more to do with how you have configured your network, and how much risk to your data and privacy you are prepared to take by exposing it to the bad guys out there on the world-wide-web. It's all too easy with UPnP to activate port forwarding and forget it's not just you that could gain access to your network.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30121159

 

[thestooge]

What steps would you recommend for remote access to prevent unauthorized access?

At the moment I am using a no-ip dynamic DNS host with a long name, non-standard HTTP port and a long password. I have read about setting up a VPN into the router to enhance security even more. Woud you recommend disabling uPNP?

 

[DaveP]

Woud you recommend disabling uPNP?

Yes... its a simple way of forwarding ports, but the down side is that it opens up more than realised.

Long DNS names don't help, cos its ip addresses that are scanned, & the hackers tools don't just scan standard ports lol, so the port is kinda irrelevant. Its really down to scanning your own system and seeing what ports are open and blocking anything that's not required and use good passwords.

Oh.. And can you view the cameras when away from home with this unit?

Yes, forward the NVR port in your router.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I second Dave's advice.
And scanning your systems for vulnerabilities isn't too hard - there are quite a few free tools out there. In the domestic environment with standard OS around, I've used Nessus. It has a lot of signatures. It might be interesting to have a go at the NVR, I may try that. Look at the many recent high-severity vulnerabilities in Bash known as 'shellshock', also Poodle and Heartbleed. The bad guys will have known about these for years and probably gutted they have been found.
Checking that what's open is what you think is open is also good. A stealth scan using something like shieldsup (GRC) or similar is very quick and easy.
A LAN scan with NMAP can be quite illuminating to see what's there that you didn't know about.
And you are right - a good VPN with strong encryption and strong authentication is ideal - but in truth needs some know-how to set up properly.

 

[baban]

hi my friend please help me
i need have nvr 7616 the language chain
but i need change to English i have firmware but cannot upgrade
(

Language version mismatch )

 

[alastairstevenson]

I'm sorry, but I haven't upgraded the firmware on my DS-7816N-E2/8P, I haven't yet been able to source the correct firmware for it.
It sounds like you need to obtain the correct firmware for your NVR if you are getting a 'language mismatch' error.
You haven't mentioned the firmware version or where you obtained it from. There are firmware downloads from Hikvision sites in USA, Europe, China.
You could probably force the upgrade if you used the TFTP method, but you risk making changes that may not be wanted.
Have you tried accessing the NVR with Chrome and using the 'translate' option, does that show English menus?

 

[DaveP]

Hi baban,

The easy way... send a pm to member CBX on this forum, and ask for details of his services.

I'm sure he will be able to turn your nvr into 'version' that will then accept English / USA or multi language firmware

There is a fee, but its easy and guaranteed to work, hopefully very soon I intend to use his service my self.

 

[skilltpa]

Your Hikvision works well with an IPCC product or did you have to do some modification? I've been desperately trying to find an NVR that will be compatible with IPCC and Microseven ONVIF capable products.

 

[alastairstevenson]

The Hikvision DS7816N-E2/8P worked well for continuous recording using both ONVIF and Generic RTSP for these cameras: IP Cloud Camera IPCC-B10, Amovision Q645R, Vanxse B-811, Dericam H502W, all 720P resolution.
And of course Hikvsion DS2032-I, DS2132-I, DS2432-I using both their native Hikvision choice, for continuous and alarm, and also under ONVIF.
The neat feature is the ability to create up to 16 custom connections for the cameras, each with their own RTSP connection string, either on the LAN or via the PoE ports.
Pretty impressed with all that, it was one of the first things I tested.

 

[fenderman]

Did the motion detection work with the non hikvision cams at all?

 

[alastairstevenson]

None of the cheap ONVIF-compliant cameras that I have implement the ONVIF push/pull subscription event notifications facility. It's not a mandatory facility on ONVIF ProfileS, so not widely implemented. The only cameras I've seen that on are the Hikvisions, which have a pretty good ONVIF implementation. ONVIF Device Manager tells all.
So no, I didn't actually try for motion detection, I'm pretty sure it would not have worked - no common event notification method.
On my QNAP NAS Surveillance Station, using the same cameras under ONVIF doesn't natively give motion detection either, but a workaround can be implemented using an FTP action from the camera to a dedicated, dummy FTP user whose purpose is event notification. And for those cameras that do it - the QNAP NAS can also handle an HTTP event notification method.
As far as I know - the Hikvision NVR doesn't have an equivalent alternate event notification method that non-Hik cameras could use - unless anyone knows differently ...