Firmware for DS-2CD1221D-I3 (can't find)

[Stephen304]

Hi all, I recently purchased this ip cam from a small shop in mainland china on impulse, and after a long back and fourth with support I managed to reset the password that was changed by the shop that sold it to me. It's practically perfect for monitoring my backyard, but the web UI is all in chinese so I am navigating with google translate which is pretty annoying.

I haven't been able to find the firmware on HIKvision's site for this model, I'm not sure if this is because I bought this from a questionable seller, but I'm hoping someone here might know how I can find an english firmware so I can mod/flash it to my camera?

Currently the camera shows up with firmware V5.4.50build 170824

Thanks!

 

[alastairstevenson]

t's practically perfect for monitoring my backyard, but the web UI is all in chinese so I am navigating with google translate which is pretty annoying.

You can configure in English (or other languages) using the Batch Configuration Tool : Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd.

an english firmware so I can mod/flash it to my camera?

That won't change the camera to English - it will likely brick it with a language mismatch error.

 

[Stephen304]

That won't change the camera to English - it will likely brick it with a language mismatch error.

It was my understanding from this thread that the firmwares are one region or another, so using this tool you can flash an english firmware to a chinese device. Hikvision FIRMWARE TOOLS - change language, extract files and create own firmware

Since I want to also update this camera in addition to changing the language, it seems like this is the path I should take.

 

[alastairstevenson]

so using this tool you can flash an english firmware to a chinese device.

That does not change the language of the camera, or the internal language of the firmware, just the header of the firmware to get round part of the initial validation checks.

 

[Stephen304]

That does not change the language of the camera, or the internal language of the firmware, just the header of the firmware to get round part of the initial validation checks.

Isn't the idea to flash the english firmware by changing the header to make it look like a chinese firmware so the camera will accept it?

I am looking at the batch tool, but it looks like it's just the same as the web config. I'm not seeing any language options.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I'm not seeing any language options.

It uses the language that Windows is using.

I am looking at the batch tool, but it looks like it's just the same as the web config.

Yes, but not in Chinese.

Isn't the idea to flash the english firmware by changing the header to make it look like a chinese firmware so the camera will accept it?

It's only the header. It will not change the camera language.

 

[Stephen304]

Yes, but not in Chinese.

That still doesn't effect the osd of the camera, which stays in Chinese. Plus I don't use windows regularly so I usually can only access the web interface which is still stuck in Chinese.

And I still have the problem of not knowing where to get updates for the camera, which is the primary reason for this thread. It's not listed on the firmware download page.

It's only the header. It will not change the camera language.

I think you are misunderstanding what I want to do. I understand that changing the header won't change the interface language. My idea is to take an english firmware then change the header to chinese. That way I will have an english interface. I'm not trying to change the chinese firmware to english by changing the header - that would be silly.

 

[Stephen304]

So I did manage to find the firmware that (I think) is installed on my camera - at least the version and build matches: http://www1.hikvision.com/cn/download_606.html -> 海康威视是以视频为核心的物联网解决方案提供商 -> #5. My firmware is definitely not already hacked to be in english so maybe they didn't modify it at all from the official firmware.

I tried montecrypto's hikpack to see if I can unpack it and change english to the default lang ("CN firmware already has EN locale in it,it just need to be enabled/set as default") but it doesn't seem to unpack anything but the header. I assumed it's an r6 firmware because that's the only one that makes hikpack not complain, but maybe it not unpacking anything else is an indication that hikpack doesn't support it.

I think montecrypto mentioned that the web ui lang could be changed by tweaking a cookie, but I'm currently back in mainland and I left my camera in HK to avoid having too much stuff going through customs so I'll have to try that when I'm back in the US.

If I can just get the FW hacked to default english then I'll be happy with never updating this camera again - seems it's much more trouble than it's worth. Though I admit that the puzzle of investigating the internals and firmware is a very fulfilling endeavor

Unless anybody has any other pointers or things to try, I'll just enjoy this shitty hotel wifi and give it a rest for now.