Hikvision 3.3.4 firmware

[Driver]

Bricks my 7616 every time. The latest version I can safely use is 3.1.7. (3.2.1+ is no good in my case) If you can't downgrade through the web interface, you'll need to use TFTP Auto Update to roll it back and in my case, combine it with PuTTY over the serial port to stop the device from booting and manually "upgrade" back to an older version. Too bad - the new web interface looks very sharp.

I too bricked my DS-7616N-E2/8P when attempting to go from 3.0.10 to 3.4.4

Fortunately reflashing the old firmware via the TFTP process bought it back from the dead.

 

[CoreyX64]

I haven't worked with the E2 version NVRs much but from what I gather it has a rear USB3 instead of USB2 and that's it. Everything else seems identical.

I still can't explain why I had to upgrade in such a weird sequence. It's the only way I could get it to work


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[tradertim]

Hi when you say email alerts work ...
i know they do for motion but have you tried

1. Intrusion detection
2. Line crossing.

Neither send emails attached for me on 3.3.4.

 

[CoreyX64]

No, I don't believe anyone mentioned that. In fact quite the opposite. That's been the biggest complaint is email alerts are completely defunct. In the 3.3.x firmwares as far as I'm aware. I don't use them so it doesn't affect me but I've read of many complaints. No solution but to roll back for now.


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[Rellim]

Hi when you say email alerts work ...
i know they do for motion but have you tried

1. Intrusion detection
2. Line crossing.

Neither send emails attached for me on 3.3.4.

My experience is email for motion - low res images and alert only, no jpeg, for either line crossing or intrusion.

 

[4xfire]

I am having a similar issue. For some reason the NVR will not send the X second Attached Images correctly.

 

[Alan2000]

I have a 7716NI-SP/16 NVR purchased from Hikvision USA dealer. All was fine with 3.1.5 and then I upgraded to 3.3.4. Now only my USA dealer purchased cameras work. The ones I bought from China, which I think are real Hikvision cameras but with Chinese firmware, are not online. When I click on "status" for cameras it says "Language mismatch".

Can someone please explain in simple terms the best way to get the cameras running again? Should I try to downgrade my firmware? Is it possible to update the firmware on the cameras so they work with 3.3.4?

When I contacted Hikvision the guy didn't really seem to know what to do. He said it could be a password issue with the Chinese cameras and I should have unplugged my cameras with I updated the NVR to 3.3.4. He said he didn't think it was possible to downgrade from 3.3.4 but it seems like people have done that. I'd prefer to update the firmware on the cameras if possible to run with 3.3.4.

Thanks for any tips.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Should I try to downgrade my firmware?

That would be best if you can.

Is it possible to update the firmware on the cameras so they work with 3.3.4?

Only with 'hacked' firmware that masquerades the underlying Chinese region that was written to the camera flash at manufacture with English region. Other options vary with the date of manufacture and original firmware / flash version of the cameras.

he didn't think it was possible to downgrade from 3.3.4 but it seems like people have done that

The changelog for 3.3.4 stated that, but it's possible with the tftp upgrader, provided it's not a very recently manufactured NVR with the additional downgrading protection.

*edit* If you are only using continuous recording or classic motion detection, you could re-connect the missing cameras for now using the 'ONVIF' protocol instead of 'Hikvision', changing the management port to 80 from 8000.

 

[CoreyX64]

For pre-2015 cameras (I can't recall the exact manufacturing date that was the cutoff) there's a pre-bundled English firmware that universally sets any 2xxx camera to English. At the same time, the user that created the 5.3.0 downgrader has a 5.2.5 English firmware that works for the newer 2015 cameras. I don't have the files links or names in front of me but @alastairstevenson is correct. The NVR is seeing the true camera region and is rejecting it. Genuine US region and modified firmware US region will all work. I have a mix of both with the same NVR as you on 3.3.4 and all work well.

What have they added to the newer NVRs to prevent downgrading?


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[CoreyX64]

When I say pre-bundled I mean it's a modified firmware posted on the forum somewhere that someone pre-modified. I'll post links when I'm near a computer. You can always search the forum too.


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[Alan2000]

......
*edit* If you are only using continuous recording or classic motion detection, you could re-connect the missing cameras for now using the 'ONVIF' protocol instead of 'Hikvision', changing the management port to 80 from 8000.

THANK YOU! That got all my cameras working again which was the main priority. A couple of them have some Chinese characters in the date, and I think some camera options are not displaying. But I can tinker to sort that out later when I get more time to figure out how to upgrade/fool the firmware to get it all back to 100%.

 

[4xfire]

Kind of a noob question, but how did changing the protocol from 'HikVision' to 'ONVIF' work like that, and does that mean he is now using the management port as an http port to configure the cameras?

 

[CoreyX64]

@Alan2000,
Glad to hear you got everything working. With ONVIF being a somewhat universal standard, Hikvision can't region-enforce their products using that protocol, since the practice of region-locking at the hardware/firmware level is not an industry-wide standard.

Those chinese characters you are seeing on the date/time stamp is actually the day of the week. The cheater solution to this is to disable the DAY stamp but leave DATE and TIME, and this can be done per camera in the NVR itself, no hacks or mods required:

If you were to direct-dial into the web interface of these cameras, you'd be welcomed to more Chinese characters. (perhaps you've already done this). While the NVR does skew certain options that can be set in the cameras themselves, for most out of the box users, it shouldn't matter too much. The only setting that I usually change is the Smart IR, noise reduction, and the frequency. In the US we're 60Hz and the cameras from China default to 50. (Europe).

Regarding setting these cameras to English (US-region compatible) firmware, If your cameras are made pre 12/2014 (there's a fine line as to when in December the switch was made, but if the camera has a 5.2.3 sticker, assume its newer, not older), I'm going to call these "old" cameras. These I've used the 5.2.0 firmware package provided here and have full english interfaces and menus and no issues. I've tried to bring these to 5.2.5 just because (no real benefit anyways), and they flip back to Chinese for some reason. Haven't really had the time to bother with it, so I let it go.

5.2.0 English:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgc3djfww4ogin5/Raptor_2_520_f_10_14_c.dav?dl=1

If they were made after 12/2014, they likely employ the newer checksum and as such the older firmwares using the older checksum will not work and will brick your camera. At this point 5.2.5 is required, which is included in the 5.3.0 Downgrader from this thread:
https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/4036-Custom-Firmware-Downgrader-5-3-0-Chinese-to-5-2-5-English

Read that thread quite thoroughly. While I've done this personally and it has worked, it seems like not everyone has perfect clean success. It is worth noting both 5.2.0 and 5.2.5 will both need pushed via TFTP. There is a readme included with the TFTP server that walks you through everything as far as setting up the recovery process. Please note that TFTP recovery will wipe camera settings. If there are any important ones that you can't remember, make note of these prior to TFTP'ing new firmware.

As a final sum-up note, regardless of the camera firmware version, once you have your camera in English, leave it. Newer versions don't necessarily mean improved performance/features. In most cases, it actually means feature removal/restrictions. There are many threads here that document this very well.

 

[CoreyX64]

Kind of a noob question, but how did changing the protocol from 'HikVision' to 'ONVIF' work like that, and does that mean he is now using the management port as an http port to configure the cameras?

Correct. ONVIF uses HTTP port 80 to communicate with the camera. All of Hikvision's region restrictions are port 8000 driven; that drives all of Hikvision's feature set or in this case, restriction set. When you change the protocol in the NVR the port typically will change to 80 automatically. As such, the NVR can no longer distinguish a Chinese camera from an English one.


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[djangel]

Correct. ONVIF uses HTTP port 80 to communicate with the camera. All of Hikvision's region restrictions are port 8000 driven; that drives all of Hikvision's feature set or in this case, restriction set. When you change the protocol in the NVR the port typically will change to 80 automatically. As such, the NVR can no longer distinguish a Chinese camera from an English one.

When using ONVIF protocol, are you still able to use all features from the NVR with the cameras, like smart events, recording options, etc...?

 

[CoreyX64]

At present, only the basics. From what I understand that's a basic RTSP stream (and sub stream as well) and standard pixel-based motion recording. Any intelligence features or other special settings offered by Hikvision or other manufacturers are omitted. I would imagine that as the ONVIF standard evolves, such "advanced" features will eventually become primitive, because the standard and devices that support it will see eye to eye with, in theory, *no* problems. ONVIF 2.6 was defined and standardized in June 2015, problem is it will likely take quite some time for devices currently on the market to catch up with the standard in the form of firmware updates. Hikvision provably being the worst. With that being said, a quick look at the 2032 spec sheet does not indicate the specific ONVIF profile(s) that it employs or what revision. I would guess 2.0, but that's far fetched.


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[CoreyX64]

To be clear, I can't say as to what the NVR *claims* to allow you to change setting-wise under an ONVIF camera profile, and if those changes even commit to the camera, as I've never tried it. As a general rule however, you can safely assume that not using the Hikvision protocol with Hikvision IPCs will sever your ability to use any Hikvision-specific features with those cameras. Trial and error would be the way to determine this, and as expected, mileage will vary. This technically goes for any manufacturer and their respective manufacturer-specific features. It's no different than any other name brand vs. generic argument essentially. You always lose a little something when opting for the generic route.


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[djangel]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Alan2000]

@Alan2000,
.......
Those chinese characters you are seeing on the date/time stamp is actually the day of the week. The cheater solution to this is to disable the DAY stamp but leave DATE and TIME, and this can be done per camera in the NVR itself, no hacks or mods required:

Thanks Corey - I tried that and didn't work. In the past I could change that "Display week" option but now it won't let me check off that box. It is not checked so the day should not appear but it does. The two cams that have the Chinese day displayed are 2 cams I was messing with when I was changing protocols tying to get them to work before I saw the post to use ONVIF. Prior to that I selected the option in the NVR to reset those cameras to default settings and that made the day appear in Chinese. With 3.3.4 I can't access the day option any longer. I have the same NVR at work which has all USA dealer cameras and on that one with 3.1.5 I can turn the day on and off. Perhaps I could connect those 2 cameras to the NVR at work and from there turn off the day display?

My remote live view also stopped working with 3.3.4. I can access the NVR and even make changes to the camera but I can't view the camera image (even the USA camera) nor can I remote playback. Wishing I had not upgraded to 3.3.4 as so far a big pain.

 

[djangel]

...My remote live view also stopped working with 3.3.4. I can access the NVR and even make changes to the camera but I can't view the camera image (even the USA camera) nor can I remote playback. Wishing I had not upgraded to 3.3.4 as so far a big pain.

This is more than likely due to the plugin. Which browser are you using? Try using Internet Explorer or Firefox.