Hikvision 3.3.4 firmware

If your NVR is a genuine US-regioned NVR, firmware upgrades are nothing to fear. Same goes for the IPCs themselves. At present, the NVR firmware is the only thing that has seen major changes in the last 8 months to a year. Most notably in the UI both on the recorder itself and from the web interface. Functionality wise, aside from some additional intelligence features that aren't even supported on these economy cameras anyways, there hasn't been a whole lot that I've noticed in terms of new functionality. While the cameras continue to lose functionality with firmware upgrades, the NVRs seem to gain it. I'm okay with that, since I only ever interface with the recorder, never the cameras directly.

You mileage will vary when asking Hikvision USA for support for gray market cameras. When it comes to firmware, they absolutely will NOT help you. If you even mention language mismatch, I wouldn't be surprised if they stonewall you for the remainder of the phone call. However, for things like password resets, they're more lenient and in many cases will help you through that.

Unplugging cameras prior to upgrade is not necessary. Upgrading NVR firmware will not tamper with the camera's firmware. On the NVR UI itself, in the camera management section, there is an upgrade button that I've been quite curious about. I've never pushed it, fearing the worst, but somehow the NVR knows the firmware on the camera isn't the most current. As long as you leave your Chinese cameras as-is, you shouldn't have any issues here on out. If you were to read the documentation on NVR firmware updates, it will often point out that certain model cameras require a minimum firmware version to work with the recorder. This is a marketing tactic and is not true. The region is the only thing that matters with current NVR firmware. This could change in the future, but at present it does not apply.


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The only precaution I would say is when upgrading an NVR from a pre 3.3.x firmware to a 3.3.x firmware, you are almost guaranteed to brick the recorder. I personally have had a 100% failure rate. Every single recorder I upgraded bricked. Requires a serial recovery to bring back to life. For security reasons, Hikvision is doing away with default passwords. I completely agree with this logic, however their implementation of this is where they are lacking. 3.3.x introduces "Activation", which forces you to create a secure password. That way no one can ever accidentally get into your equipment by knowing Hikvision's default. Post upgrade, the recorder locks down and boots up to a black screen, and wipes out all of the user logins and passwords, including admin.

Otherwise, upgrade away.


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The update to version 3.3.Х nothing terrible. If you know what you're doing.


Of course, if you will download everything without understanding how it works, you get a brick.


Any NVR can be upgraded to 3.3.Х. Any NVR can be converted to ML.
 
What special needs done to keep them from bricking? A firmware update is a firmware update. It should be relatively straightforward. I've even gone to the extent of a factory reset prior to upgrade and still end up with a brick. Do you need to set a secure password prior to upgrade?
Everything bricked has been fixed via serial but am curious as to what went wrong.

What do you mean "converted to ML?"

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CoreyX64 said:
What special needs done to keep them from bricking? A firmware update is a firmware update. It should be relatively straightforward. I've even gone to the extent of a factory reset prior to upgrade and still end up with a brick. Do you need to set a secure password prior to upgrade?
Everything bricked has been fixed via serial but am curious as to what went wrong.

What do you mean "converted to ML?"

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Basically what he means is that Chinese nvrs can be hardware converted to be multi language nvrs eg the same as the NI version nvr allowing it to upgrade with the ML firmware as opposed to Chinese

Also the newer nvrs that have a manufacturing date of 09/2015 onwards have a new type of security loaded that makes them very difficult to hardware modify as it basically makes the machine un downgradeable.
At the moment there is only wzhick that knows how to do this the rest of us are scratching our heads a little.

So in summary he basically me and that it is possible to be done even on the Chinese nvrs but it's a little more difficult that the older nvrs
 
Thanks for explaining. That makes clear sense to me. However on the note of bricking he seemed to imply that there's some very special process to upgrade firmware and make them not brick. I have all genuine US regioned devices so his multi language argument is moot. A firmware upgrade is generally an easy going straightforward method of applying a given firmware file to a device supporting it. If you have to jump through hoops to bring the device to the newer version, then that would indicate the firmware and/or its upgrade process are flawed/defective. (Not black and white, but some upgrade processes are better than others) I'm not talking about region locking or any of Hikvision's childish games, I'm making a general statement. I have 5 genuine US NVRs and applying unmodified US firmware direct from Hikvision, and every single one of them bricked with the issue of no usernames to login. It entirely revolves around the new "activation" feature. Absolutely nothing else that I can tell. These were upgraded via the web Interface, directly on the NVR interface itself, and serial/TFTP. Serial/TFTP has been the only safe way to upgrade them it seems.

That was my original question. Had nothing to do with regional issues. Somewhere it was missed that I have genuine US product. If I forgot to mention that, my apologies.

Good to know on the newer NVRs. I had heard of that but wasn't sure as to when they were switched over. Thanks for the info and tips.


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CoreyX64 said:
Thanks for explaining. That makes clear sense to me. However on the note of bricking he seemed to imply that there's some very special process to upgrade firmware and make them not brick. I have all genuine US regioned devices so his multi language argument is moot. A firmware upgrade is generally an easy going straightforward method of applying a given firmware file to a device supporting it. If you have to jump through hoops to bring the device to the newer version, then that would indicate the firmware and/or its upgrade process are flawed/defective. (Not black and white, but some upgrade processes are better than others) I'm not talking about region locking or any of Hikvision's childish games, I'm making a general statement. I have 5 genuine US NVRs and applying unmodified US firmware direct from Hikvision, and every single one of them bricked with the issue of no usernames to login. It entirely revolves around the new "activation" feature. Absolutely nothing else that I can tell. These were upgraded via the web Interface, directly on the NVR interface itself, and serial/TFTP. Serial/TFTP has been the only safe way to upgrade them it seems.

That was my original question. Had nothing to do with regional issues. Somewhere it was missed that I have genuine US product. If I forgot to mention that, my apologies.

Good to know on the newer NVRs. I had heard of that but wasn't sure as to when they were switched over. Thanks for the info and tips.


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Yes you did clearly state you had genuine US. Nvrs
It must have got lost in translation.

Not sure why it causes a brick other than the reasons you mention.

As you suggest genuine US nvr with genuine US firmware should update without issue otherwise what's the point

Maybe they (hikvision) are trying too hard to block the grey market stuff that they've neglected the very nvrs they should be working on!

Who knows hikvisions agenda these days
 
Wouldn't surprise me. I'm not sure of another company that plays such childish games in terms of sales, marketing, and control. Just make a great product and sell it to a market that wants it. How hard is that? If there's reasons for this, beside to increase profit margins (how?), I would really like to know. But no one but them would know, really.

To me, it's been made quite clear how inexperienced Hikvision is based on the way they handle things like this. I'm not speaking from an industry standpoint, they've been around since 2001. I'm speaking in terms of how the go about these issues. First and foremost, they created their own gray market. If they didn't and use the language barrier as a sales weapon, there would be no gray market. There would be no "Chinese" and "English" cameras. A 2032 camera would be universal regardless of where it's purchased. It seems they've incrementally tried to block out gray market devices. First with the day stamp in Chinese, then the whole camera interface, then NVR firmwares rejecting non-localized regioned devices, who knows what's next. Your video might be watermarked permanently. They might blacklist by serial number. It's anyone's guess, but to me, appears childish and Immature from the outside.

I agree - who knows what their agenda is up to anymore. I've only ever purchased Hikvision for the hardware. It seems quite decent. I'm not an embedded Linux guru, (looking to become one though, I love working with this stuff), but I know enough from working with their products for the last couple years that they crank out some very poorly written software and firmware. Across the board.


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Hello

Some news, i have upgrade to V3.4.0 build150929 Multi-lingual from V3.3.4 build150616 Multi-lingual

http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/port...) 7700NI-E4/V3.4.0 build150929 Multi-lingual/

With no problems at all, i will check if my H265 camera work now according
the release note :

NEW_3


 SupportH265decodingformat


 Support H.265 decoding format, including stream receive,storage, remote viewing and remote playback, but doesn’tsupport local viewing, digital zoom, local playback, PTZ liveview.


 
Hi Frankosor. Thanks for the info regarding the new firmware. What hardware model is your NVR?
Thank you
 
I have a 7616NI-SE model. Upgraded 2 of these, both work great. Also upgraded a 7608-E2/8P without issue as well.

It is worth noting that in this firmware ONVIF language mismatch workaround has been patched. This doesn't affect me but wanted to mention for those who it could affect. The release notes explain more of the changes in detail. Otherwise I don't notice any real major changes overall, even though the change log says otherwise.


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So if you have Chinese language Hikvision cameras, they won't work at all now with v3.4.0?

But it will work if they are Chinese cameras with multi language firmware?
 
Correct. And at that point the ONVIF trick isn't needed. You can go back to using the full advantages of the Hikvision protocol with modified firmware.


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Corey,

Just bricked my NVR trying to use the european firmware. Will attach spec of my unit... Guess I need to us serial connection to upgrade now? What firmware ought I use for this? Any any idea why a serial/ftp update
will work and not usb. I get the first splash screen and then the black screen like you described above... Thank you,
 

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cenfl said:
Just bricked my NVR trying to use the european firmware.
Click to expand...
Trust me, I'm not happy to say this but I called this and did warn you more than once!

This firmware is for DS-76xxNI-Ex you have DS-7608NI-SE/8P, not compatible. How did you brick it? How did you update it? More info helps as there's a good chance it's not permanently bricked.
 
Updated via USB/NVR interface... Hikvision NVR splash screen comes up then get a black screen.
 
Well I guess now others have been warned from being a complete dingbat, ignoring people's advice on here and worse still... flaming them.
 
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