Lorex

[DmaxDually]

I will be using a mix of 4K and 2MP starlight variable focal Turret style as my main cameras to cover all the areas I want cover 24/7. The PTZ's will be used as secondary cameras that I can use to look around my property and neighborhood.

 

[Yollie]

Just recently (within 2 weeks) bought my 4 Dahua cameras to connect with my Lorex 5k NVR from Andy. Cameras arrived quickly, exactly what ordered. Three out of the 4 recognized easily, 4th one I'm working on. I'm ignorant in these matters (not so much now after days) but I feel I'll figure it out. No networking knowledge here at all before this. IF you don't understand or fear things such as opening camera bodies, changing ip addresses etc. I'd say stick to all the same brand and US based for phone support. Just my opinion.

 

[DmaxDually]

Just recently (within 2 weeks) bought my 4 Dahua cameras to connect with my Lorex 5k NVR from Andy. Cameras arrived quickly, exactly what ordered. Three out of the 4 recognized easily, 4th one I'm working on. I'm ignorant in these matters (not so much now after days) but I feel I'll figure it out. No networking knowledge here at all before this. IF you don't understand or fear things such as opening camera bodies, changing ip addresses etc. I'd say stick to all the same brand and US based for phone support. Just my opinion.

Thanks for the info. I have no problem with electronics, opening cameras, changing IP addresses or Dip switch setting. I've decided not to with a Lorex system. I'm going to put a Dahua system together. I know what cameras and NVR I'm going to be using. Once I have the exact number of cameras and types want to use I will send Andy my list and have him work up a price for the system. Several people have said that Andy give good package prices to IPCamTalk members..

 

[tkinkade]

DmaxDually - Have you pulled the trigger on a Dahua system from @EMPIRETECANDY ? I ask because I am in a very similar position to yours with what I plan on putting in place.

Last month I bought a Reolink system that I returned due to dissatisfaction with the NVR and night time image quality.
I am currently using two cameras from this Costco sold Lorex kit: Costco Wholesale. Camera's are LNB8005-C. I've not tried too hard to figure out what Dahua camera it maps to.

I'll preface this by saying that I live in a pretty dark area, no streetlights and not much in the way of light from neighbors.
Cat 6 with all the cables run and built by yours truly. So far I have 6 runs completed.

A few of my observations, on this Lorex Bullet Camera system with default settings. (I've fiddled a bit with WDR Backlight mode and different Saturation, Brightness, Contrast and Hue at night, but did not have a person to record so I have no significant feedback.)

NVR Device Model: LNR6108
Firmware Version: 00015

Pros:

1. NVR setup is fairly simple.
2. App setup was easy via QR code scanning and signing up for an account with email.
3. You can set individual push notifications per camera. I've only installed 2 cameras and alert from one, but the option exists to receive a push notification per camera.
4. IP cameras

Cons:

1. NVR is clunky, interface wise. I thought the same thing about Reolink NVR. Maybe my expectations are too high!
2. Drilling down to find motion events is a bit cumbersome but can be achieved through at least 2 ways that I have found.
3. No advanced detection methods other than "motion"
4. The Lorex App itself is cumbersome on iPad and Android Phone. I frequently get a push notification and then it takes more than 10 seconds to load the program and see my live feed. I then have to click on Quick Playback to try and see what the alert was for. Probably 50% of the time the playback freezes and an error message appears saying the playback could not be loaded. In all fairness, this could be due to slow upload speeds on my Internet connection.
5. NVR has given me error messages several times that it cannot decode upon playback, while running only 1 camera
6. Night time motion - just walking produces a lot of blurry/choppy images of people.
7. No audio
8. Rain dripping off the house in the camera field of view will set off motion alerts (You can't easily fine tune this)

My plan is to order a few Dahua Starlight turrets to get started for the key areas. Not sure if I'll do a Dahua NVR or PC and Blue Iris, but I'm leaning towards running the cameras thru aBV-Tech 16 port POE switchwith an uplink to Blue Iris PC or NVR. I still need to determine if I need the 130W or 220W with all the cameras I think I'll end up running.

 

[DmaxDually]

Tkinade,
Yes I did. I’m building my system one piece at a time. I ordered The Dahua NVR5424-24P-4KS2 from Empiretecandy. I plan on installing about 20 cameras. 9 Dahua 4K turret cameras mounted high for over all property coverage. 9 Dahua 2MP starlights mounted low for detailed night view and ID purposes and two 2 MP PTZ’s to scan neighborhood and street. I was originally going to buy the Lorex package system with 16 4K bullet cameras but after finding this forum and learning more about camera systems I decided to go with Dahua system and purchase equipment at my leisure as I can afford. Yes it will be a lot more expensive but I like that I can customize the system and Dahua gives me more choices in cameras and IMHO the quality is better. Plus I think Dahua just purchased Lorex..

 

[tkinkade]

It looks to me like the Lorex 4k (8MP) LNB8005-C camera is a Dahua HFW4830E-S. I found a thread Mat200(0) did on SlickDeals which draws the same conclusion. That thread is 65 pages long!

Lorex says the LNB8005-C camera is IP 66 rated
Dahua says the HFW4830E-S camera is IP67 rated

Aliexpress.com : Buy IPC HFW4830E S 4K IPC HFW4830E S 8MP IR Mini Bullet Network Camera IPC HFW4830E S,free DHL shipping from Reliable network camera suppliers on Empire Technology Co., Ltd

 

[MixManSC]

Sorry to bump an older thread with my first post here....

I'm another in the same boat but too late on the purchases. In anticipation however I've landed here since IP systems are a new thing for me. That being said I ended up buying TWO Lorex systems (partly based on that fact that they are Dahua and now owned by Dahua). We have a good size commercial property with two businesses and budget was a concern. The one building will be a totally new install, the other building I'm going to be replacing the older analog system. Fortunately it is all wired with Cat6 cable using baluns.

This is the setup that we ordered two of - I thought it was actually a pretty good deal since it is one of the only lower cost setups with the better NVR 2K IP Security Camera System with 16 Channel NVR and 8 HD IP Outdoor 4MP Cameras , 130FT Night Vision
With their 15% standard discount it is only $679. As far as I have been able to determine looking closely at manuals, specs, and images of the rear of both it would appear that the Lorex NR9163 NVR is identical to the Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2.

One thing that I'm curious on is now that Dahua has owned Lorex for a bit of time, does anyone know if they are updating firmware any more frequently or making the firmware more like standard Dahua firmware? Has anyone tried cross-flashing Dahua firmware onto Lorex branded stuff? I am going to be looking at adding additional cameras to both setups though so I'll be looking at Empire for those.

One thing that is certain, coming from semi-modern 960H analog stuff the NVR interface looks fairly familiar so that is a plus. For mobile viewing I've been using (Android phone) IP Cam Viewer Pro (by Robert Chou) for a few years and have been very happy with it. We have a Checkpoint security gateway (firewall) and I have custom ports mapped rather than using anything standard but I still worry about the seemingly terrible security on what seems to be just about all security camera systems. I'm debating on just killing the port mapping and using the Checkpoint VPN but that is just a bit more tedious and slow having to first connect to the VPN.

Anyways glad to have found this site. There appears to be an ungodly amount of excellent info and plenty of like minded helpful people! I'll be a regular on here.... that is for certain.

Edit to add: I do NOT recommend anyone port forward. I was just pointing out that by at least changing from the default ports you are slightly better off than using standard ports. As pointed out in responses, which is very true, there is not shortage of bots on the web constantly scanning for every possible port on every possible IP address. It is really a matter of when, not if, your forwarded ports are discovered.... Best solution is to not forward ports at all and use a secure encrypted VPN connection.

 

[Arjun]

I don't if anyone noticed, Lorex seems to have finally gotten a hold of turrets,

HD IP camera

Notice how these models are very familiar as they're simply Dahua-rebranded and painted in different color; wonder if can flash Dahua firmware on this, (but cost is too much),

 

[Arjun]

The question of cross-flashing Dahua firmware has appeared here before. I probably would not recommend doing such a thing because of different strings of hardware and vendor ids which can be inscribed into the existing firmware those cameras come with. Perhaps, can request for necessary firmware modification through the custom firmware thread (which is stickied in the Dahua section of this forum)--although no guarantee that it would work, but certainly still worth a try.

Sorry to bump an older thread with my first post here....

I'm another in the same boat but too late on the purchases. In anticipation however I've landed here since IP systems are a new thing for me. That being said I ended up buying TWO Lorex systems (partly based on that fact that they are Dahua and now owned by Dahua). We have a good size commercial property with two businesses and budget was a concern. The one building will be a totally new install, the other building I'm going to be replacing the older analog system. Fortunately it is all wired with Cat6 cable using baluns.

This is the setup that we ordered two of - I thought it was actually a pretty good deal since it is one of the only lower cost setups with the better NVR 2K IP Security Camera System with 16 Channel NVR and 8 HD IP Outdoor 4MP Cameras , 130FT Night Vision
With their 15% standard discount it is only $679. As far as I have been able to determine looking closely at manuals, specs, and images of the rear of both it would appear that the Lorex NR9163 NVR is identical to the Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2.

One thing that I'm curious on is now that Dahua has owned Lorex for a bit of time, does anyone know if they are updating firmware any more frequently or making the firmware more like standard Dahua firmware? Has anyone tried cross-flashing Dahua firmware onto Lorex branded stuff? I am going to be looking at adding additional cameras to both setups though so I'll be looking at Empire for those.

One thing that is certain, coming from semi-modern 960H analog stuff the NVR interface looks fairly familiar so that is a plus. For mobile viewing I've been using (Android phone) IP Cam Viewer Pro (by Robert Chou) for a few years and have been very happy with it. We have a Checkpoint security gateway (firewall) and I have custom ports mapped rather than using anything standard but I still worry about the seemingly terrible security on what seems to be just about all security camera systems. I'm debating on just killing the port mapping and using the Checkpoint VPN but that is just a bit more tedious and slow having to first connect to the VPN.

Anyways glad to have found this site. There appears to be an ungodly amount of excellent info and plenty of like minded helpful people! I'll be a regular on here.... that is for certain.

 

[mat200]

Sorry to bump an older thread with my first post here....
...

Welcome MixManSC,

Just remember not to trust any IP cameras and NVRs to be fully secure and create what rules you need to keep your network safe.

 

[MixManSC]

I'm good on the networking end. Checkpoint firewalls are an order of magnitude more secure than any "home" user router type firewalls. They are also an order of magnitude more expensive. Even at that, a firewall is only as good if it is configured properly. One thing I'd suggest for those who do want to allow access to a device from the web is to use the routing functions to expose it on a non-standard port and not use the default port(s) for access. Its a bit more complicated for those not comfortable with advanced IP configurations and will be done different depending on the brand of firewall. For example if your device is accessed via a browser through port 34567 (ip address or dns name :34567 in a browser), then set your firewall to translate some other port like 42452 on the outside to port 34567 on the inside. Its still not as secure as blocking outside access completely but at least it will not respond on a common known port. A hacker would need to be doing a full port scan on that specific IP address for all 65535 possible ports to discover it is there. Rare that a generic hacker will do this as it is too time consuming. They might if they are trying to hack some specific IP address for some place where they know who has that IP. There are other issues though as many of these newer generation devices like opening their own connections through a firewall by trying to connect to firmware update services, cloud services, DDNS services, etc. A firewall will open outgoing ports dynamically for devices on the inside of a network. That is where is gets complicated and often simplest to just block the device from communicating outside of the internal network, period. In that case you need to use a secure VPN of some sort to connect to your network internally and then connect to the device through the encrypted VPN tunnel. This is probably how I'm going to end up configuring these new units. From what I'm seeing they are going to try and connect to the cloud and update services whether you use those or not with no way to just turn those functions off.

On firmware I did cross-flash one older analog one we have with firmware from the actual board manufacturer and it worked fine. It was some generic branded unit (Defeway) and I updated it with newer firmware from xiaongmaitech who makes the actual board in that unit.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Rare that a generic hacker will do this as it is too time consuming.

With respect, whilst picking a high random port does increase the level of effort required, that's an optimistic statement that may mislead, as the discovery process is often automated using a botnet collection.
Humans have more interesting activities pursuing the found_list.

 

[MixManSC]

Oh I do agree..... it just a bit more secure than using any standard port is all. Like I said, ultimatley with all of these newer devices constantly trying to connect to update, cloud, and ddns services it is best to just block it totally and use a good encrypted VPN solution for any outside access. It slightly more tedious having to first connect to the VPN and then connect to what you want but its also the only real decent solution as the only port you need open is whatever one your particular choice of VPN needs (and ideally even change that to a non-standard one if your VPN supports it).

 

[mat200]

...Rare that a generic hacker will do this as it is too time consuming. They might if they are trying to hack some specific IP address for some place where they know who has that IP. ...

Many script kiddies are just using tools to scan and find exposed systems... so better to just not port forward at all today. Too many malbots out there.

 

[MixManSC]

I should clarify my earlier post to add.

I do NOT recommend anyone port forward. I was just pointing out that by at least changing from the default ports you are slightly better off than using standard ports. As pointed out in responses, which is very true, there is not shortage of bots on the web constantly scanning for every possible port on every possible IP address. It is really a matter of when, not if, your forwarded ports are discovered.... Best solution is to not forward ports at all and use a secure encrypted VPN connection. To illustrate the issue, our Checkpoint firewall logs well over 1500 port scans and attempts to connect to our primary external IP per hour that get blocked. Easy to see the bots too - we have 5 external static IP's and I can see the same source IP on the web try each of our 5 IP's one after the other probing for the same ports.

The INternet Storm Center is always a good place to see what some of the most active attacks and botnets currently are. Internet Storm Center - SANS Internet Storm Center

Interestingly this morning they posted that, specifically, CCTV DVR's are being targeted on port 81.

"Something Wicked this way comes
Published: 2018-05-21
Last Updated: 2018-05-21 15:03:29 UTC
by Rick Wanner (Version: 1)
0 comment(s)
The latest Mirai-based botnet is Wicked. Unlike previous Mirai variants and sibilings, which compromised IoT devices with default credentials or brute forcing credentials, Wicked is targetting vulnerabilities contained in certain IoT devices.
Wicked scans ports 8080, 8443, 80, and 81. Specifically it is targetting the following devices/vulnerabilities:

• 80: Invoker Shell in compromised Web Servers
• 81 - CCTV-DVR
• 8443 - Netgear R7000 and R6400 (CVE-2016-6277)
• 8080 - Netgear DGN1000 and DGN2200

The Invoker Shell is interesting in that it does not exploit the device, but rather takes advantage of previously compromised web servers.
After successful exploitation, it downloads what appears to be Omni Bot, the same code delivered by the attacks on the DASAN GPON home routers, providing at least some anecdotal evidence that the two are related."

 

[MixManSC]

Well - I ordered two of the SD1A203T-GN cameras from Empire (Andy). Now I get notice from Lorex that the two system packages I ordered will not ship for another week. Trying to work with Andy but wow - once I add everything in to match the Lorex kit it is coming out hundreds more.

The Lorex kit is $679 and includes
NVR NR9163 (same spec as NVR5216-16P-4KS2) thought at first it might be the 4216 but that is 200Mbps and the NR9163 is 320Mbs like the 5216.
4 LNB4173B bullets, 4 LNE4162B turrets which spec identical to the IPC-HDW1431S and the IPC-HFW1431S
Plus a bunch of (admittedly low grade) network cables.
The Lorex NVR also includes a 3TB surveillance grade hard drive (So either the Seagate one or the WD Purple one) - so about $75 value there.

Price on the NVR5216-16P-4KS2E (the newer version) is $299 plus $82 per camera and I dont think that includes a drive for the NVR.

So thoughts? Right now I can cancel Lorex and roll my own but its looking like at a LOT higher cost. At least $950 and then still need to add a hard drive! I'm wondering if I need to just wait on the Lorex stuff. When I saw I had time to cancel on Lorex I contacted Andy but I was not expecting a $270+ increase in price ordering what will be technically less (probably would not get all the cables) with less of a warranty.

I have two systems I need to get setup very soon.

 

[mat200]

Well - I ordered two of the SD1A203T-GN cameras from Empire (Andy). Now I get notice from Lorex that the two system packages I ordered will not ship for another week. Trying to work with Andy but wow - once I add everything in to match the Lorex kit it is coming out hundreds more.

The Lorex kit is $679 and includes
NVR NR9163 (same spec as NVR5216-16P-4KS2) thought at first it might be the 4216 but that is 200Mbps and the NR9163 is 320Mbs like the 5216.
4 LNB4173B bullets, 4 LNE4162B turrets which spec identical to the IPC-HDW1431S and the IPC-HFW1431S
Plus a bunch of (admittedly low grade) network cables.
The Lorex NVR also includes a 3TB surveillance grade hard drive (So either the Seagate one or the WD Purple one) - so about $75 value there.

Price on the NVR5216-16P-4KS2E (the newer version) is $299 plus $82 per camera and I dont think that includes a drive for the NVR.

So thoughts? Right now I can cancel Lorex and roll my own but its looking like at a LOT higher cost. At least $950 and then still need to add a hard drive! I'm wondering if I need to just wait on the Lorex stuff. When I saw I had time to cancel on Lorex I contacted Andy but I was not expecting a $270+ increase in price ordering what will be technically less (probably would not get all the cables) with less of a warranty.

I have two systems I need to get setup very soon.

HI MixMan,

Remember Lorex strips the IVS features out of their products, as well as sometimes also ONVIF functionality in some cameras.

Normally the best value is to get significantly better quality cameras than the 1xxx series from Andy, for example the Dahua OEM starlights ( which are hard to find in kits ).

The Dahua OEM 2MP starlight IPC-HDW42xx cameras will out perform those 4MP 1xxx series cameras in low light conditions and they only cost a fraction more, well worth the additional cost imho.

Some new members have bought Lorex kits when they've gone on sale and augmented them with Dahua OEM starlights from Andy - which is one approach.

Rolling your own kit can cost more, however as a result you will have a substantially better setup for your needs as you can customize the cameras to best suit what you are planning to do.

PS - I recommend NOT using the cables in any of the kits - as they are often CCA and cabling is the most labor intensive job of your setup, so why skimp on cables when a good box of cat5e/6 cable is a reasonable price compared to your time.

 

[MixManSC]

I know the NVR from them is fully ONVIF (profile S) compliant so that end is fine. If its their cameras that should not matter as long as I can still use other cameras as well. I'm also not scared to try and cross flash something to other firmware. If I brick something that will be on me (might try to ID a JTAG header and recover that way). For the one setup I'm thinking the crappy cables would even be fine for the most part, it is new commercial construction and I can walk around on the ceiling easy as pie right now. Once in place they will likely never be moved again. A few of the cameras will be on long runs of around 180ft though but already have a roll of cat6 for those. Several I'll be installing emergency exit sign/lights within a couple of feet as well as smoke detectors so I'm hoping to knock all out in one last trip up on the ceiling in there. On the other install I'm replacing an existing analog system which was all run with cat6 (using baluns) about 5 years ago so that one is even easier as I just need to pull the baluns and crimp RJ45's on (along with installing the new IP cameras). Certain features are not really critical, particularly on the new construction. That business is 24x7, most of the cameras are indoors with good lighting in not terribly large rooms. Even the few outside cameras have reasonably good lighting from the parking lot lights. All of the cameras on both setups are going to be setup as 24x7 record with overwrite oldest as it goes.

 

[MixManSC]

Ok - so an update. Get the kit in from Lorex and have been messing around with it some just testing things. I also have a couple of the SD1A203T cameras I ordered from Andy.

So - here is the fun bit. The Lorex NR9163 NVR. It IS a NVR5216-16P-4KS2 with Lorex custom crippled firmware on it. Somewhat disappointing as I cannot get it to connect to the Dahua SD1A cameras in private mode. It does connect to the fine via ONVIF though. The catch there of course is you have very limited control from within the NVR. Of course as mentioned, the firmware has some things stripped out like IVS. So being the adventurous type I tried loading Dahua firmware on the NVR through the web interface. Tried a few different ways and 2 different versions. None work - it errors and then the NVR reboots. So lets dig deeper then. Just to be 100% sure I looked at every square inch of the mainboard and carefully compared with a video someone made of them installing a hard drive in a Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2. Everything is 100% identical right down to the screen printed numbers on the board. Feeling a bit more confident I started looking at that 9 pin serial port on the back of the NVR. Well it just happens I'm an IT guy and use a Dell Precision T7910 pro workstation that has a real serial port and I have piles of serial console cables for managing different devices on my shops network. So I connect a cable up, fire up Putty and power up the NVR and get nothing. Tried a few different speeds and no go. I read in some thread that someone said on some other model that the serial port is 12v TTL - yikes! Hoping I did not fry my serial port I pulled the cover on the NVR and checked with a meter and the serial port is 3v.... so all good. So I decided to see, just to be sure.... a null modem cable. Bam - console started spitting out data on booting the NVR. After a minute or so you see a starting linux message and the console then goes dead. Before then though - you can interrupt the boot process by pressing a key.

That drops you to a Hisilicon uboot prompt. So digging some more and trying to glean some info online I figure some commands out and find that one is a manual firmware upgrade for Dahua devices, run up. Looking at the environment variables I see that run up is looking for update.img via TFTP. There are also several other run commands that can load individual parts of the firmware in the same manner. Well - went back the the firmware I downloaded and tried in the web interface and sure enough - all of the various files are in there including update.img. So I fired up a TFTP server and set the environment variables in the NVR for using TFTP, copied the update.img to the TFTP folder and then ran the run up command. It took it in just fine. Now my brand new Lorex NVR is a Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2 with all of the proper capabilities like IVS. It also sees the two Dahua cams just fine in private mode and also sees the Lorex cams just fine too (those are still running Lorex branded firmware - I might have to try this on those too and load proper Dahua english firmware on them.

Anyways - I'm tired and am going home. I just spent the past 3 hours on this. I have not tried to match up the two Lorex camera models that came in the kit with their Dahua counterparts yet. I think those will be trickier to convert the Dahua firmware though since they do not have a easy to get to serial port and the Lorex firmware seems to not like being upgraded to Dahua firmware in the web UI. I have not tried that on a camera though - just the NVR. If this is doable on the cameras too, particularly without having to crack each one open to solder some wires on for serial access, then I will really be stoked.

The one thing I really want to figure out though, is a way to backup the Lorex firmware FIRST. This way if there is an issue with something where I might need to send it back to Lorex under warranty I can load their firmware back on first.

 

[mat200]

Ok - so an update...The Lorex NR9163 NVR. It IS a NVR5216-16P-4KS2 with Lorex custom crippled firmware on it. ..

So I fired up a TFTP server and set the environment variables in the NVR for using TFTP, copied the update.img to the TFTP folder and then ran the run up command. It took it in just fine. Now my brand new Lorex NVR is a Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2 with all of the proper capabilities like IVS. It also sees the two Dahua cams just fine in private mode and also sees the Lorex cams just fine too (those are still running Lorex branded firmware - I might have to try this on those too and load proper Dahua english firmware on them.
...

Hi MixManSC

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Would enjoy seeing a nice how-to on this.

Wonder why Lorex stripped support for the cameras like the SD1A203T.

 

[Arjun]

Those that purchased a 16-Channel Lorex System from Costco or Lorex-direct will be pleased. A colleague of mine mentioned that his system came with a remote for his NVR. However as far as I know NVR5216-16P-4KS2 doesn't have an IR emitter

I mean just look at this picture,

Ok - so an update. Get the lit in from Lorex and have been messing around with it some just testing things. I also have a couple of the SD1A203T cameras I ordered from Andy.

So - here is the fun bit. The Lorex NR9163 NVR. It IS a NVR5216-16P-4KS2 with Lorex custom crippled firmware on it. Somewhat disappointing as I cannot get it to connect to the Dahua SD1A cameras in private mode. It does connect to the fine via ONVIF though. The catch there of course is you have very limited control from within the NVR. Of course as mentioned, the firmware has some things stripped out like IVS. So being the adventurous type I tried loading Dahua firmware on the NVR through the web interface. Tried a few different ways and 2 different versions. None work - it errors and then the NVR reboots. So lets dig deeper then. Just to be 100% sure I looked at every square inch of the mainboard and carefully compared with a video someone made of them installing a hard drive in a Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2. Everything is 100% identical right down to the screen printed numbers on the board. Feeling a bit more confident I started looking at that 9 pin serial port on the back of the NVR. Well it just happens I'm an IT guy and use a Dell Precision T7910 pro workstation that has a real serial port and I have piles of serial console cables for managing different devices on my shops network. So I connect a cable up, fire up Putty and power up the NVR and get nothing. Tried a few different speeds and no go. I read in some thread that someone said on some other model that the serial port is 12v TTL - yikes! Hoping I did not fry my serial port I pulled the cover on the NVR and checked with a meter and the serial port is 3v.... so all good. So I decided to see, just to be sure.... a null modem cable. Bam - console started spitting out data on booting the NVR. After a minute or so you see a starting linux message and the console then goes dead. Before then though - you can interrupt the boot process by pressing a key.

That drops you to a Hisilicon uboot prompt. So digging some more and trying to glean some info online I figure some commands out and find that one is a manual firmware upgrade for Dahua devices, run up. Looking at the environment variables I see that run up is looking for update.img via TFTP. There are also several other run commands that can load individual parts of the firmware in the same manner. Well - went back the the firmware I downloaded and tried in the web interface and sure enough - all of the various files are in there including update.img. So I fired up a TFTP server and set the environment variables in the NVR for using TFTP, copied the update.img to the TFTP folder and then ran the run up command. It took it in just fine. Now my brand new Lorex NVR is a Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2 with all of the proper capabilities like IVS. It also sees the two Dahua cams just fine in private mode and also sees the Lorex cams just fine too (those are still running Lorex branded firmware - I might have to try this on those too and load proper Dahua english firmware on them.

Anyways - I'm tired and am going home. I just spent the past 3 hours on this. I have not tried to match up the two Lorex camera models that came in the kit with their Dahua counterparts yet. I think those will be trickier to convert the Dahua firmware though since they do not have a easy to get to serial port and the Lorex firmware seems to not like being upgraded to Dahua firmware in the web UI. I have not tried that on a camera though - just the NVR. If this is doable on the cameras too, particularly without having to crack each one open to solder some wires on for serial access, then I will really be stoked.

The one thing I really want to figure out though, is a way to backup the Lorex firmware FIRST. This way if there is an issue with something where I might need to send it back to Lorex under warranty I can load their firmware back on first.