I saw this as well. I do not believe anyone has an archive file copy of the older RCA FW that was delivered on your doorbell. So be aware that if you flash your doorbell, you probably can never go back home, so to speak. You will be able to load the new RCA FW, but that won't have ONVIF. So that means you will have to run LaVIEW or HikVision FW if you want ONVIF.
Unfortunately I cannot help you. I have gone from EZViz to a newer version of EZVis, and I have run LaVIEW and HikVision, all on an original EZViz DB-1.
I believe the 101 has an error with reference to the warning about doing the reset. Let me tell you what I found. I really needed ONVIF. Also, I was looking for the software motion alarms in addition to the PIR alarms. HikVision seemed like the way to go. But... I read about the reset warning. So I flashed from old EZViz to newer EZViz, and then to HikVision. I did not do any hard resets. There were several problems with this approach.
- I found that using the HikVision Batch Configuration tool, when I went to make changes, the camera responded with some sort of strange warning that the variable failed to set properly or something like that. Changes made with the Batch tool did not "stick".
- I could not register the doorbell with HikVision using the HikConnect app, and therefore, I could not set some things such as the doorbell type (a regular analog chime), change the video to HDR, and set the PIR sensitivity. All of these things needed to be set using the HikConnect app.
Then I saw some posts later that said you needed to do a reset after the FW change in order for the doorbell to work properly. So I went back to the newer EZViz FW, and after reflashing, I held down the hard reset button on the doorbell. All good. I removed the EZViz logo using the Batch tool, and then I unregistered the doorbell from the EZViz app. Then I flashed the HikVision FW. Once the flash was done I did a hard reset, connected the doorbell to my bench wifi network using the Batch tool, and then registered the doorbell with the HikConnect app. Once I had set the parameters the way I wanted them in HikConnect, I dropped the internet connection from my wifi network, and that is what I have been using.
As for the resets, you can do a hard reset with the button on the doorbell. The Batch tool has two resets in software. One appears to be a soft reset. It did NOT fix the batch tool configuration problem. There is another reset. If I remember correctly, it says something about restoring factory settings. From what I can tell, this does the same thing as holding down the button on the doorbell itself. So either of those methods seem to work.
One other note. I did try out several other versions of FW, LaView, for example. Everytime I went to a non-native FW, I always went back to EZViz first. For example, HikVision => EZViz => LaVIEW => EZViz => HikVision. I never went from HikVision directly to LaView, for example.
No, there is no definitive guide on flashing FW. That's because most of us only have one or two doorbells, so we know what we have done for our setup, but not for others. Also, I am hesitant to tell you exactly what to do for the RCA, because I know several people have bricked theirs. (Although there is reported to be a de-bricking process that works and involves leaving the doorbell unpowered for a long time. IDK). So you can do what I did, but it is a royal PITA - believe me. I started at the beginning of this thread with a notebook and started experimenting. Finally came up with a procedure that works for me. Unfortunately, I was not paying attention to how to do things if you start with an RCA, so I can't say for sure what will work for you.
There is some strange stuff out there. For example, at one point I was back at the EZViz FW, then flashed LaVIEW without remembering to turn off the EZViz logo. After the hard reset the camera had an !RCA! logo burned in to the screen. Talk about strange. Anyway, I am happy to answer any questions you may have, but since I did not start with the RCA, maybe someone else who has traveled that specific road can help you.
I've def confused myself going backwards and forwards thru this thread and the 101.
