It seems like you are getting well into this topic ...
Some responses to your queries - I hope they make sense, and are accurate. It's a while since I did this:
A CN NVR, such as my 7816N-E2, would say English and have English menus if originally loaded with an older firmware version that does not care about region (eg 3.0.8) and subsequently web GUI updated, which retains EN menus and language. Until you do a 'reset to factory defaults' or a tftp update, when it reverts to CN and Chinese menus. This concerns me, because if I try an upgrade and it doesn't work then, as I understand it, I will have to use the tftp process to put my old firmware back... will this mean that it will put me back to 3.0.8
but with Chinese menus? The GUI interface wouldn't work?
If you needed to do the recovery back to the original firmware, then whether it would work via the web GUI depends on the specific version you were recovering from.
But the tftp process should work OK - though I've mostly used it via the serial console as it's a bit easier, assuming you have access to it via a USB to TTL convertor.
So the firmware downgrade, along with the exported copy of the device configuration (Maintenance menu, web GUI) gets you back where you started, firmware version and device settings.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the European site has
downloads for: v3.0.10; v3.3.2, v3.3.4, v3.4.0...etc. Should I consider downloading from the USA site something like v3.1.0 (DS-76xxNI-E1(E2)P_USA_Firmware_v3.1.0_150511) as an interim upgrade before moving to v3.3.2? Or, to have any chance of success, I need to stay with Multi-lingual firmware? Regardless of which one I choose, I understand that my next step is to use the Hiktools to change the firmware language to "2".
On my 7816N-E2, which has language=1, any USA firmware install resulted in the bootloop "!!You device is illegal !!! !!!You bought in China!!!" error.
I suspect that your NVR would do the same, with the language=1 from the bootpara values.
devType :0xa14f
This does equate to "DS-7632N-E2/8N" in the firmware table of devType codes. I just reread this post... did you mean "/8P"?
No - the firmware cross-reference table does have 8N not 8P, I'm not sure why.
I am trying to understand your statement "needs Hiktools and an original 3.0.8 header to make a full web GUI compatible file"... from the notes accompanying Hiktools there is this paragraph:
Here is how you can create a usable firmware file from the mtdblock2 copy:
Download a copy of the 3.0.8 firmware from the Europe site, as the source of the firmware header.
Extract the digicap.dav from the zip file, and rename it as, say, digicap308.dav
Drop a copy of the hiktools file hiktools05r1.exe into the same folder.
Create a subfolder named, say, "backup", drop a copy of your mtdblock2 in it, and rename it as 'cramfs.img'
At a command prompt in the same folder that's holding digicap308.dav and hiktools05r1.exe, use the command:
hiktools05r1 create digicap308.dav backup
When it completes, there will be a new file called backup.dav
This is your fallback firmware.
Remember that hiktools can easily change the language in the firmware header, which may be needed to use it as a firmware update.
You may notice that your mtdblock2 is 16MB in size, larger than the digicap308.dav
This isn't a problem - it's because the entire mtdblock2 16MB partition was extracted, including the unused space on the end of the used portion.
Good luck.
range: