What is safe to order? DS-7616NI-I2/16P DS-2CD2942F DS-2CD3345-I

[Q™]

...There are no Chinese symbols written on the back of the cameras, so I am going to assume these are legit non-hacked English versions...

Each camera's serial number will indicate if they are hacked Chinese market cameras or not; look for "CH" in the serial number to determine if they are Chinese units.

 

[curado]

There is no CH in the serial number. Might help others to see an example of one. On one of the boxes, the seller put a sticker partially occluding the factory serial # but it was easily pealed back.

 

[Q™]

There is no CH in the serial number. Might help others to see an example of one. On one of the boxes, the seller put a sticker partially occluding the factory serial # but it was easily pealed back.

Is there a "WR" in the serial number?

 

[curado]

Just numbers, and they are both 5.3.8 according to the label. I will boot them up tomorrow and we'll see!

 

[Q™]

Thanks to @montecrypto for this...

Region codes:
-------------
CH <- China
TW <- Taiwan
JP <- Japan
EU <- Europe
NA <- USA
WR <- World/multilanguage
HK
BJ
SH
GZ
CD
AS
RR <- Other/unspecified

 

[curado]

OK I got curious and fired up the dome camera. It is a WR (world/multilanguage) as shown in the configuration screen. The S/N on the box has only #s showing. Is this acceptable?

 

[Del Boy]

Yes that's perfectly normal.

 

[johnhnhn]

To be 100% clear then is "WR (world/multilanguage)" supported and upgradeable?

 

[LaurentR]

To be 100% clear then is "WR (world/multilanguage)" supported and upgradeable?

Yes, WR is what you want.

 

[curado]

I installed Blue Iris. Looks like I won't be needing iSpy anymore. I'm pretty happy with the fact Blue Iris will run as a Windows service. It's also a lot lighter on CPU even with a remote web client and remote tablet viewing at the same time. I'm just using it for little 320x240 webcams I have around the house. (7 320x240 streams - 15% CPU on a quad core AMD). I have not tried dumping 4mp video into it yet.

The Android app is OK but it's $10 extra.

Previously I was using IP Cam Viewer for android. It's more generic, works with anything.

 

[fenderman]

I installed Blue Iris. Looks like I won't be needing iSpy anymore. I'm pretty happy with the fact Blue Iris will run as a Windows service. It's also a lot lighter on CPU even with a remote web client and remote tablet viewing at the same time. I'm just using it for little 320x240 webcams I have around the house. (7 320x240 streams - 15% CPU on a quad core AMD). I have not tried dumping 4mp video into it yet.

The Android app is OK but it's $10 extra.

Previously I was using IP Cam Viewer for android. It's more generic, works with anything.

If you set the cameras to record direct to disk yous cpu use will probably be 5 percent or less (you need a registered version for this to work, not the demo).
The mobile app is well worth the 20 dollars. It allows for recorded video review, profile changes, enabling/disabling recording and much more. Not using it is silly.

 

[curado]

Yes and yes. I selected the direct to disk option. Even with the resolution bumped up to 640x480 at 10 fps with mjpeg stream, it's still using way less than ispy. The app was $10, assuming I downloaded the right one.

 

[fenderman]

Yes and yes. I selected the direct to disk option. Even with the resolution bumped up to 640x480 at 10 fps with mjpeg stream, it's still using way less than ispy. The app was $10, assuming I downloaded the right one.

yes, 20 was a typo.

 

[curado]

Thanks to @montecrypto for this...

The NVR showed up today. Red/white box. It is region code "RR" - other unspecified. I noticed in the web interface menus there was a license plate detection option, but the United States does not show up as an available country for the format. Just an example. A little disappointed that it's not WR, but not a deal breaker so far.

The bigger question is what will happen if I try to update the F/W on the NVR or cameras? I am half way tempted to try it before deploying the NVR just so that if I am forced to do it later, I will already know the outcome .... anyone for NVR Russian Roulette?

Blue Iris Pro's:
* Blue Iris is turning out to be a champ at MJPEG streams of which I have several, and I see no such support in the Hikky unit so far.
* Also the events/alerts for Blue Iris are pretty fantastic.
* The mobile app for Blue Iris is just as good if not better than the desktop in some categories. I installed it on all my mobile devices and computers. Have not tried the Hikvision apps or IVMS yet. In due time.
* No region code restrictions to worry about with other Hikky cameras.
* Paid support. You can't get support from Hikvision directly unless you're a licensed distributor. Is anybody selling on the Internet licensed by Hikvision to do so? I concluded maybe that's why there are companies like Swann that relabel Hikvision products and deal with end consumers.

Hikky Pro's:
* The Hikky has support for car counting, license plate reading, parked car event, crowd gathering, loitering, object removal detection etc, but it's on a camera by camera basis. I don't have any such camera in my 2 camera arsenal so far. So this isn't really a pro.
* Tuck it away in a closet some place with a small UPS and forget about it. It'll be working while the desktop PC is on break (applies since I use my desktop as a workstation and not a dedicated NVR).
* 160 MB incoming bandwidth is a generous amount of 4 MP cameras.
* Can rehost streams for Blue Iris (either full size / full framerate, or sub streams), but this is achievable by going to the cameras directly anyhow.
* Built in POE ports, which is never a bad thing when you have POE cameras in the mix.
* When used with Hikvision cameras, edge recording to SD when the network link is down, and camera based events/motion detection. Not sure if Blue Iris supports this.
* When used with Hikvision cameras, fisheye correction and digital PTZ (or so I read). Not sure if Blue Iris supports this.

I could live with Blue Iris alone, but a combination of the two is pretty good. Further review of the NVR in due time. Both are definitely a million times better than iSpy in any case.

 

[fenderman]

You should use a dedicated PC for blue iris or any other VMS. The recording to cameras sd card is independent of any NVR or blue iris. Try reviewing video using the hikvision mobile app, it will drive you crazy.

 

[curado]

Thanks to @montecrypto for this...

You should use a dedicated PC for blue iris or any other VMS. The recording to cameras sd card is independent of any NVR or blue iris. Try reviewing video using the hikvision mobile app, it will drive you crazy.

1. Agreed.
2. Yes but the Hikvision will piece the video back together automatically when the camera is reconnected. I was referring to whether Blue Iris does this yet or not, since I think this is an ONVIF standard, so if they added the support it would be across the boards for brands which support this part of ONVIF. Profile G in this link describes it. http://avigilon.com/news/IT/7-faqs-about-the-onvif-standard/

Blue Iris app would be hard to beat for reviewing video. I have a couple suggestions for the developers that would make it even better if they don't already have their hands full with feature requests

 

[fenderman]

1. Agreed.
2. Yes but the Hikvision will piece the video back together automatically when the camera is reconnected. I was referring to whether Blue Iris does this yet or not, since I think this is an ONVIF standard, so if they added the support it would be across the boards for brands which support this part of ONVIF. Profile G in this link describes it. http://avigilon.com/news/IT/7-faqs-about-the-onvif-standard/

Blue Iris app would be hard to beat for reviewing video. I have a couple suggestions for the developers that would make it even better if they don't already have their hands full with feature requests

The hikvision nvr will not pull the video from the camera. Its much more basic than that. The onvif G standard does not require the ability for the NVR/VMS to pull video off edge storage and place it on the recorder in the event of network failure.

 

[Q™]

...I gave up on Blue Iris after many years of useing it as too many constant update failures which the software is fine if you have an extra 10 hours a week to play with it. The only camera I need to figure out is my Imporx V2 10X that needs some ONVIF config but I have only had the NVR for 24 hours. Now wait for the Blue Iris sales team to chime in its defence!!!

I'm a bit perplexed as to why @Jack B Nimble has had so much trouble with Blue Iris. I've been running Blue Iris for several years and it runs 24/7 without intervention for me. It is very stable and includes more features than I will ever use. On the downside, BI needs a modern i5 or i7 processor to run really well and, occasionally, BI updates do create problems...but the developer issues timely updates to the program which quickly remedies the error. Blue Iris is 5-star software in my opinion, and I'm a tough grader.

 

[curado]

The hikvision nvr will not pull the video from the camera. Its much more basic than that. The onvif G standard does not require the ability for the NVR/VMS to pull video off edge storage and place it on the recorder in the event of network failure.

Ah that must be right. I might have been thinking Synology or XProtect (Actually I think both of them support automatic retrieval). Surprised Hikvision doesn't support it if their cameras have it built in. I didn't buy SD cards for the cameras anyhow. I'm not running an airport lol

 

[fenderman]

Ah that must be right. I might have been thinking Synology or XProtect (Actually I think both of them support automatic retrieval). Surprised Hikvision doesn't support it if their cameras have it built in. I didn't buy SD cards for the cameras anyhow. I'm not running an airport lol

The sd card slot is generally only available on the domes anyway which are inferior to the turret cams...
Also, xprotect only supports edge retrieval on their corporate and expert licencees which are insanely priced. Synology has that function...not sure how well it works with either.