MacOS Accessing a Milesight Camera/NVR from a Mac

[Dan]

As you will have seen from other posts in the Milesight section at the time of starting this thread Milesight do NOT offer Mac-friendly utility (like Smart Tools) to set up and manage their cameras. But this does not mean that you can't access, view, and change the settings of a Milesight camera/NVR with a Mac, because as you will see from the screenshot once you have set the device up with a PC you can open Safari browser on a Mac, search the IP address and log in to the camera.

We are in discussion with Milesight right now to see if we can come up with any solution to the lack of Mac software, we are also testing a step-by-step guide they have given us for manually setting up Milesight devices using a Mac. If it works we may have a video on this in the next week or so.

 

[Mal]

Hi Dan, I don't know how many nice tool features I have missed, because I didn't succeed in installing the smart tools to my Win8.1 notebook. Safari web interface seems to enable all features of the camera after first getting the camera reachable. (Why isn't the automatic IP address enabled by default?) Without PC Smart tools I have been using the NVR camera search and management functions for the initial IP address settings for new cameras.

 

[Phil]

Hi Mal,

Quick response from me, Dan's not back in the office until Monday.

Milesight's Smart Tools is very similar to HikVision's SADP utility (newer/nicer looking, but really just a basic utility for finding and getting started). As with SADP, you can also use it to perform firmware updates.

Yours is the first feedback of problems installing it, we'll keep an eye on that.

All future batches of stock will arrive with DHCP enabled by default [agreed yesterday] - I don't know why that wasn't the native default previously. We decided upon it after further Mac-based work, and Dan's tests with the Security Spy software. We have discussed it with Milesight Tech Support, and they've confirmed there are no known downsides.

There are now quite a few tweaks to defaults to our preferences e.g. max resolution, VBR, fps, outdoor, etc.

Added to the fact that we also opt for the premium hardware configuration by default e.g. P-iris lenses where applicable, and a full VCA licence pre-loaded as standard.

 

[Phil]

Update September 19th 2018 - in Safari V12 Apple have removed support for the NPAPI plugin that IP camera manufacturers such as Milesight rely upon to enable video in the browser. So, for now, Milesight, Hikvision, and other manufacturers cameras and NVRs cannot be viewed in Safari:

Apple Safari 12 and Hikvision cameras

 

[Mal]

Thank you for the information. I just checked that there was not mentioned Safari 12 update in the iTunes updates list in High Sierra. However, when I let the machine fetch updates also Safari was updated
This time it was not a disaster because I use cameras from an older El Capitan installation. Need to be careful with the next updates.

 

[kkopje]

Update September 19th 2018 - in Safari V12 Apple have removed support for the NPAPI plugin that IP camera manufacturers such as Milesight rely upon to enable video in the browser. So, for now, Milesight, Hikvision, and other manufacturers cameras and NVRs cannot be viewed in Safari:

Apple Safari 12 and Hikvision cameras

I own a Milesight NVR with two PTZ camera's.

I have to say, Milesight's support for Mac on overall is really disappointing.

I didn't know about the removed NPAPI support in the new Safari version and after my Mac auto-updating, I cannot use 90% of my Milesight NVR functionalities.

There is currently no way of looking at my camera's live or recorded feed with a Mac!

It would be great to see a fix for this released soon.

 

[Phil]

We are hoping they will release a new firmware update that permits wider use of modern browsers any day now.
We were expecting it in December.
We have chased today, and will advise / update here in the forum as soon as we have it.

 

[macman]

Nine months on and it doesn't look like this is going to happen now. Pity - I like the look of their hardware but my coin will go elsewhere.

 

[Dan]

Nine months on and it doesn't look like this is going to happen now. Pity - I like the look of their hardware but my coin will go elsewhere.

Milesight devices can now be accessed from any browser using their 'plug-in free' solution - New Milesight Camera (v4x.7.0.70) and NVR (v7x.9.0.4) Firmware - Introducing 'Plug-in Free' Access for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc...

You are correct that as of now there is no VMS for Mac from Milesight, but all cameras/NVRs can be accessed from any browser on a Mac if they are running the above firmware versions or newer.

 

[macman]

So Mac users no longer need to buy a PC to set them up?

 

[Dan]

So Mac users no longer need to buy a PC to set them up?

Correct, there is now a Mac version of the Smart Tools utility so you can scan your network for devices, activate them and change the IP addresses with Smart Tools, and then login with a browser. (you may initially not see a live view as out of the box the devices may be on an older firmware but once updated to latest firmware the plug-in free function should work with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc...)

 

[Dan]

Update for Milesight Mac users - check out the recently released version of Milesight CMS for MacOS - New Version of Milesight CMS Released for Mac Users