Question thread for troubleshooting a new Hik system [Help please]

[karansaraf]

I bought 3x 2385 8MP Turret cams and a 7604 NVR from this site. Installed everything yesterday and downloaded iVMS. I have some questions about the configuration process. I’m using a MacBook Pro with the latest OSX and Safari browser. I have a number of questions with regards to configuring things, and I’m sure more questions will pop up in coming weeks.

All help much appreciated.


Q1. Activation of cameras

The activating cameras for Mac guide states to go to Device Management in iVMS 4200 and you should see “show online devices”. Clicking this will show NVR and cameras alike.

This did not happen for me. All I can see is my NVR (which I activated locally using a monitor prior to cameras being installed). Therefore I couldn’t proceed with the activation steps in the Mac guide. I can’t see IP addresses etc of the individual cameras.

However, when I go into Main View, I could automatically see my cameras after about 30 seconds of turning the NVR on.

And when I go to Group Management, the group I had made the day prior to installing cameras when I activated my NVR and set a group name, the cameras are automatically visible.

So the cameras are clearly working, it’s just I can’t see the IP addresses or select the camera devices individually in iVMS which might make DDNS/camera firmware updates difficult? Any ideas as to why this is and whether I need to do anything about it? Did I mess up in the activation process somewhere?




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Q2. Camera feed quality modifications not working.


In iVMS, I go to camera settings and for each of the cameras I change the settings to:

Video Quality: HIGH (default is MIDDLE)
In advanced settings I change the frame rate to 20 (default is FULL FRAME)
And leave the resolution settings to maximum

It says new settings will take effect after rebooting, but I reboot the NVR from the network access page and when it’s back up and running again, I go back to iVMS to check on the settings but they have reverted back to default! How can I change this?

I also went to video loss detection to enable this, but after reboot, it reverted back again.

I’m not sure why my settings don’t seem to be taking effect?

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[karansaraf]

Q3. Scheduling

In the following screenshot on the Scheduling page,

• All day template presumably means continuous recording?
• What do pre and post record refer to if I’m recording continuously?
• What is Capture?

 

[Dan]

Hi,

Answers to your questions are below:

Q1: I assume you have the 3 cameras connected directly to the PoE ports of the 4 channel NVR, if so that will be why you can't see the details of the specific cameras, cameras connected directly to an NVR are on there own Subnet and not easily accessible from the LAN that your NVR is connected to, the easiest way to see the details of the cameras connected to the NVR is to open Safari, enter the IP address of the NVR (192.168.1.232) into the browser, log in to the NVR, and then go into the settings were you will find a camera menu with a list of connected devices and their subnet IP addresses.

(there is no need to activate cameras that are connected directly to an NVR, they are automatically activated and given the same login details [username/password] as the NVR)

If you then want to access each camera individually you can enable virtual host - [Tutorial] Using a Hikvision NVR's "Virtual Host" Feature

Q2: I just tried changing the video settings of cameras on an NVR in our office and I didn't get a message about rebooting, do you get the reboot message when you save the settings? Can you take a screenshot of the message?

Q3: yes all day means continuous, pre and post record only apply when you are recording based on an event like motion, it will record a certain number of seconds before and after the motion is detected, the settings have no effect when recording continuously, capture is a mode that allows you to record still images at a scheduled time or based on motion/other events.

One final thing, as a Mac user who has an NVR it is best to just use iVMS-4200 to get the devices setup and then manage the cameras, events, record schedules, etc.. by logging in to the NVR using a browser or a monitor. We recommend this because the Mac version of iVMS-4200 has always been a few steps behind the better PC version of iVMS-4200, and so there are some features that are missing from iVMS-4200 on the Mac that can be more easily managed via a direct monitor connection or the web interface.

 

[karansaraf]

Q1: Yes connected to POE on NVR. That's great, I've found them via logging into the NVR online.

Q2. Here is the screenshot. But as per your recommendation, I've managed to change the encoding settings using the browser rather than iVMS.

Q3: Thank for that tip, I'll use the browser instead if iVMS doesn't offer anything more than the capabilities of the browser based system.

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Q4. Upgrading Firmware for cameras?

The firmware on my NVR is a later firmware than is available on the Hikvision Europe website (I have V3.4.100, and the portal only has 3.4.98). So I'm set there. Do I also need to separately update the cameras or does the NVR push updates to them?

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Q5. Encoding settings

I want to make sure my cameras record in highest resolution with a decent frame rate at h265+ (I have a 6TB HDD).

Are these reasonable settings? Would you recommend I go from 20fps to the next highest setting which is "full frame rate"? I have 3x 2385 Turret cams. Should I be adjusting "Bitrate" or leaving it at variable? I'd ideally like about 30 days' worth of continuous recording, and have used the storage calculators, but they don't have h265+ on there.

What's the difference between main stream and substream? Is it relevant for my uses?

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