HIK-Connect on the iPhone - questions....

[dbrewood]

Hi guys a couple of questions concerning HIK-Connect on the iPhone.

1) Download videos from the NVR

I don't think this is possible but I thought I'd post the question just in case I've missed something.....

On the iOS HIK-Connect app I want to search for a video portion and download it to the phone? e.g. video from 04/11/2022 14:55 to 04/11/2022 15:01. It does not seem to have that functionality and that you can only download any captured 'alert' videos.

I know I can do the search / download via the iVMS-4200 app on the Mac, but I find the app badly designed and cumbersome.... The web interface is considered useless as it does not show video.

There has to be an easy way of doing this.

2) Annoying alert counter

Since the last two updates of the app when looking at the notifications tab I typically see a headline count of 99+ with maybe 8 video event thumbnails shown. There seems no way to view all of the 99+ events which are in the top count. Toggling the various filters seems to do nothing.
I've even gone as far as deleting the app and reinstalling. It seems to make no difference. An example:

Thanks in advance.

 

[JB1970]

To answer in reverse order, no pop up dialog box for the firmware no matter what I do. Anyway your suggestion to do the update via iVMS 4200 worked like a charm and I'm now on the latest firmware.

Much weirdness though:

• V4.30.011 build 200803 to V4.31.105 build 210727 - No download icon showing. Booo!
• V4.31.105 build 210727 to V4.32.110 build 211009 - Download icon appeared! Yay!
• V4.32.110 build 211009 to V4.71.005 build 220524 - Download icon vanished again. Argh!!!

View attachment 8476

That's not that weird for Hikvision - one step forward, two steps back

 

[dbrewood]

Tell me about it. I do all the updates to get that feature and end up not getting it. Oh well, such is life.

 

[dbrewood]

Annoying as well, since the upgrades we're getting constant network unstable connection errors in HIK-Connect.

 

[JB1970]

Annoying as well, since the upgrades we're getting constant network unstable connection errors in HIK-Connect.

Unfortunately that could well be down to the network configuration of the NVR and possibly your router. I do see a lot of comments about ‘network unstable’ messages and people being unable to connect. It’s an issue I’ve not really experienced. I’m on my 5th NVR at home, so I imagine here alone I’ve ran over 50 firmware versions across my own NVRs without issue. On top of that there’s all the ones I’ve configured for customers.

 

[dbrewood]

Hmm, we've not had a problem with it prior to either the new version of HIK-Connect or the firmware update. Easiest solution is to knock it down to Basic view instead of HD. I might reboot the NVR and see if it makes any difference.

The Orbi network has been stable for 2 years and the CCTV system for 18 months......

 

[JB1970]

I think previously you were connected via IP/Domain rather than using the Hik Connect service IIRC so that could be the difference rather than the updates.

The connection can be set up in two ways. Either by manual port forwarding in the router or by enabling NAT in the NVR and letting that set up the routers port forwarding using UPnP. I’ve found that even if you manually set up the port forwarding in the router, when Hik-Connect is enabled, the NVR automatically enables NAT (which could cause an issue if you’ve already forwarded the ports)

Is your Orbi set up correctly? IE has your internet providers router/hub been set to bridge mode/modem only mode with the Orbi acting as the router? If not you would cause a double NAT situation. That would not affect web browsing or possibly even connection to the NVR via IP/Domain but could cause flakey connection to Hik-Connect.

 

[dbrewood]

Okay so if I was set up using IP/domain would that still work when out and about? If so how do you go about setting that up?

There has never been any port forwarding set up on the router to work with the NAS. The NVR is configured as:

Yes the Orbi is set up correctly? The Virgin router is acting as a pass through device with the Orbi acting as the router. That has been that way since we switched to Virgin in the summer, no issues with that at all.

As I say the only things that have changed are the firmware updates and re-loading / re-logging into the HIK-Connect app. Saying that my wide logs into the app using her email / password and has never had to reinstall it and again the problems have only occurred since v5 of the app and the firmware changes.

 

[JB1970]

Yes the Orbi is set up correctly? The Virgin router is acting as a pass through device with the Orbi acting as the router. That has been that way since we switched to Virgin in the summer, no issues with that at all.

VM are renowned for remotely resetting devices so keep an eye open for that. If you're in modem mode the LED will be Pink rather than the standard White for router mode. Check that that is the case and if you're not sure, log into the VM Hub at 192.168.100.1 and make sure. Or simply look in the available WiFi networks on your phone - if you can see your VM one, it is not in modem mode and will cause a problems.

Looking at your pictures and you're saying there has never been port forwarding, it simply wouldn't work remotely. To do (this is to set it to work for Hik-Connect rather than IP/Domain):

1. Uncheck DHCP. We don't want another device to grab that address if the lease is lost. Once unticked...
2. Manually set IP address to 192.168.1.250. That is well out of the way and won't get assigned to another device by your Orbi's DHCP server and also set the subnet mask and gateway to those same addresses that are there at the moment (I take it 192.168.1.254 will get you to the Orbi's homepage in a browser) Note: Once you apply that, you'll need to access the NVR again at it's new Ip address of 192.168.1.250
3. Preferred DNS server should be 8.8.8.8 (alternate server 8.8.4.4). That forces them to Googles DNS servers. Currently the NVRs DNS lookup to find Hik-Connects server will go to your Orbi, then your VM Hub, then VM's servers (which are 194.168.4.100 & 194.168.8.100 from memory). That's not ideal. Hikvision recommend 8.8.8.8 and setting it in the NVR means it will bypass/override those in the router.
4. OPTIONAL. Change your ports. The default ones are well known and subject to illegal login attempts. For example use 50000 http, 50001 Server, 50002 RTSP. You don't have to change them as the Port Mapping Mode in 5 below will randomise them so they're not visible to a port scan. However if you have any other device on your network that calls out to the internet and uses those ports (port 80 especially) the router will not map them as they're in use. Note: If you do change them, once you apply you'll need to access the NVR web page again at http://192.168.1.250:50000
5. Enable UPnP. That's essential if you've not set port forwarding. Also set Port Mapping Mode to Auto and that will map your NVR ports to random port numbers in the range assigned for UPnP. I'm assuming the Orbi has UPnP enabled by default - it will be needed, so if necessary login to Orbi and check that.

That should have you sorted. You may need to login to your Hik-Connect account in a web browser and type in the new http and server ports.

 

[dbrewood]

Okay to feed back:

1. The Virgin Business Router is definitely in pass through mode.
2. The NVRs IP of 192.168.1.77 is reserved in the Orbi as a static address so should be fine
3. Again network settings should be fine.
4. \I've turned off DHCP on the NVR.
5. The NVR DNS settings have been changed to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, even though I really hate using Google for anything.
6. For the moment I'll leave the ports as they are as that could cause issues with Homebridge etc.
7. UPnP is not enabled on the NVR or on the Orbi, it's too much of a security risk to have it operational
8. I did have static routes activated on the Orbi but they were only created when I was originally trying to get the cameras working directly via RTSP, as I worked out it was not needed they were turned off again. The system had been working for over a year without them being needed.
9. Access has always been via Hik-Connect configured under Platform-Access on the NVR...

One bit of good news....... whilst checking through on the above I noticed the user account on the NVR I was using was set at 'Guest', I changed that to Operator and I now have the missing download icon

Looking at the camera config the network looks as:

Anyway I'm rebooting the camera to see if that makes any difference, it's only the one camera which has any issues with playing back the feed, the other two cameras are fine.

I've rebooted the camera and I'm now seeing:

• I can view the HD display via RTSP feed & VLC perfectly, no slow downs no delays
• I can view the SD display via Homebridge / HomeKit, no slow downs no delays

I think I've found the problem though...... The video quality on that cameras is set to 'Highest', if I set it to 'Higher' (which the other cameras are set to) it ..... nope doesn't help. The camera is set as follows, the only differences is that the other cameras are set to video instead of video / audio

Nope just changed that to video only, still the playback problems............

Should any of these settings be changed? They are fine for the other cameras..........

Anyway I've had enough for tonight, I'll revisit this tomorrow....

 

[JB1970]

Okay to feed back:

1. The Virgin Business Router is definitely in pass through mode.
2. The NVRs IP of 192.168.1.77 is reserved in the Orbi as a static address so should be fine
3. Again network settings should be fine.
4. \I've turned off DHCP on the NVR.
5. The NVR DNS settings have been changed to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, even though I really hate using Google for anything.
6. For the moment I'll leave the ports as they are as that could cause issues with Homebridge etc.
7. UPnP is not enabled on the NVR or on the Orbi, it's too much of a security risk to have it operational
8. I did have static routes activated on the Orbi but they were only created when I was originally trying to get the cameras working directly via RTSP, as I worked out it was not needed they were turned off again. The system had been working for over a year without them being needed.
9. Access has always been via Hik-Connect configured under Platform-Access on the NVR...

One bit of good news....... whilst checking through on the above I noticed the user account on the NVR I was using was set at 'Guest', I changed that to Operator and I now have the missing download icon

Looking at the camera config the network looks as:

View attachment 8492

Anyway I'm rebooting the camera to see if that makes any difference, it's only the one camera which has any issues with playing back the feed, the other two cameras are fine.

I've rebooted the camera and I'm now seeing:

• I can view the HD display via RTSP feed & VLC perfectly, no slow downs no delays
• I can view the SD display via Homebridge / HomeKit, no slow downs no delays

I think I've found the problem though...... The video quality on that cameras is set to 'Highest', if I set it to 'Higher' (which the other cameras are set to) it ..... nope doesn't help. The camera is set as follows, the only differences is that the other cameras are set to video instead of video / audio

View attachment 8495

Nope just changed that to video only, still the playback problems............

Should any of these settings be changed? They are fine for the other cameras..........

Anyway I've had enough for tonight, I'll revisit this tomorrow....

The NVRs IP of 192.168.1.77 is reserved in the Orbi as a static address so should be fine

I've turned off DHCP on the NVR.

I didn't realise that you had a reserved DHCP IP. That's as good as static, the benefit of disabling DHCP is the ability to manually set the DNS.

The NVR DNS settings have been changed to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, even though I really hate using Google for anything.

You could use 1.1.1.1 for the primary and set the secondary to 192.168.1.254 as a fallback.

UPnP is not enabled on the NVR or on the Orbi, it's too much of a security risk to have it operational

Here lies the problem. Without port forwarding, or UPnP, you're not going to achieve reliable (or any) remote connection. If UPnP and port forwarding are too much of a security risk for you, don't have your NVR connected to the internet. Any internet connected device poses some security risk and we have to weigh up security vs convenience/usability. The only other way is to get remote connection is to use a VPN and then you can view your system using the local IP while away from home. There are a few downsides to that. You won't be able to connect using the Hik-Connect service and so can't get notifications, event clips and other features. The network overhead from using VPN may make live streaming/playing back HD video temperamental.

The camera network config is fine. It's handled by the NVR and although the DNS settings are entered there by default, they are not used as the NVR handles the network connection.

There are no issues with your video settings, I had mine set similar. There are two settings that will cause large spikes in the cameras bit rate and cause them to burst well outside of the maximum configured bit rate. The first is the quality setting. As you may have already seen the difference between 'Higher' and 'Highest' probably doesn't make a huge difference to visible video quality but does make a large difference to bit rate. The other (only visible in teh camera) is 'Smoothing'. By default it comes set at 50. I used to set it to 1 (Clear) as it improved video. I now tend to leave it alone, as setting it to 1 makes the size of the I Frame much larger causing huge bit rate spikes.

 

[dbrewood]

Okay so I'll set the NVR DNS to 1.1.1.1 (cloudflare IIRC) and 192.168.1.254 (Orbi as a backup).

UPnP is definitely a no go Port forwarding I can set up, but which ports would we be looking to forward?

What gets me is that the system as been set up this way by the installer and has been working perfectly for all cameras since it was installed. It works now perfectly for all cameras apart from the one covering the drive. [Edit - this morning all the cameras are playing up].

I have even looked at dropping the bitrate from 8192 to 2560 and I still get the issues. It has to be the HIK-Connect app that is the issue as Homebridge / Homekit (okay those use the sub-stream) and VLC (full HD) are all working perfectly. For the moment I've set HIK-Connect to 'Basic' instead of HD.

 

[JB1970]

Okay so I'll set the NVR DNS to 1.1.1.1 (cloudflare IIRC) and 192.168.1.254 (Orbi as a backup).

UPnP is definitely a no go Port forwarding I can set up, but which ports would we be looking to forward?

What gets me is that the system as been set up this way by the installer and has been working perfectly for all cameras since it was installed. It works now perfectly for all cameras apart from the one covering the drive. [Edit - this morning all the cameras are playing up].

I have even looked at dropping the bitrate from 8192 to 2560 and I still get the issues. It has to be the HIK-Connect app that is the issue as Homebridge / Homekit (okay those use the sub-stream) and VLC (full HD) are all working perfectly. For the moment I've set HIK-Connect to 'Basic' instead of HD.

The only two ports that must be forwarded are the Server Port which maintains connection and the RTSP port. I do tend to forward the http port as well so that I can access the config remotely (I also forward 65001 - 65016 so I can access the camera config remotely - a bit OTT but that's me)

One important distinction between UPnP and standard port forwarding is that UPnP randomises the ports if NVR NAT is set to Auto (I forget the exact range but it starts around 49000). That does mean that the standard ports if left at 80 (http), 8000 (server) and 554 (RTSP) would not be visible as open if someone were to do a port scan on your external IP address. So if you're going to do the port forwarding in the Orbi, I'd either:

1 - Change the standard ports in the NVR as described in my previous post - I do that on every install that I do, or...
2 - In the Orbi (if the config allows) - map different external ports to the standard internal ones. For instance map external port 50000 > internal 80, 50001 > 8000, 50002 > 554. You can pick your own ports so long as they don't conflict with any others in use but the server port must be above 2000

What gets me is that the system as been set up this way by the installer and has been working perfectly for all cameras since it was installed. It works now perfectly for all cameras apart from the one covering the drive. [Edit - this morning all the cameras are playing up]

I don't honestly know how it has worked previously for remote connection, unless the installer mapped the ports already in your Orbi.

I have even looked at dropping the bitrate from 8192 to 2560 and I still get the issues. It has to be the HIK-Connect app that is the issue as Homebridge / Homekit (okay those use the sub-stream) and VLC (full HD) are all working perfectly. For the moment I've set HIK-Connect to 'Basic' instead of HD.

I'd never drop the bit rate, other than temporarily while trying to diagnose an issue. I have seen posts advising leaving Quality at medium, lowering the resolution, lowering the bit rate. It's pointless having high resolution cameras if the stream has to be deliberately degraded in order to attain a stable remote connection, as the recorded image will be little use.

One thing I will point out is that I normally just use Standard rather than HD on my phone. As good as it is, my phone has a 5" screen and unless I'm trying to pixel peep the Std (sub stream) is ok. Using the Hik-Connect service, if your remote connection speed isn't great, it'll attempt to throttle it teh bandwidth to maintain a connection, so you're unlikely to get issues leaving it on HD. However if you connect directly via IP/Domain and it's left on HD, IF you have a spotty mobile connection, it simply won't connect (as you cannot switch back to Std from HD until after you've established an initial connection which the poor mobile speed and HD stream are preventing)

 

[dbrewood]

Okay I on the ports I was looking at Static routes which had been disabled. The RTSP ports were forwarded and I've now added the server port in.

Pot 80 is used for accessing my forum which I host on my NAS so I have settings configured for that which I don't want to alter

Dropping the bitrate to 5120 seems to make a difference in playback on the cameras. I'll see how it goes. I know originally when it was set up the installer did have the quality set to medium.

And yeah in the HIK-Connect App we'll leave it on 'Basic' as at least that does work

 

[JB1970]

Okay I on the ports I was looking at Static routes which had been disabled. The RTSP ports were forwarded and I've now added the server port in.

View attachment 8496

Pot 80 is used for accessing my forum which I host on my NAS so I have settings configured for that which I don't want to alter

Dropping the bitrate to 5120 seems to make a difference in playback on the cameras. I'll see how it goes. I know originally when it was set up the installer did have the quality set to medium.

And yeah in the HIK-Connect App we'll leave it on 'Basic' as at least that does work

Yes in the app itself only the server port is stipulated. The server port is used to maintain the connection, so the remote connection wouldn't work as the router wouldn't know what to do with an incoming connection on that port without a forwarding rule in place.

 

[dbrewood]

It is weird as it's always worked without the server port being forwarded. Anyway it is now so we'll see how it goes!

 

[dbrewood]

It's interesting that the web config portal for the NVR and iVMS differ as to what resolutions are allowed to be set on the cameras. I guess the web GUI should be used?

 

[JB1970]

It's interesting that the web config portal for the NVR and iVMS differ as to what resolutions are allowed to be set on the cameras. I guess the web GUI should be used?

View attachment 8497

Yeah I just had a look at my iVMS-4200 on Mac OS. When I first bring up the 8MP camera the resolution is blank. In the dropdown there are a couple of entries marked 'unknown'. I guess the newer cameras available image resolutions, don't tabulate with those in the iVMS software. It'll be an iVMS update that resolves that (which always comes very late for Mac). Thankfully I'm not a big iVMS user.

 

[dbrewood]

I'll not worry about it too much then and just use the web UX They will update the app eventually I guess, maybe....

 

[dbrewood]

Well in the end to stabilise things the less important cameras (garage roof & patio) have been turned down to the next highest resolution and bitrates to 2560, the important camera (Drive) has been set as follows, that is a lower bitrate and audio turned off. Turning audio off (it was never on originally) seems to make a difference.

The Orbi has been rebooted as well (just in case).

I do still get messages that the network is unstable occasionally though on the one camera. I really regret updating the firmware on the devices..........

 

[JB1970]

Well in the end to stabilise things the less important cameras (garage roof & patio) have been turned down to the next highest resolution and bitrates to 2560, the important camera (Drive) has been set as follows, that is a lower bitrate and audio turned off. Turning audio off (it was never on originally) seems to make a difference.

View attachment 8498

The Orbi has been rebooted as well (just in case).

I do still get messages that the network is unstable occasionally though on the one camera. I really regret updating the firmware on the devices..........

You're probably already aware, but if you're changing frame and bit rates via the NVR web GUI as shown in your pic, just be sure to use the dropdown and set the 'Main Stream Event' parameters to match those of 'Main Stream Normal' or its cause issues. I only mention it as it's more obvious when setting on a locally connected monitor as the two sets of parameters are on the same screen.