Hik-Connect Hik-connect remote liveview/playback slow loading/freezing/skipping seconds

[Murfy92]

Hi,

When I do Hik-connect liveview/playback on my local network the playback is good as expected.

But when I do Hik-connect liveview/playback remotely the cameras take long to load and the liveview/playback is slow and skipping seconds.

I've reduced the quality of the video from high to medium and the FPS to 12 from 20 but still having remote playback issues.

I have 8 cameras with identical settings:

How can I improve remote liveview/playback?
Why is it working fine on local network but having problems when connected remotely?
Do I need to set up sub streams for remote viewing?

 

[David]

@Murfy92 when I am viewing remotely I only use the sub streams. When you are away from your home you will not get the same network performance, HikConnect is a "free" service and lots of cameras are using their servers. I stopped using HikConnect years ago.

 

[Murfy92]

@David what is a good alternative? Is it better to set up dns?

 

[David]

@David what is a good alternative? Is it better to set up dns?

I have never been comfortable using cloud services (HikConnect, Ring etc). I currently use IVMS4500, DDNS and the VPN server on my router, before the VPN server I used port forwarding. I also setup the camera email service to send notifications. It all works well for me.

 

[Murfy92]

@David I like the idea of having remote set-up done in a way where you are more in control.

Can you share how to do the set-up the way you have done it or share some useful links please.

 

[David]

@David I like the idea of having remote set-up done in a way where you are more in control.

Can you share how to do the set-up the way you have done it or share some useful links please.

It has been a while since I used portforwarding so the guide below may not be complete.

If you don’t have a fixed public IP address you will need to use a Dynamic DNS (DDNS) service like Free Dynamic DNS - Managed DNS - Managed Email - Domain Registration - No-IP. You will create your own URL that will be used to remotely access the camera, example mynet.ddnsserv.com
Check your router / camera and see which DDNS services they support. Doing this allows your DDNS service to check and update your public IP. If you don’t do this you will have to install an app on a fixed local pc.

Setup port forwarding on your router, I assume you are using standard port assignments on your cameras / NVR.
Set the public port (WAN) side to 8000 and the LAN side port to 8000, enter the LAN IP address of your camera.

Download ivms4500 add the camera with admin login details, check you can see video when connected to your local network.
Create another entry for the remote connection the domain name will be mynet.ddnsserv.com add the login details. Check it via a remote connection.

Any problems send your router model number.

 

[Madgame87]

I'm suffering the same issues — my playback seems to skip seconds. For instance I had a notification that was about 2 minutes long and it started playing the first 20secs, then skipped to the last 10secs.

Any ideas?

NVR 7608NI-I2-8P with 3 TB
2x ColorVu G2
2x Accusense G2

 

[nathanb]

I have had the same issue from the day I have had the system, and what David says is most likely the correct explanation, which I just live with.

LiveView playback on HikConnect using HD stream will freeze/pause every so often. Switch to "basic" i.e. SD, and it is mostly fluent with odd pause. However, when viewing recorded playback, it constantly freezes because the footage is being recorded at full res/full frame rate. I don't know if you can record two streams to the NVR? Although it would take up space unnecessarily.

So root cause will be either user internet connection, or HikConnect platform, or the entire pipeline, from NVR to your mobile cannot handle the full res stream. I've not tested, but presumably if you lower the stream quality, this issue would go away, but then sort of defeats purpose of an HD camera.

 

[David]

So root cause will be either user internet connection, or HikConnect platform, or the entire pipeline, from NVR to your mobile cannot handle the full res stream. I've not tested, but presumably if you lower the stream quality, this issue would go away, but then sort of defeats purpose of an HD camera.

I've found that taking the HikConnect servers out of the chain gives a better service but with no push notifications. I use my own VPN server, before that I used the classic DDNS and port forwarding (less secure). I use email notifications to replace push notifications.

In the end use of HikConnect is "free" and the servers are probably overloaded at peak times coupled with unstable 3G/4G cellular connections make HD playback difficult. This applies to any cloud based video live view / playback service.

 

[fullboogie]

Reboot your NVR. Occasionally I get errors and playback issues, including the famous "too many resources" error message. Reboot of the NVR so far has always cured the problems.