Is it just me, or is Hikvisions website.............

[BigAl]

....the worst in the world to navigate?

I absolutely dread having to upgrade firmware for Hikvision equipment.

Even when the correct procedure is followed with the firmware downloaded (if you can find it) and extracted to a dav file the installation fails.

Why is it so difficult?

I would have thought that instead of searching through the portal and all the following pages, it must be much simpler to just put the camera model in the search to find everything relevant to that camera displayed.

I have just been looking for the firmware for this camera, DS-2CD2742FWD-IS, but it bring up zero results, as if Hikvision didn't produce it.

And ALL my equipment is purchased though a Hikvision Trade Distributor, none of it is a grey market purchase.

So frustrating and time wasting.

 

[codlord]

I totally agree, it's a nightmare. Nearly every other supplier in the world has worked out how to give their products unique model numbers which customers can use to search supplier websites and find the relevant product page with links to documents and firmware, but seemingly not HikVision.

It seems HikVision re-use model numbers so the same model number can be an older model with one type of internal firmware as well as a newer model with completely different firmware. Plus some cameras seem to be supplied with "custom" or some weird firmwares so even if you manage to match the firmware type and model number the firmware you download does not work on the cameras - I have some cameras I have never been able to update...

The portal is a confusing spider-web of "platforms" and partial model numbers like "2XX6G2". Also the web links to their portals seem to change every few months. If/when I do manage to find a page for the right firmware I take a bookmark of it. Then in a few months when I look again the bookmarks always seem to change so it's back to the drawing board trying to find the right page again! It's so frustrating.

Rant over! ;-)

One thing I have learnt is that on the systems settings page look for the "Firmware Version Property" value which will have in it something like G1 or H3 or whatever - that is the firmware platform you need to download. So for the UK portal you start here and go with that "platform":

http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/uk/portal/?dir=portal/Product%20Firmware/Hikvision/03%20Front%20Ends/IP%20Camera

But note as per my previous comment, the link will probably change in a few weeks