MacOS Recording to a Mac?

[Rick]

Hi im new here and not a networking expert, not even a networking novice. But i have successfully got 3 different hikvision ip cameras on my LAN. The issue is the third camera ( ds-2cd2232-i5 ) does not have a SD slot so i would like to use my mac as its recorder. I dont have a NVR or a DVR and would rather not buy one. ( although im open to hearing the case for one ) I’m also not using the 4200 client software. I find the web interface works just fine for my needs.

I read somwhere that it needs a dedicated partition or a dedicated drive so i added a 1T jump drive as a target. Under the configuration tab > local configuration > Record File Settings … i aimed everything to the jump drive.
But at the advanced configuration page > storage > storage management … no drives appear and nothing is settable.

In the mac, I turned on file sharing and selected the jump drive. I chose to share using smb protocols. It gave me an ip address and file path, though the does not include the name of jump drive, so i suspect that this is incorrect. Just the same i added this to the cameras web interface at configuration > advanced > storage > nas, along with … mounting type set to smb, added the admin user name of the computer along with the password. Hitting the test button gave me the following error message: “failed to connect with test server”. It did save the configuration, so i think im close.

Going to the storage management tab, i now have a new line in the device list: hdd number 9 (though its check box is grayed out) capacity and freespace are listed as 0, status is offline, type is NAS, property is R/W, and progress is blank.

i think im very close. All suggestions are welcome! Thanks in advance.

 

[Dan]

Hi @Rick

When recording direct from the camera you can only send snapshots of events or manually downloaded footage to your local Mac storage. To record directly to your Mac storage with continuous or event recording you would need to use a 3rd-party software like SecuritySpy

 

[macman]

What magic enables you to see your cameras in a Mac web browser? I can't do that.

You can record the continuous live view (without any highlighting of motion events) simply by using Quicktime Player to make a screen recording - if you have plenty of storage space.

 

[Dan]

Hi @macman

With the latest G2 models we have had no issues accessing the live view by entering the IP address of the camera into Chrome. (see below example of a DS-2CD2386G2-IU running v5.5.160 firmware)

But you can see, as described above in my original comment, that the playback menu is still not supported when accessing the camera directly from a browser on a Mac.

 

[Rick]

What magic enables you to see your cameras in a Mac web browser? I can't do that.

You can record the continuous live view (without any highlighting of motion events) simply by using Quicktime Player to make a screen recording - if you have plenty of storage space.

It works just fine with safari. We are talking about my LAN, not over the internet, like at work for example. I don’t recall if i have a plug in installed or not. If i did, it was either quicktime, or a hikvision thing.

 

[Rick]

Hi macman, btw, i can view both live view and playback via safari browser. The recording are captured to the internal SD card in each camera. My cameras are several years old. To see them on my phone or ipad i use ivms4500 app from hikvision.

 

[macman]

I'm talking LAN as well - but as Dan pointed out, I don't have the right cameras.

 

[macman]

Maybe it's my old Os that bars the way. Unfortunately I can't upgrade past Os 10.13 (High Sierra).

 

[Rick]

Hi @macman

With the latest G2 models we have had no issues accessing the live view by entering the IP address of the camera into Chrome. (see below example of a DS-2CD2386G2-IU running v5.5.160 firmware)

View attachment 6568​

But you can see, as described above in my original comment, that the playback menu is still not supported when accessing the camera directly from a browser on a Mac

Hi @macman

With the latest G2 models we have had no issues accessing the live view by entering the IP address of the camera into Chrome. (see below example of a DS-2CD2386G2-IU running v5.5.160 firmware)

View attachment 6568​

But you can see, as described above in my original comment, that the playback menu is still not supported when accessing the camera directly from a browser on a Mac.

Hello Dan, thanks for responding … i can view both live view and playback via safari browser on the cameras with an SD slot. My cameras are several years old. To see them on my phone or ipad i use ivms4500 app from hikvision. Like you said, i just type in the ip address into the address field of safari.

 

[Rick]

Maybe it's my old Os that bars the way. Unfortunately I can't upgrade past Os 10.13 (High Sierra).

Works on both my ancient macs, osx 10.7.5 early 2008 and 10.11.6 late 2009 respectively

 

[Rick]

Hi @Rick

When recording direct from the camera you can only send snapshots of events or manually downloaded footage to your local Mac storage. To record directly to your Mac storage with continuous or event recording you would need to use a 3rd-party software like SecuritySpy

Hello Dan, thanks for responding! Security Spy…hmmm…i look into that.

 

[macman]

Works on both my ancient macs, osx 10.7.5 early 2008 and 10.11.6 late 2009 respectively

You may have been fortuitously stranded with an old version of Safari which actually did work. ISTR that Safari v13 broke everything.

 

[Rick]

Works on both my ancient macs, osx 10.7.5 early 2008 and 10.11.6 late 2009 respectively

I just checked, both macs have ivs 4200 software installed, so that may have added a plug-in or functionality that your mac does not have…but we do not use this app to view via safari on a day to day basis. It may have been used to set up cameras back in 2014, or it may be running in the background and im just not aware of it.

 

[macman]

But what version/s of Safari are you using to view the cameras, as and when you choose to?

 

[Rick]

You may have been fortuitously stranded with an old version of Safari which actually did work. ISTR that Safari v13 broke everything.

Perhaps, my newest version of safari is v11.1.2

 

[Rick]

But what version/s of Safari are you using to view the cameras, as and when you choose to?

Safari v6.1.6 and v11.1.2

 

[macman]

Safari v6.1.6 and v11.1.2

Wow! That could be the oldest version of Safari still in active service.

 

[Rick]

Wow! That could be the oldest version of Safari still in active service.

It could be! I have an old mac with a $1200 photoshop i paid for before i retired. I can’t upgrade the mac without getting a new version of PS. Which these days is a rental only. Spending more money on PS does not appeal to me although i do still use it often. It does everything i need, and i know how to use it. The fine folks at Adobe seem to find joy in rearranging the menus and changing the keyboard shortcuts…the frustration of learning the new version far outweighs the benefits of new features. At least to me.
At some point i may be forced to make it a dual boot or just a dedicated photoshop machine, but for now, as a mac it works good enough.