VPro (Acuseek) NVR - First Impressions

[JB1970]

Had my first real issue yesterday with the new NVR yesterday. I noticed that all of my fire tablets that show a camera on their dashboard were failing to connect to the RTSP stream url. Later when I checked the local UI (HDMI out to TV) it was completely frozen. The cameras were all frozen at 16:29 and the mouse pointer was frozen, so I had to reboot using the web UI (which was working normally) to get the local UI back. While frozen, recording continued, web UI was usable, Hik-Connect access was possible and push notifications for events were still working; just the local UI and connections via RTSP url were broken. There’s nothing showing in the logs as a cause for the event, I wasn’t using the local UI at the time but may have been doing an AcuSeek search on Hik-Connect. It was about 6 hours that the UI was frozen before I noticed and rebooted (so it clearly wasn’t going to resolve itself)

 

[Prototype]

That’s not a great start. I wonder if it could be related to the storage—especially if the drive wasn’t formatted and initialised directly on this NVR. It might have picked up some leftover data it didn’t like and sent the system into a frenzy.

 

[JB1970]

That’s not a great start. I wonder if it could be related to the storage—especially if the drive wasn’t formatted and initialised directly on this NVR. It might have picked up some leftover data it didn’t like and sent the system into a frenzy.

I took a quick look at the earliest recordings available. It's difficult to say, but it's happened around about the time of one complete write to the two disks; that's to say from the existing disks being powered on and starting to overwrite disk 1, to fully overwriting disk 2 and going back to switching to disk 1 again. It's possible I suppose, though I'd expect some record exception in the logs. Filtering the NVR logs to show exception only, just shows two sets of 'IP camera disconnection' the first when the recorder was rebooted on the morning and the second when I rebooted to restore normal operation. I'll do a database rebuild when I get chance to rule that out.

 

[Lesnikov]

I've been testing the latest firmware on my Hikvision DS-7608NXI-I2/8P/VPro NVR (upgraded to V5.05.351 build 250705, which was about 1.9GB in size) with connected ColorVu G3 8MP cameras (model DS-2CD2387G2H-LISU/SL, running the latest firmware V5.7.19 build 241207). Overall AcuSeek's search functionality has been inconsistent in my setup. Here's a breakdown of my experience:

Human Detection Performance​

• AcuSense (Human Body Detection): This has delivered far superior results. It reliably detects and filters human motion with high accuracy, minimizing false positives and capturing events effectively—even in varied lighting conditions.
• AcuSeek (Searching for "Male"): In contrast, results are hit-or-miss, with only about 40-60% success rate. Even when subjects are close to the camera, detections often fail. I tested alternative search queries, like specifying colors for tops or bottoms (to bypass potential issues with the "male" filter), but the hit rate remained similarly inconsistent at 40-60%. This seems odd since AcuSense labels human bodies in the database—I'm puzzled why AcuSeek doesn't leverage that info, or if it operates on a separate database within the NVR?

Animal Detection (Cat/Dog)​

• AcuSeek: I ran tests on my cat, which follows the same path daily. Detection was spotty, succeeding only around 40% of the time—sometimes it picked up, other times it completely missed it.
• AcuSense: No dedicated animal detection feature here, so I couldn't compare directly.

Additional Testing Notes​

• I evaluated both H.265 and H.264 encoding formats, and the results were identical across them. I haven't tested H.265+ or H.264+ yet, but based on these findings, I don't expect major differences.

AcuSense stands out as far more effective for my needs, especially with its impressive playback feature that allows seamless tracking of a person across multiple cameras. In contrast, AcuSeek is currently not practical for my use case. It may require further optimization or specific configuration adjustments—I'm planning to reach out to support to explore potential settings I might be missing.

Trying also acuseek on phone and i get fever results as on ivms/web. So i think mybe its just parsing problem (search queries need to be defined better?). Did try same search queries on hik-connect and on phone for some search query i get zero results as on web browser i get some.

When i tested acuseek on hik-connect i find out there is also acusearch now and it works really good (dont know when they added it to hik-connect).

 

[Lesnikov]

Regarding acusearch and hik-connect i can only run it on NVR vpro and not on DS-7616NXI-I2/S(e) anyone knows if this feature will get to other nvrs?

 

[Kyle]

In case anybody is interested, here's the recording from Hikvision's AcuSeek webinar this morning:

 

[JB1970]

I've been testing the latest firmware on my Hikvision DS-7608NXI-I2/8P/VPro NVR (upgraded to V5.05.351 build 250705, which was about 1.9GB in size)

Interesting that your firmware file was only 1.9GB. 5.05.351_250705 is 4.58GB on the DS-7608NXI-I2/16P/VPro. I'd have thought that the 8 and 16 channel versions of the same model would use an identical file. Unless your 1.9GB file was compressed (MacOS decompresses the file to 'digicap.dav' immediately upon download completion)

AcuSeek: I ran tests on my cat, which follows the same path daily. Detection was spotty, succeeding only around 40% of the time—sometimes it picked up, other times it completely missed it.

According to the interface, identification of animals and objects is 'coming soon' (in the demo Hikvision state 'not currently supported' which makes me wonder how 'soon' the feature will be coming). The demo shows a search for 'cat' but the results come from a dedicated Guanlan camera so it's not quite clear what is and isn't searchable.

AcuSense stands out as far more effective for my needs, especially with its impressive playback feature that allows seamless tracking of a person across multiple cameras.

AcuSense is just Human/Vehicle that we've had for some time. Tracking that target across multiple cameras is the AcuSearch function. I'm not finding it that great as it I get a lot of false results. You can alter the similarity percentage to get more accurate results.

AcuSeek is currently not practical for my use case. It may require further optimization or specific configuration adjustments—I'm planning to reach out to support to explore potential settings I might be missing.

I'm finding AcuSeek works very well. I look forward to it supporting the 'animal' and 'object' searches that are 'coming soon'. An interesting part of the presentation was that currently objects need to be associated with either a vehicle or a person. Searching 'backpack' will find people wearing or carrying a backpack or even a vehicle with a backpack on its roof; what it won't find is a backpack in isolation. When I searched lawnmower a few days ago I got results for people pushing lawnmowers, people riding lawnmowers, people using brush cutters/strimmers and even a vehicle towing a trailer that had a lawnmower on the back!

rying also acuseek on phone and i get fever results as on ivms/web.

That could either be the default search time (which is one day on the phone app).

When i tested acuseek on hik-connect i find out there is also acusearch now and it works really good (dont know when they added it to hik-connect).

It came a month ago in 6.9.600

 

[JB1970]

Several annoyances in the latest version of Hik-Connect released a couple of days ago:

AcuSeek/AcuSearch were available directly by touching the active camera during playback. You could use AcuSeek on local only devices without being logged into Hik-Connect. Those icons have now been moved in with the Human, Vehicle filtering so are exclusive now to devices registered with Hik-Connect.

AcuSeek had a module in the 'Applications' section of the Hik-Connect app. 'Applications' is no longer in my app - its icon has vanished from the lower bar of the app. If I want to go into 'Personal Album' it now has to be done from the 'Me' page. 'AcuSeek' has its own icon now at the top of the home page.

I'm on 6.10.0 and applications is missing. My wife's phone is on 6.9.880 and applications is still there.

 

[Prototype]

I assume you are using iPhones? There is version 6.10.0.0908 for Android.

 

[JB1970]

I assume you are using iPhones? There is version 6.10.0.0908 for Android.

Yeah we are both on iPhone - it's marginally more recent on iOS - 6.10.0.20250909.3. It looks as though the app has just been redesigned a bit but there are a few bugs as detailed in another post.

 

[JB1970]

There seems to be some issue with Hik-Connect push notifications being delayed for me with this recorder.

For testing I've just set a motion detection alarm with 'notify surveillance center' on one of my cameras connected to the NVR that is in view of the TV which the NVR connects to. I've timed the delay from event trigger to push notification several times and I'm seeing between 28 and 35 seconds. The recorder has been removed and re added to Hik-Connect, the router has been rebooted etc but nothing improves those times. By comparison, I've just set up a spare 2387G2H camera on my network and added that directly to Hik-Connect. Carrying out the same test with a motion detection alarm, I'm seeing more like 5 seconds to receipt of the notification.

 

[Prototype]

Oh, that would definitely put me off, as I rely on push notifications for almost instant updates when there’s an issue. Could you raise this with support to check if they’re already aware of it?

 

[JB1970]

Oh, that would definitely put me off, as I rely on push notifications for almost instant updates when there’s an issue. Could you raise this with support to check if they’re already aware of it?

It's proving difficult for me to pinpoint as I'm seeing inconsistent results. There's a possibility that some update on my Unifi network setup is causing it but I'm not seeing any issues reported on the Ubiquiti forums. I'm not sure when the problem started; only when I became aware of it. I initially thought it a Hik-Connect issue following the last update but others are reporting instant notifications from other NVRs. It's generally a waste of time raising it with Hikvision support - I generally get an automated response and then a 'case closed' response months later!

 

[Prototype]

It's proving difficult for me to pinpoint as I'm seeing inconsistent results. There's a possibility that some update on my Unifi network setup is causing it but I'm not seeing any issues reported on the Ubiquiti forums. I'm not sure when the problem started; only when I became aware of it. I initially thought it a Hik-Connect issue following the last update but others are reporting instant notifications from other NVRs. It's generally a waste of time raising it with Hikvision support - I generally get an automated response and then a 'case closed' response months later!

I've got some email addresses of Hikvision support agents in China if you wanted to try contacting them directly for advise. They were really helpful to me in the past.

 

[alfaclvi]

Can you see if this notification delay exists on the monitor connected on the NVR? You need a second person

 

[JB1970]

Can you see if this notification delay exists on the monitor connected on the NVR? You need a second person

No it doesn't, that's how I've been testing. I can see the monitor signal the event (bell icon) when I trigger it. The event triggers immediately. It is marked on the relevant playback timelines correctly. And when the notification does come through, the thumbnail and associated video clip are all correct. No doubt an update in either Hik-Connect or the firmware will resolve it at some point. My network seems to be working fine but if I come home and trigger the event on the driveway then enter the house, I get a push notification immediately from my alarm system to say it's been disarmed and then the delayed one from Hik-Connect comes through 10 seconds later. So the delay is either in the event being sent to Hik-Connect from the NVR or the push being sent out to my handset.

 

[JB1970]

I think I can reasonably safely say that this is some issue with the NVR firmware or the current Hik-Connect app version that is specific to this model of NVR. Everything has been tried:

• Logout of Hik-Connect and restart app
• Delete and re-install app
• Disable/re-enable Hik-Connect on NVR
• Remove and re-add NVR to Hik-Connect account
• Reboot and power cycle NVR
• Reboot and power cycle network switch
• Reboot and power cycle router
• Power cycle hub (Virgin Media Hub 5)

Push notifications continue to take up to 30 seconds to be delivered regardless of the iPhone's connectivity (local WiFi or 4G/5G)

The final test was:

• Power up the previous NVR (7616NI-M2)
• Connect it to the network using the same connection
• Bind it back to the same Hik-Connect account
• Connect a wire pair to alarm 1 and ground with a 'Notify Surveillance Center' action configured

Notifications from the test above were all sub 4 seconds from trigger to receipt of push notification, regardless of whether the handset was on or off the local network.

 

[johnfitzy]

^^^^
man, it looks like you covered all the bases there!

 

[JB1970]

^^^^
man, it looks like you covered all the bases there!

Yeah I like to be thorough...I even tried Wireshark to see what communication might be visible from the NVR but no joy there (beyond my skillset)

 

[JB1970]

Support have asked me to update the app (Hik-Connect 6.10.820.20250916.3 released 2 hours ago) but still no better. I was hoping it was a Hik-Connect app issue and not NVR firmware as that invariably takes an age to get fixed.