Hikvision DS-7616NI-E2/8P , what are the "gotchas" ?

[l.a.rossmann]

So I was asked by someone to hook this up for them and I am curious what the "gotchas" will be. Everytime I set up a cheap chinese system there are "gotchas" like

• oh it says 3 mp/1080p playback but it can only show the substream in liveview even when you set it to fullscreen view ONE CAMERA
• oh it says it can do 3 megapixel on eight cameras but it can only do that on two... lower bitrate to 1 mbps and 720p and they will all work
• oh it says 100 mbps total incoming bandwidth but if you attach 4 mbps cameras it will show up that it is using 7 mbps of bandwidth
• oh it says 1080p/8 channels but if you try to play back more than 2 cameras at once it will only work if the cameras are set to D1 resolution

If someone has seven hikvision 3 MP cameras at 15 FPS, and wants me to hook them up to a DS-7616NI-E2/8P, will this just work, or will it be a nightmare of "well this won't do something most with common sense would expect it to do but it clearly states that in fine print on page 300 of the manual that it can't" kinda thing...

Just curious what people with practical real world experience using this have to say before I say yes to something I will regret.

I searched the forum and found a lot of talk, mostly related to troubleshooting IP/network issues, that I didn't think were relevant to this specific question.

Thank you!

 

[Del Boy]

It's Hikvision so while it will work and is reliable, the firmware is buggy as anything and they don't seem to test it before release. Easy solution, get system setup and then don't do anything stupid like trying to fix it when it's not broken.

Quickest way to learn is just plug it all up and see.

 

[klasipca]

I can give you one... I expected this to work smoothly up to 5MP resolution which technically it does, but not at the highest bitrate and fps. The system chokes running 5MP 12k bitrate 30 fps. It still works, but it's a choppy stream. Also, while they didn't really advertise this, but it does not support h265 format, so not really future proof. I am looking to upgrade to 4k NVR for these two reasons alone.

 

[l.a.rossmann]

I can give you one... I expected this to work smoothly up to 5MP resolution which technically it does, but not at the highest bitrate and fps. The system chokes running 5MP 12k bitrate 30 fps. It still works, but it's a choppy stream. Also, while they didn't really advertise this, but it does not support h265 format, so not really future proof. I am looking to upgrade to 4k NVR for these two reasons alone.

Oh I expect 5 megapixel out of this like I expect English tech support If it can do 7 cameras at 3 MP, 4096 kbps, 15 FPS I will jump for joy.

and I would never dare update the firmware on these... ever. Half of these being sold outright state they are grey market and that you cannot update the firmware. I'm CONFIDENT that these guys asking me to set this up didn't buy it from Amazon.. the first result on Google... when you find this NVR.

Thank you very much for the advice and experiences!

 

[Del Boy]

It will do 3MP, 4096kbps and 15fps no problems even with the older firmware. If not then update it to v3.3.4

 

[l.a.rossmann]

I can give you one... I expected this to work smoothly up to 5MP resolution which technically it does, but not at the highest bitrate and fps. The system chokes running 5MP 12k bitrate 30 fps. It still works, but it's a choppy stream. Also, while they didn't really advertise this, but it does not support h265 format, so not really future proof. I am looking to upgrade to 4k NVR for these two reasons alone.

Out of curiosity, how many cameras were you trying to run 5 MP 12k bitrate 30 FPS with? I might be greedy and go for 3 MP 20 FPS 8192 kbps.

I got to try one of the 16 channel 7700 versions the other day and was incredibly disappointed. It was limited to 100 mbps total.. so that brings bitrate of about 6200 kbps. When I set the bitrate of the camerasa to 6200 it assumed each cam was taking 9000 kbps so I had to set them to 4700 kbps for 16 cameras. 4700 kbps makes 3 MP kinda useless.

I hope they come out with something a step above, it's kinda wasteful getting a 32 channel NVR just to get acceptable bandwidth for a 16 channel system.

 

[klasipca]

I only have one 5MP cam for now, other cams are 2/3MP, total of 8 cams.

 

[hiky]

So I was asked by someone to hook this up for them and I am curious what the "gotchas" will be. Everytime I set up a cheap chinese system there are "gotchas" like

• oh it says 3 mp/1080p playback but it can only show the substream in liveview even when you set it to fullscreen view ONE CAMERA
• oh it says it can do 3 megapixel on eight cameras but it can only do that on two... lower bitrate to 1 mbps and 720p and they will all work
• oh it says 100 mbps total incoming bandwidth but if you attach 4 mbps cameras it will show up that it is using 7 mbps of bandwidth
• oh it says 1080p/8 channels but if you try to play back more than 2 cameras at once it will only work if the cameras are set to D1 resolution

If someone has seven hikvision 3 MP cameras at 15 FPS, and wants me to hook them up to a DS-7616NI-E2/8P, will this just work, or will it be a nightmare of "well this won't do something most with common sense would expect it to do but it clearly states that in fine print on page 300 of the manual that it can't" kinda thing...

Just curious what people with practical real world experience using this have to say before I say yes to something I will regret.

I searched the forum and found a lot of talk, mostly related to troubleshooting IP/network issues, that I didn't think were relevant to this specific question.

Thank you!

Really good set of questions L.a.rossman, i would add another bullet point

• oh it says can be controlled via additional infra red remote control, in the manual and every tech spec i have read but in fact in reality it has no infra red

Perhaps not so important for some but if Hikvision and there re sellers are selling at price points obtainable for home owners, then homeowners are used too and expect the very minimum control to be infra red remote at the NVR, having to use a mouse for non tech people is a massive drawback, which then brings into question the NVR software which is quite honestly worse than a VCR from 1999

The Chinese really need to take a Sky box back to China and learn from that, much as they have done in the past with other technologies

and just to clarify i am referencing a DS-7604NI-E1 which i recently installed for a capable but elderly lady but who became disapointed that she could NOT review her footage from her arm chair, just like her Tv, Sky box, DVD, stereo system

 

[Deali]

I hope this will not get you:
--------------------------------

Dear Customer,


Thanks for purchasing HIKVISION products and for your feedback but before to provide you with an answer could you please be so kind and provide following information?

So that we can deliver your email to the technical support in charge of your country and reply you as soon as possible.

Type (End user, Installer, Operator)	Buy from (web, company, country)	Lives in (which country)

Model and firmware you are referring to:


Hope to have informed you correctly.