The upgrading of the HIK 7608NI-SEP NVR from version 2.3.7 build 140609 to version 2.3.8 and 2.3.9 through the NVR interface or through a USB stick connected to the NVR or through the NVR web interface fails with error message " Upgrading failed, no enough flash memory".
I have managed to upgrade my NVR from firmware 2.3.7 build 140609 (from the european portal) to version 2.3.8 build 140513 beta from the USA ftp site using the
TFTP utility. Then I upgraded successfully to version 2.3.9 build 140704 beta through the NVR interface.
The most important changes are:
1. Both versions 2.3.8 (USA version) and 2.3.9 beta (USA version) have added full control of the camera settings for the image quality (exposure, WDR, BLC, Noise reduction, etc) from the NVR interface and from the NVR web interface.
2. Only the motion, video loss, tampering events are supported from the NVR web interface. All other fancy (but some usefull) events like travesing Virtual plane, face, region, intrusion detection events are not managed through the NVR or NVR web interface.
3. Version 2.3.9 beta has added the virtual host function which allows the control of the camera from the camera web interface directly. Essentially what HIK has done is to port forward internally to the NVR a port from the LAN IP to the cameras switch IP which is a different IP segment than the LAN IP interface. Therefore if you have assigned to the NVR LAN port the IP 192.168.1.X, the internal NIC IP for the cameras switch is 192.168.254.Y then each camera takes an IP in the form 192.168.254.Y+1. The NVR assigns internally the ports 65001 and onwards to the cameras IPs. So the camera IP is accesible with the following two ways:
1. You connect with a small patch cable from the camera switch of the NVR to the switch which is connected to the NVR LAN port. The camera web interface is accesible through the browser with the IP 192.168.254.Y+1 assuming that the computer connected to the LAN swith also has an IP 192.168.254.Z. However this method has the folowing limitations
1a. You loose a valuable camera PoE port at the integrated switch on the NVR
1b. You must have a computer with a dedicated LAN IP to the same network of the PoE cameras IP.
1c. All the packets from the camera to the internal PoE switch of the NVR are also presented to the main LAN switch, thus burdening the LAN switch of the main network with constant IP packets. This is the worse solution.
2. You access the camera web interface with the address 192.168.1.X:65001 (or 65002 for the second camera and so on). The NVR forwards all packets received in the NVR LAN port for port 65001 to the internal IP 192.1.254.Y+1 through the NVR internal IP 192.1.254.Y. This is the same functionality with all ADSL routers. This is the best way. The high traffic of the cameras is isolated from the LAN switch and the user access the camera interface through the internal NVR routing.
I can confirm that the Virtual Host is working perfectly and I believe it is the best improvement HIK has done in the latest firmware.
Additionaly the webcomponents pluging that the NVR web interface requests to download and install is different from the webcomponents plugin of the camera interface.
Specifically:
1. the camera firmware 5.1.6 build 140612 contains the webcomponents version 3.0.5.10 with neutral language indentifier and is named WebComponents and installs in the Program Files(x86)\Web Components directory
2. The NVR firmware 2.3.7 Build 140609 (European) contains the webcomponents 3.0.4.6 with chinese language identifier and is also named WebComponents and installs in the Program Files(x86)\Web Components directory
The webcomponents of the above are compatible to each other and you can access both the camera and the NVR interface.
3. The NVR firmware 2.3.8 Build 140513 (from US site) contains the webcomponents 3.0.4.51 with chinese language identifier and is also named WebComponents and installs in the Program Files(x86)\Web Components directory.
The webcomponent of 2.3.8 is
NOT compatible with the 5.1.6 firmware and you can
NOT access both the camera and the NVR web interfaces. The last installed webcomponent overwrites the existing one and prevails. (Bad chinese programming!!!)
4. The NVR firmware 2.3.9 Build 140704 (from US site) contains the webcomponents 3.0.4.51 with chinese language identifier
BUT it is named USSCWebComponents and installs in the Program Files(x86)\USSC Web Components directory. In this way the webcomponents of the camera and the NVR are not mixed, the camera has its own webcomponents and the NVR its own different webcomponents. Therefore you can now access the web interfaces of both the camera and the NVR from one computer of the main LAN. (Whorrayyyyyy).
CONCLUSION: The latest successful and fully functional combination of camera and NVR firmwares are the camera firmware 5.1.6 build 140612 and the NVR firmware 2.3.9 build 140704 both from the US FTP site.
I apologise for the long post but I believe the above will save a lot of frustation to other users who would like to combine successfully and functional the HIK Vision NVRs with the HIK Vision cameras. It is obvious that the HIK software development cycle does not follow any quality control procedures and therefore I would not consider their software (firmware) to be of serious commercial value.
Lastly I would like to thank all other forum users (in this and other forums as well) who helped me with their comments and observations to come to the above observations and conclusions.
PS. I wonder what web components the camera firmware 5.2.0 contains and if they are compatible with the NVR firmwares 2.3.8 or 2.3.9.
