Which NVR to replace LaView LV-N9916C6E 16 cams?

B

blocksog

Getting the hang of it
Jul 4, 2024
79
25
Northeast
I have the Laview LV-N9916C6E and currently 14 cameras on it. I inherited it from the previous homeowner. The system is a piece of unimaginable crap. Just entering the admin password is a challenge because keys seem to stick. At this moment I cannot even play back the videos either from the phone or from the system itself. It has gotten worse in the last 3 years without me changing anything or upgrading anything. I have a potential firmware upgrade file that I found in this forum, but still have not managed to upgrade it from the web interface, that is the kind of crap this system is.

So, I wanted an opinion from others here. The cameras are all from Laview (two of them have broken for no reason), and they use their own Laview format to interface with the NVR. Maybe they can output onvif too, but I don't know.

Is there a way to upgrade just the NVR and leave the POE cameras in place for use with a new, better NVR?

Which NVR would you advice to have some sort of future proofing? I would love to have features like searching for motion in a specific region of a feed during playback (like find which dog pooped in a point of my frontyard). But the basic aim is to have a smooth experience to review videos frm the phone or remotely from a browser/app. I have also a Synology NAS at home with a couple of cameras, and at least that experience is much smoother compared to the Laview NVR. Having an easy experience, switching playback speed, instantly, etc., switching easily or automatically between quality feeds of a camera, these are things I think would be good.

Many thanks for your advise.

My current Laview info:
1720116775260.png
 
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If your Synology NAS is like Blue Iris VMS you should be able to stream RTSP via the NVR itself and allow the NVR to continue powering the cams and isolating them from the Internet.

Laview is usually OEM'd by Hikvision so if your NAS can accept them try the following URL's. Be sure to place 2 "/" after "rtsp:" as forum software won't allow 2 to be displayed consecutively. Insure your syntax, spelling punctuation is flawless:

Get the main stream of the 1st channel:

Code: 
rtsp:/NVR username:NVR password@NVR LAN IP:554/Streaming/channels/101

Get the main stream of the 5th channel:

Code: 
rtsp:/NVR username:NVR password@NVR LAN IP:554/Streaming/channels/501
 
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blocksog said:
I have the Laview LV-N9916C6E and currently 14 cameras on it. I inherited it from the previous homeowner. The system is a piece of unimaginable crap. Just entering the admin password is a challenge because keys seem to stick. At this moment I cannot even play back the videos either from the phone or from the system itself. It has gotten worse in the last 3 years without me changing anything or upgrading anything. I have a potential firmware upgrade file that I found in this forum, but still have not managed to upgrade it from the web interface, that is the kind of crap this system is.

So, I wanted an opinion from others here. The cameras are all from Laview (two of them have broken for no reason), and they use their own Laview format to interface with the NVR. Maybe they can output onvif too, but I don't know.

Is there a way to upgrade just the NVR and leave the POE cameras in place for use with a new, better NVR?

Which NVR would you advice to have some sort of future proofing? I would love to have features like searching for motion in a specific region of a feed during playback (like find which dog pooped in a point of my frontyard). But the basic aim is to have a smooth experience to review videos frm the phone or remotely from a browser/app. I have also a Synology NAS at home with a couple of cameras, and at least that experience is much smoother compared to the Laview NVR. Having an easy experience, switching playback speed, instantly, etc., switching easily or automatically between quality feeds of a camera, these are things I think would be good.

Many thanks for your advise.

My current Laview info:
View attachment 197783
Click to expand...

Welcome @blocksog

As Tony mentioned LaView sold a lot of Hikvision oem systems and cameras.

I would have to check the item number to be 100% certain.

Iirc most of the cameras they sold are able to produce an rtsp feed that meets specs well enough so you can use 3rd party recording systems.

NVR .. if you want to just replace the nvr look for a hikvision nvr that has plenty of compute power to handle that many cameras with at least 8mp resolution.

Can also try blue iris on a PC, or the hikvision vms on a PC.

Most members prefer other solutions than synology as that gets pricey quickly once you add more cameras.
 
Thank you for your replies. To be clear, I am not interested to load my NAS with 16 camera feeds. Wouldn't want even to have that much data flowing through my router or home network. I like that the NVR has its own network and all data stay within that without flowing on the home network.

So back to my question. More specifically which recent Hikvision NVR is a good shot for using existing Laview cameras?
 
blocksog said:
Thank you for your replies. To be clear, I am not interested to load my NAS with 16 camera feeds. Wouldn't want even to have that much data flowing through my router or home network. I like that the NVR has its own network and all data stay within that without flowing on the home network.

So back to my question. More specifically which recent Hikvision NVR is a good shot for using existing Laview cameras?
Click to expand...

I do not know the current hikvision line up.

Seems like the current nvr you have was a beefer one .. 16 ports, and up to 4 hdds.

Probably a good time to double check your current nvr for issues. First I would check the hdds health. Then check for load issues. Also check if there is too much dust build up in the unit.
 
Last edited:
Just an update.

I formatted the two hard drives and the playback problem was resolved. I could finally play back videos. But the system GUI remains very problematic, I cannot even enter the password because the interface flickers and button presses seem to stick. I reset to defaults and nothing was resolved, same as before. I even tried to upgrade the firmware without success. I tried playing around with the video output preferences and kept HDMI+VGA or VGA Only (my display is connected with VGA) at high or low resolution (1280x720) and this did nod not make a difference. Finally, I reset all camera schedules to record only on motion because some of the cameras I had them set to continuous recording which could strain the system for resources; this did not change anything, too.
 
blocksog said:
Which NVR would you advice to have some sort of future proofing? I would love to have features like searching for motion in a specific region of a feed during playback (like find which dog pooped in a point of my frontyard). But the basic aim is to have a smooth experience to review videos frm the phone or remotely from a browser/app. I have also a Synology NAS at home with a couple of cameras, and at least that experience is much smoother compared to the Laview NVR. Having an easy experience, switching playback speed, instantly, etc., switching easily or automatically between quality feeds of a camera, these are things I think would be good.
Click to expand...
Hikvision NVRs I think are better than most, but as far as viewing pre recorded footage, you have to do it at the NVR or logging into the NVR's webpage or else it will be slow, clunky, and difficult to search video. There is about a two second delay from cellular networks to/from the rest of the internet so keep this in mind.
 
blocksog said:
Just an update.

I formatted the two hard drives and the playback problem was resolved. I could finally play back videos. But the system GUI remains very problematic, I cannot even enter the password because the interface flickers and button presses seem to stick. I reset to defaults and nothing was resolved, same as before. I even tried to upgrade the firmware without success. I tried playing around with the video output preferences and kept HDMI+VGA or VGA Only (my display is connected with VGA) at high or low resolution (1280x720) and this did nod not make a difference. Finally, I reset all camera schedules to record only on motion because some of the cameras I had them set to continuous recording which could strain the system for resources; this did not change anything, too.
Click to expand...

VGA flickering .. is this a new problem?

For now also check :
check VGA Cables connections.
Check VGA cable.
Check monitor.
 
blocksog said:
Just an update.

I formatted the two hard drives and the playback problem was resolved. I could finally play back videos. But the system GUI remains very problematic, I cannot even enter the password because the interface flickers and button presses seem to stick. I reset to defaults and nothing was resolved, same as before. I even tried to upgrade the firmware without success. I tried playing around with the video output preferences and kept HDMI+VGA or VGA Only (my display is connected with VGA) at high or low resolution (1280x720) and this did nod not make a difference. Finally, I reset all camera schedules to record only on motion because some of the cameras I had them set to continuous recording which could strain the system for resources; this did not change anything, too.
Click to expand...

I also have a La View NVR, though a different model. Your post is interesting because I am also looking to replace it, specifically because the GUI interface seems to be self destructing all of a sudden. First, the circles that would appear on the login screen to draw a shape to log in disappeared, so I had to approximate their location. Then I switched to a typed password, and now the GUI acts completely possessed. As soon as I mouse over the password field it instantly fills itself in with a bunch of asterisks. I thought it was a sticky keyboard key, but it does this with no keyboard hooked up. Takes a lot of tries to get logged in while it counts down the number of tries available. Once logged in the menus just flicker and disappear when I try to use anything. Drives are fine and record/playback works well, it's only the GUI that's failing. Weird.
 
Ok guys. Thanks for the help. I am back in game trying to resolve this problem. Been reading for a few days and still torn between two options:

1. Go the Blue Iris way, buy an adequate PC, pair it with a PoE switch, and deal with (perhaps) endless configurations. This choice is good because it gives me freedom with upgrading cameras in the future. It will not matter much that the cameras are LaView. I also need AI or at least some simple search function if I want to know whose dog crapped on my lawn.
2. Buy an NVR. I am looking the EmpireTech options, I think $500 is an acceptable if the device is future proof, including AI, easy use etc. Not liking the Hikvision much because the GUI is very similar to the LaView crap that doesn't work. Yet, I don't know if my LaView cameras will work with EmpireTech NVR, or if I can switch cameras to use Onvif protocol.

Can someone help me here. I am somewhat tech savvy and can navigate LAN networking, but I still don't want to spend lots of energy remembering Blue Iris options. For example, I can spend few days to set up the NVR but don't like systems that are not intuitive, or need many steps to do a simple task

Any suggestion please?
 
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blocksog said:
Ok guys. Thanks for the help. I am back in game trying to resolve this problem. Been reading for a few days and still torn between two options:

1. Go the Blue Iris way, buy an adequate PC, pair it with a PoE switch, and deal with (perhaps) endless configurations. This choice is good because it gives me freedom with upgrading cameras in the future. It will not matter much that the cameras are LaView. I also need AI or at least some simple search function if I want to know whose dog crapped on my lawn.
2. Buy an NVR. I am looking the EmpireTech options, I think $500 is an acceptable if the device is future proof, including AI, easy use etc. Not liking the Hikvision much because the GUI is very similar to the LaView crap that doesn't work. Yet, I don't know if my LaView cameras will work with EmpireTech NVR, or if I can switch cameras to use Onvif protocol.

Can someone help me here. I am somewhat tech savvy and can navigate LAN networking, but I still don't want to spend lots of energy remembering Blue Iris options. For example, I can spend few days to set up the NVR but don't like systems that are not intuitive, or need many steps to do a simple task

Any suggestion please?
Click to expand...

LaView had a lot of Hikvision OEM kits, and in general you want to have the cameras OEM match the OEM of the NVR.

In your case, If you were not that happy with the Hikvision UI .. then I would go with Blue Iris solution
 
I looked at one of my LaView cameras and seems to have ONVIF output listed in specs. Doesn't this make the camera universal for any NVR?

LV-PD51208C
www.newegg.com

LaView LV-PD51208C 2.1MP Mini Network Dome Camera - Newegg.com

Buy LaView LV-PD51208C 1920 x 1080 MAX Resolution RJ45 2.1MP Mini Network Dome Camera with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com

Will EmpireTech be out of the question with these cameras? E.g. this one New Arrivals NVR16CH-16P-2AI 16 Channels 1U 16PoE 2HDD Network Video Recorder - IP Cam Talk Store

Thanks again. Your free advice is a godsend in this complicated world of NVRs. Nothing seems to be clear, durable, or established. Every company does whatever they want, custom firmware, backdoors, no support, then disappear, and so on. I am afraid to pick any brand coz they all seem like chinese jokes :)
 
ONVIF simply means the video feed should come thru, but any advanced features may or may not work.

That is why it is best to match brand of cameras with NVR to ensure full compatibility.
 
By the way, the hardware of my NVR seems quite decent, it has 4 SATA ports, PoE for 16 cameras, and so on. Feels such a waste to throw it out just because LaView firmware is bad. I can't find a way to put a hikvision firmware in it though.
 
Generally the firmware of the various OEMs by a manufacturer is quite similar, so if you don't like LaView you won't like hikvision.
 
MaryMorton said:
I also have a La View NVR, though a different model. Your post is interesting because I am also looking to replace it, specifically because the GUI interface seems to be self destructing all of a sudden. First, the circles that would appear on the login screen to draw a shape to log in disappeared, so I had to approximate their location. Then I switched to a typed password, and now the GUI acts completely possessed. As soon as I mouse over the password field it instantly fills itself in with a bunch of asterisks. I thought it was a sticky keyboard key, but it does this with no keyboard hooked up. Takes a lot of tries to get logged in while it counts down the number of tries available. Once logged in the menus just flicker and disappear when I try to use anything. Drives are fine and record/playback works well, it's only the GUI that's failing. Weird.
Click to expand...
@MaryMorton , I have the same exact problem. Half hour ago had to just unplug it to restart. Brutal, I know. The GUI came back but still the login view flickers around and keys stick. I don't know if I am not remembering the password or it is taking a different character.
 
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