RichardK

Hikvision has API documentation, there's no need to do packet captures to find the commands. I posted a link a few months back. https://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=36502 Oops, looks like they moved it, here's the current location: http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/portal/index.php?dir=Integration%20and%20Development%20Materials/00%20%20%20CGI/&file=HIKVISION%20CGI%20IPMD%20V1.5.9.pdf

Hikvision has a useful document here (sorry, the board won't let me use a URL tag): http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/portal/index.php?dir=Technical%20Materials/00%20%20%20Software%20%26%20Development%20Tools/00%20%20%20Development%20Tools/00%20%20%20CGI/&file=HIKVISION%20CGI%20IPMD%20V1.5.9.pdf Simple example of how to use it: Retrieve shutter speed from camera. I use cURL to request the URL and the camera returns an XML block: curl http://admin:12345@192.168.1.20/Image/channels/1/Shutter Camera returns: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <Shutter version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.hikvision.com/ver10/XMLSchema"> <ShutterLevel>1/12</ShutterLevel> </Shutter> To change the shutter speed from 1/12 to 1/30 I change the value and upload the text back to the camera. You could easily script this but for simplicity I just saved the previous text into a file called "shutter.xml". I edit the file to change 1/12 to 1/30 and upload the file (again using cURL). The camera changes the setting and responds with an OK status. curl -T shutter.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.1.20/Image/channels/1/Shutter Camera returns: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <ResponseStatus version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.hikvision.com/ver10/XMLSchema"> <requestURL>/Image/channels/1/Shutter</requestURL> <statusCode>1</statusCode> <statusString>OK</statusString> </ResponseStatus> This will work on a Mac or on Linux. I believe there is a version of cURL for Windows, or you could use any other tool that allows you to do gets and puts to a web server. And of course you could script this to occur at various times of the day, for example with cron on Linux. It appears that most / all camera settings are accessible through this method.

I made an attempt to get updated firmware from Q-See. It took three weeks of clueless first level support people repeatedly sending me the link to their old firmware before someone stepped in, decided there really was a problem and got me a new version (build date of May 2013). The firmware they provided was http://www.q-see.com/files/firmware/QC-IPCAM-FW-20130517_CoruptFileFix.zip - it's still there. The actual firmware is General_IPC-HX3(2)XXX_Eng_NP_V2.210.0001.0.R.20130517.bin. Unfortunately the file they provided would not install on my cameras, it uploaded successfully but produced an error on install. I'm giving up and returning the cameras. The Swann / Hikvision bullet cameras have better image quality anyway. And running with the same settings as the Q-Sees were using (1280x720, 20 fps, 4096 Kbps) I see no corrupt frames in Zoneminder, while I was getting dozens every day with the Q-Sees. BTW, RTSP camera feeds that use ffmpeg decoding in Zoneminder often benefit from adding ?tcp to the source URL - to tell ffmpeg to use tcp instead of udp. Otherwise you may get corrupted frames even if the camera is working fine.

I have a pair of QCN7001B cameras that have the same issue. There is a thread on the Zoneminder forum that indicates that there may be a firmware fix (for the Dahua branded version). I'm about to contact Q-See support to see when it will be available for the QCN7001B. http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=21055