buellwinkle

This industry goes through improvements on a regular basis. I have Axis cameras that are 3-4 years old and newer Dahua's are way better, so it depend on age, they may see a big improvement. It would be an interesting concept that a government operation would support local manufacturers.

Axis, now Canon, announces products with availability several months out. Then they release it in certain Euro markets. It could be 2-3 months before a camera they say is currently available until it ends up at U.S. distributors. Frustrating when you need a camera now knowing that the next big thing is just around the corner. Like computer processors, monitors, TV's, anything tech.

Download and try the Dahua software, you may or may not like it and have nothing to lose. Since you are using Milestone for access to the cameras, getting Dahua cameras is fairly safe, there's no direct access to the cameras. Just be careful and set passwords for admin, 888888 and 666666 accounts as the defaults are pretty easy to figure out that the password for 888888 is 888888.

Come to the show, I can get you free passes if you are in the industry and the correct answer is yes to that question Frankly, I'm still waiting on stuff demo'ed from last April, LOL.

He deleted his account here.

I agree with Don, this was a crazy idea and they nixed it, so the new cameras I've gotten from them do not have this and if they did, I would dump them on Amazon too, LOL. You should get official U.S. Dahua cameras, better support, not much more money. You know who has a crazy idea too, Hikvision, the new ds-2cd2032f-i are coming this way. I just hope they still offer the ds-2cd2032-i as I could care less about sd card slot, but care about that insane appendage to the cable. Actually a good time to consider Dahua for their bullets without this

Exactly, so by exposing all their vulnerabilities, how hacking is done, I hope Hikvision will read this and shutdown back doors. For one start by encrypting the firmware files, it's obvious they are clear text files of what's in the /dav directory, why, so someone can hack your camera by providing you firmware with back doors? So it's in everybody's best interest here if these back doors are closed. The next thing is MTD flash, why is it open for anyone to read/write to? I showed how easy it is to do. They should lock this down and encrypt all the MTD files. Next is telnet access. What camera company provides Telnet access to it's cameras. Yes, Axis did a long time ago and that was all over the news as people where hacking in to the cameras. They should lock this down to technology partners, not end users. Lastly is ports, why so many ports show when I do a port scan? Are these back doors too. Should Hikvision limit what ports are open, only the ones exposed through the interface. Hikvision is the largest camera company, why cant' they hire engineers that know what they are doing and lock up all these loopholes.

Says someone that saved $20 on a camera so he can pay someone else $20 to make it English, but CBX is very selective as to who he helps. I sent a few people to him for this, and some he said no to, so is that fair? Certainly not sending anyone else to him. Help me help you do the full permanent region code fix for 5.2.5. I can post how I did it for 5.2.3 and before. Same end game as CBX, but I do it differently using ordinary tools. It's not that hard. I feel what's missing is the CRC stuff in MTD flash for 5.2.5 otherwise it looks the same. So if there's people that want to help, I will share how the permanent region code fix is done. No whiners or complainers, just technical folks.

OK, for those that are ready, want to try it out. This only changes the languages you can chose and the menus, does not yet change the day of week display from Chinese, so you may want to turn that off so it only displays date and time. I've created it with all languages, but you can chose which default language you want. English, Russian and Spanish. This is the way it works. - First create a directory on the root of your C drive, for example c:\camstuff. Then right click, select Share With and Specific people. Add everyone. - Then go to http://networkcameracritic.com/langu...-IEfile.tar.gz and save it to the directory you created above. Substitute EN with RU or ES for Russian and Spanish. - Then login into the camera and turn telnet on. If it's all in Chinese, after you log in, go to Configuration which is the right most tab on the top menu. Then select the 3rd menu item on the left, that's Advanced Configuration, then select the 5th menu item, that's Security, last tab on right and check the box that says telnet and ssh if you want. - Then you telnet into the camera (I use the free PUTTY program), mount the share with a mount command with the IP address of your PC, the share name and username/password, issue df to make sure it's mounted, copy the file to /da/IEfile.tar.gz and reboot. After it comes back up, the all Chinese menus may still be there, this is browser cache, try refreshing the screen by doing a CTRL-F5 1. mount -t cifs //192.168.1.50/stuff /mnt/nfs07 -o username=you,password=yourpw 2. df 3. cp /mnt/nfs07/EN-IEfile.tar.gz /dav/IEfile.tar.gz 4. reboot

Is this a newer camera that said 5.2.5 on the box and you tried to put older firmware on it?

Mine started working when I turned the Windows Firewall off. Nothing to lose to try it.

Sorry, they looked the same to me. What do you mean the correct translation vs. the standard? It would be technically easy to change any translation. If anyone has a language correction, I can easily incorporate it. When I have time, I will create a Pirate language choice or maybe Klingon. And yes, baby steps, got the international menus, next step is day of week. Bulgaria was not built in a day. Besides, this is open for all to enjoy in return I invite all those who can & are willing, including you, to help contribute their skills to the cause. The goal is to just have a simple and free Windows program, you enter the camera ip address and voila, the camera is now less Chinese.

Thanks for the smiley, I needed that. This was formerly a Chinese 5.2.5 camera, now Russian just for my comrade

I believe Hikvision started preventing back leveling firmware with 5.2.0. Try it with 5.2.0 from the USA or Euro site and see if TFTP works for you that way. If so, then the issue is that going from 5.2 to 5.1 is not allowed. You can also connect to the camera's UART port which would be the console, then you would have access to the bootloader. There's details on that if you search this forum.

Don't know anything about DVRs.

I have the 5.2.5 firmware, PM me and I'll send you a link. Don't want to publish the link here because my dropbox may get flooded and they will block my account.

Just install PSS for Mac. There's different versions here on Dahua's website - http://www.dahuasecurity.com/download_9.html

You have to get partnership agreements and axis certifications to get the lower prices wholesale. Also, different distributors charge different prices. Can't say for sure, but my guess is that some online stores may be getting Axis from other markets with lower prices, like gray market cameras from Asian markets. Because showing discounted prices online is against their partnership agreement, without that agreement, they would not be able to have competitive pricing. Milestone is actually very upfront and controls their pricing very well where the more you sell per year, the bigger the discount.

Didn't see they had 5MP in the 300-400 range, only in the $200 range. What's weird about their low end is my Bosch distributor can't get them for some reason. Don't know if it's like when Flir bought Lorex to build out their low end. So they have Flir cameras for $200 but just rebranded Lorex. My guess is it won't be anywhere like the Starlight 5MP. If nobody can provide first hand info, I'll get some at the upcoming ISC West show in April.

If this is inside a garage, how are you providing light for the camera or is this model with IR LEDs in it?

Awesome. Did you just load it with TFTP and it started working?

Hikvision USA does not allow resellers. If you try and resell their product you'll get a call and be asked to stop. So to say a reseller is not authorized, that's true, none are. If you are an installer or have a store selling cameras, would you want to sell something you have to support and warranty yourself or sell Axis where they handle support and service? I can't image a reseller wants to sell Dahua or Hikvision and absorb that risk, they do so because the market demands it. But that really has nothing to do with the discussion. The fact remains you can get decent quality cameras from China for a fraction of the price of establish European manufacturers like Axis, Bosch, Mobotix that's competitive and that's disrupting the market for the high end. I talk to distributors that say they want to only sell $1,000+ Axis. Mobotix or Bosch cameras, but most of their sales have gone downstream. What I see happening is not so much the European manufacturers that have establish brand loyalty as there are people willing to pay for quality, otherwise Mercedes, Audi and BMW would be broke. I see the China market affecting the Taiwan market even more because these have been traditional lower cost alternatives to European brands and now there's an even lower cost alternative.

Of course these cameras have back doors and to think Axis does not is naïve. Heck, one of the first news I've seen on cameras being easily compromised was with Axis, about 5 years back, one reason we decided on Mobotix at the time. But Axis as well as others are feeling the pain of China. Not going to argue which camera is better, but many consider Dahua & Hikvision "good enough" and comparing cameras that cost 1/4th of what the comparable Axis product costs has to be impacting them. They are smart to have cashed out. Also consider that most Axis cameras are made in Asia or hecho in Mexico anyway. Just look at what staple of the business costs, a varifocal motorized lens, full featured 1080P or 3MP vandal dome. From Axis like their P3365-VE runs about a $1,000 to the new Dahua's for $200. Sure, Axis will give you great support, but hard to ignore the numbers.

That would be one big ferrite core. It's almost as long the camera itself. If it's like what Dahua tried and failed at was moving the PoE circuit outside the camera and maybe they did this to make room for the SD card slot. And yes, putting that extra piece in a j-box or fitting it through a hole with tight bend is going to be problematic. Since I rarely use SD cards on cameras, I would hope they keep making the ds-2cd2032-i. So I don't see this as a big improvement as much as I see it as an epic fail, like "New Coke" scale, LOL. This is great news for Dahua that made that mistake, learned from it and now they can watch their neighbor in Hangzhou do the same.

Yes, don't try and back level older firmware like 5.2.3 on the newer cameras, you will brick it. I think you asked me for the firmware on a different forum and sent it to you to try.