jweaver

I have just built a CCTV system using Sony CMOS TVI cameras and a Hikvision DS-7208HQHI and am really happy. I am quite familiar with these Sony CMOS cameras as I fly Quadcopters and Planes "FPV" and am used to "configuring" the cameras settings using a little joystick to set things like WDR and White Balance. I was somewhat disappointed that my cameras did not have these controls, and whilst I am generally happy with the picture, would like to tweak them, specifically to change the exposure and enable WDR... And to be honest, I regretted not buying cameras with these controls. So today I received my last camera (a Discrete PIR) and was relieved to see the familiar menus/settings in the instructions, but there was no joystick.. But then I read the manual and it said "OSD menus accessed through UTC function of TVI DVR"... And the penny dropped. Perhaps the menus/settings I want ARE there, but they now be set remotely.. From the DVR. Is this really possible? And if so, where on the box do I go to get these settings? If I can change these settings of the cameras, I would be blown away, as my fear when starting this project was that I would be up the ladder in all weathers, tweaking the settings.. If I really can do it remotely, I am going to be chuffed! Can anyone help me? My fingers are crossed that you can point me in the right direction. Jon

I worked it out in the end.. Under PTZ the "IRIS-" button brings up the menu. But its not actually helped.. This worked for the cameras that I didn't even know had menus. The camera I bought which specifically said it had menus.. Specifiically said supported UTC.. Specifically says it supports the "coaxitron" protocal, doens't work. No matter what I do.. I can't bring the menus up.. This is odd as the instructions specifically say its possible and mentions the "coaxitron" protocal which I know is setup on my DVR... Any ideas where I go from here? I NEED to get into this camera, as its internal and switching to night vision far to early, so spends 99% of its time in B&W. Jon

Incase this helps someone, i wanted to update this with the solution. I spoke to Hikvision and they immediatly told me to disable NAT (UPnP). I did this and 16 hours later, i have not had a single restart. Its looking very likely this was the cause, bt of course it could be a co-incidence, I have now re-enabled it and hope the restarts will reoccur so i can be 100% sure this was the cause. So if anyone else has this issue and discovers this thread, diable UPnP (under Config -> Network -> NAT) and see if it helps. Jon

My new DS-7208HQHI ran for 24 hours with no isssues.. But today suddenly restarted.. When it rebooted it was OK for a few mins and restarted again.. Then after this, it ran for several hours until restarting again... I have looked at the logs and can see an "abnormal shutdown" at these times, but nothing else: ---------------------------- 1 2016-4-14 15:58:21 ---------------------------- Major Type: Operation Minor Type: Abnormal Shutdown Local User: N/A Host IP Address: N/A Parameter Type : N/A Camera No.: N/A ---------------------------- 2 2016-4-14 16:0:21 ---------------------------- Major Type: Operation Minor Type: Abnormal Shutdown Local User: N/A Host IP Address: N/A Parameter Type : N/A Camera No.: N/A ---------------------------- 3 2016-4-14 18:20:56 ---------------------------- Major Type: Operation Minor Type: Abnormal Shutdown Local User: N/A Host IP Address: N/A Parameter Type : N/A Camera No.: N/A Any ideas what could cause this? Nothing changed really other than adding my 3rd camera a few hours earlier.. Since then I have added 2 more and its was fine until it went again at 18:20. Jon

I have now had 7 shutdowns in the last 12 hours... There is no pattern, nor reason...... I guess i need to speak to Hikvision to see what they think

Just got my DS-7208 setup and have found an annoying limitation, so before i go any further, i want to check i have the latest firmware. The Hikvision FW page: http://overseas.hikvision.com/en/download_89_p2.html#prettyPhoto Lists 2 versions... 3.1.6 Build 150427 and 3.3.2 Build 151123 Clearly 3.3.2 is newer.. But both updates show the same changes/fixes/features. Anyone know which version i should use? And whether there is anything newer. Jon

Box rebooted today.. Oddly, as I was stood right in front of it... Then when it came back up, it crashed again 2 mins later.. So I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to 3.1.2 and it worked without any problems... I just downloaded it from here and did the upgrade procedure http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/portal/index.php?dir=Product%20Firmware/Recorder/DS-7100%207200%207300%208100%209100HGHI%20HQHI/V3.3.2%20build%20151123%20Multi-lingual/ Now I have to monitor the box to get an idea of why it crashed.. Its been stable since, but its going to take a while to restore my faith in it. Jon

You can only view this in the NVR interface..not the web interface.. Web interface? Does it have that? I didn't realise..(Wow.. Just checked and so it does.. I didn't know.. Cheers for that). I am talking about the NVR.. Right in front of the box with a mouse and monitor. I only see a blue line when recording continuously, but no events are shown on the timeline.

I have just setup my DS-7208HQHI and am really happy with it. My original plan was to create a 'mask' on each camera, and only record "intrusions" and when I do this, the playback timeline is fully of little red strips showing the events.. But for now, I like the continuous record feature and would like to record all the time for now to see how I go in terms of free space. Even though I am recording continuously, because I have marked out a 'mask', when I get an intrusion, I can see an "alarm" on the screen. Or I could achieve teh same using a VCA. When I go into the events list I can see the "event".. But on the playback screen, the entire timeline is blue and pretty much pointless Is there any way to show the 'events' on the timeline, even when the box is recording continuously.. It seems stupid that this isn't possible.. After all, the box knows there has been an event, so why not show it. It seems so obvious to me, that I fear (Hope) that I might have overlooked something.. Can I make the timeline show the events? Instead of the continuous blue line? Jon

Nope.. From Manchester.. But there is no guarantee they didnt get it from China.. But they are a reputible seller, so i would be surprised.. Will update the Firmware and see how it goes. Hopefully it "fixes" the issue i have, if not i will make a post as, its possible this is just a feature/option i am overlooking. Reputible seller would not send you a 2014 fw unit that why I asked. Before you do any FW what problems are you having. Europe units have a patch on over a 1.500 recall of the DS7208 And this patch must be done BEFORE a fw update Who said they sent me one with 2014 Firmware? Mine is 3.3.1.. Oct 2015. I would obviously like the latest FW, but are you suggesting i cant simply download 3.3.2 from their Overseas site and update? http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/portal/index.php?dir=Product%20Firmware/Recorder/DS-7100%207200%207300%208100%209100HGHI%20HQHI/V3.3.2%20build%20151123%20Multi-lingual/ I am almost sure my "issue" is not going to,be fixed in the update and will make another post with my question/observation.

Nope.. From Manchester.. But there is no guarantee they didnt get it from China.. But they are a reputible seller, so i would be surprised.. Will update the Firmware and see how it goes. Hopefully it "fixes" the issue i have, if not i will make a post as, its possible this is just a feature/option i am overlooking.

My CCTV project is growning,. Its gone from 6 to 7 camers and now 9 as i want to cover my garage too. I accepted that to do this, i would need 1xIP camera and consider several options. But in the end, i extended my LAN to my garage using homeplugs and will now get 2 x IP cameras to cover the inside and outside of the garage. Problem is, i know nothing about IP cameras and dont even know where to start.. Are all IP cameras compatible with the Hikvisions DVRs? I assume I am limited to 1080p, so no point in buying a 3-4 MP version... Is there anything i need to look for, or consider when choosing these IP cameras. jon

It has to be a Hikvision IP camera, it does not support third parties. No way? I didnt realise that. Glad i asked now, as i assumed ALL IP cameras were supported.. This has just upped my bidget as Hikvision IP cameras arnt cheap. Edit. Actually, they arnt as expensive as i thought.. The DS-2CD2035-I is about £60-£70

Well analogue in as mch as it uses coax, but its Hikvision and therefore TVI which is digital. is this what you ment by analogue?

I am in the process of installing a "analogue" CCTV system and have sourced some RG59 cable. When I bought it, I noticed that it said "0.81mm" inner core but thought nothing of it... Bu when it arrived I found that the centre pin was too fat for my BNCs. Looking at other cables, some is 0.56 (And I have even seen mention of 0.61 and 0.7). I tried to find the spec of RG59 to find out whats right and wrong, and some manufacturers say the core is AWG20 (0.81mm) and others AWG23 (0.56mm)... I am now wondering if this is the difference between RG59/U and RG59B/U? Problem now is that every supplier I have tried (in the UK) has BNCs that fit the smaller 0.56mm cable. I havn't found a single supplier of the ones I need. What should I do? Should I scrap the cable and buy some with the thinner core? Or is there another spec of BNC I could look at? Jon

I have managed to source BNCs for an AWG20 cable now.. But the disccussion has moved on.. Now we are talking about Copper Coated Steel and whether its appropreate for CCTV.

Experts in 50ohm not 75 were copper is best . You still have not said which format your cameras are Unlike you ham experts I have over 30 years and I would still look into cat5 First it's cheaper as you get 4 cameras down one cable plus a year or so you might want better once you have CCTV and cat5 runs all formats Sorry.. I should have said, its Hikvision and therefore TVI... First of all, I am not saying that copper is NOT best.. Of course it is, certainly better than CCA and CCS cables.. I am just saying that my 2 "expert" friends do not believe that this will be a problem for 7-15m runs (I have done some measurements and they are even shorter than I thought).. Their view is that at these sort of lenghts it won't matter.. I also do not doubt that CAT5 is better.. And in truth, I have more CAT5 than I know what to do with it (as I work in IP).. But the additional costs of baluns put me off. I just preferred COAX as it just feels stronger.. Since my DVR is in the airing cupboard, I just felt that it was easy to put strain on the cables and felt that a Coax and BNC felt better for my application.. But since all my cabling is in a loft space with 20mm holes into the eaves, I could so easily pull CAT5 through in a matter of minutes if I wanted too. So I am stuck with COAX now, even if I wanted to change, its too late as I can't get the CAT5 from work, and the cost of Baluns would be 2x the cost of COAX. With hindsight, I would have ordered some Baluns from China (Which cost £1 per pair (not sure if they are any good)) and would have done the whole thing in CAT5... But its too late for that now.. I am commited. Jon

After putting a call into my Radio Ham colleague in work, who I would argue knows more about Radio Principals that the vast majority of the planet and his view is that CCS is fine for this application, especially consideriong my 10-20m runs. So I am going to stick with what I have.. If it doens't work out, then I will gladly eat humble pie.. But I have it on good authority from 2 experts in their field that there is nothing wrong with the cable I have.

It depends on what CCTV format you are going ....... Use crap coax with tvi or cvi and you will have quality problems . City electrical factors have good coax But if you give your location CEF is a possibility.. I am Newport, South Wales and there is a CEF close buy.. But with no account and no access to their "discounts" its not going to be cheap. Interestingly I spoke to my friend today who designed and builds antenna for the military.. And his view is this talk of CCS, CCA and Pure Copper is non-sense for the frequencies involved, the application and the distances. At 400mhz, the wavelength is 37m.. So in my runs of 10-20m, the cable will effectively contain 1/3-1/2 of ONE wave, so essentially DC.. But.. I am not sure I want to take the risk, so am going to pop down to CEF to see what they can do. Which of these is "good" coax: http://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/1255371-security-rg59-and-2-core-power-cable-100m http://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/3895134-100m-rg59-shotgun-cable Jon Edit: They don't have stock of the Phelix.. And the Facina is £48 per drum..

I rang various suppliers today and also mailed a random selection of eBay sellers and everyone stocks CCS or CCA cable. I think i am just going to go with what i have.... At 10-20m i just cant see there will be a problem with CCS.

I get that.. But i think you missed my question. Can ANY IP camera connect to the 7208, or does it have to be a certain standard?

Copper would be best ..... If you can't get good rg59 look at cat5 cable My dilema now is that i yave the cable and i have te BNCs and need to start the install on Monday (as i have a week off to do it). I dont have anywhere locally to supply bew Coax and certainly not Baluns.. So i am pretty stuffed. Considering all my runs are less than 20m, is CCS really going to cause a problem? Jon

To give you an update.. I found a CCTV/Aerial wholesaler locally who sold BNCs that fit the AWG20 RG59 i have. But following your comments above, i just checked mine and you are correct.. Its is a steel core. How bad is this? Considering imam running 100m of the stuff next week, is it worth me trying to source some "copper" cored stuff.. Or is steel acceptible these days? All of my runs are in a roof space, so they will be subjected to cold and damp, but not wet conditions.. Jon

I am in the process of building a TVI Hikvision CCTV system (DS-7208).. I currently have a 100Mb Ethernet (using my old 100M swithes) to the area where the box will live, and was only planning on using the LAN connection for monitoring and playback from one device. But I am now thinking of adding 1 or 2 IP cameras too.. Is 100Mb OK for this? Or should I think about upgrading my switches to 1Gbit? Jon

Cheers.. I got the feeling that RG59/U was 20AWG, and RG59B/U was 23AWG Problem is, all of the suppliers in the UK I have found selling BNCs, seem to be for 23AWG.. I have no doubt that I could find more expensive BNCs that will fit.. But the cost of these, would be more, than simply buying some RG59B/U and some of the cheap BNCs I have found! Jon