Hik-Connect Iphone app not showing thumbnail images on alerts ??

[Graeme.]

Hi,

I really hope you can help me with this, it's been driving me crackers for years !!

I've put up with my 7 year old Hikvision DS-7608 NVR not sending thumbnail images attached to the alerts on my Iphone13 for years now, and I tried to do something about it today.....

I've got 4 x DS-2CD2385FWD 8MP cameras ( 3 x 2.8mm lens, and 1 x 4mm lens ) and they're all set on H.265+

Sometimes when I switch the NVR off and on again, I'll get alerts on my phone with thumbnails for an hour or so then they go back to without.

I think it all stems round the 4mm lens camera. When I unplug it, I get the thumbnail alerts for the other 3 cameras, then when it's plugged back in I don't ?? (mind you, that could be the same for all the cameras, I didn't check ??).

I've read up about the subject for hours, and it probably has something to do with bandwidth, and having the quality of the settings so high that it can't cope, etc, but there's got to be a way round it ??

I'm on a Virgin Hub3 router, with a 276 download speed and a 26.8 upload speed. I also have IVMS4200 and everything is interlinked although I don't have the IVMS running day to day. The Hik Connect app on my phone and IPad are up to date.

Any advice would be warmly welcomed,
Many thanks

Graeme.

 

[Graeme.]

Hi again ,

Always fun replying to your own thread , but hopefully this will help someone in the future

As there was no immediate help forthcoming, I carried on with trying to find a solution myself....

I'd read that the "mainstream" recorded stuff to the NVR and the "substream" went to other devices like mobile phones and the Hik-Connect app, so I tried reducing the quality of the "substream" to see if it made a difference and allow thumbnails, that did not work

In all the stuff I'd read online the words "bandwidth" and camera "resolution" came up over and over again. I didn't think that would be applicable to me, as I've got a healthy and quick broadband and router, and I'm only running 4 cameras off a good quality NVR with a high quality HDD installed . But the clues were there all the time. If I removed one camera from the system I got thumbnails, so I must be overloading the system and / or bandwidth ??

My camera mainstream was running at the following:
Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4k I believe ?).
Bitrate: Variable.
Video quality: Highest.
Frame Rate: Full frame.
Max Bitrate: 16,348
Max bitrate range recommended: 25,411 - 25,411
Video encoding: H.265
Enable H.265+ (box ticked)


Then I came across this great video, that helped make things click:




So I was going to reduce the "camera resolution" and / or "bitrate" to see if that reduced bandwidth ?? I tried with "camera resolution" first.....

I reduced the camera resolution down from 3840 x 2160 to the next step down 3072 x 1728, and hey-presto I got thumbnails attached to all my alerts !! .

Problem solved in a way, but with a loss in video quality recorded to my NVR. I've now got to decide whether that loss of quality is worth it to have thumbnails attached to my alerts. Going through my many alerts this morning seeing the usual multiple different forms of spiders and moths at a glance, I think it's going to be worth it for me . From what I can see, the video quality recorded is still adequate to pick out number plates, faces, etc.

So that's me done for now, I hope it helps someone in the future, as from what I could find trawling the internet there was no obvious "how to" .

Cheers,
Graeme.