Introduction NVR / DVR Setup

Connecting NVR/DVR
Connecting BI to your NVR or DVR is possible as well. A common request from customers is they purchased a single-vendor solution at first but now are growing their surveillance system with different vendors. They use BI to put all cameras under one management interface.

The following information is needed to connect a DVR/NVR to BI:

• Does the NVR allow access to their channels (camera streams) via RTSP or RTMP?
• If so, what is the URI convention for the streams? Check documentation.
  Hikvision example: /Streaming/channels/301 = channel 3/ stream 1
  Dahua example: /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
• What ports are used?
  Http = 80 or other?
  ONVIF = 80 or 8999 or other?
  RTSP / RTMP = 554 or other?

ONVIF makes connecting cameras easy. However, finding ONVIF support on DVR/NVR systems are more rare, but does exist (see further below).

Thus, connecting DVR/NVR systems typically require more research with vendor and vendor documentation. This may be a good time to approach the camera vendor and ask is it possible to connect the camera channels from the NVR/DVR to 3rd party VMS systems using RTSP. One user asked how to connect a camera to VLC. After much prying, the vendor finally gave up the information. Camera vendors would prefer you use their software and lock you in to their ecosystem.

Below is an example of connecting a Hikvision NVR.


The Hikvision convention is 101/102.
101 = channel 1 (i.e. camera 1), stream 1 (i.e. main stream)
102 = channel 1, stream 2 (i.e. sub stream)

So connecting camera 2 from the Hikvision NVR would need the following settings: main stream = 201, sub stream = 202.
Same IP address, username and password.


You would do similarly to add camera 3, 4 etc.
To get the Hikvision NVR connected, we had to research through the documentation (or reach out to vendor). Only through some investigation were we able to correctly identify the RTSP URI stream (/Streaming/channels/101 etc) and the RTSP port = 8554.

If you are still stuck, we would be happy to do some remote testing. Could you please send a WAN address for this camera for testing purposes with necessary ports, usually just 80 and 554 (RTSP) and 8999(ONVIF if available). Don't forget a temp login as well. If you put the DVR/NVR on the internet we can take a look. This video explains how to do so. To be clear, we need direct access to the DVR/NVR, not BI web interface.

ONVIF NVR Support

Looks like NVRs are now starting to support ONVIF! This example is from a Hikvision DS-7216HUHI-K2, a vendor known for delivering great ONVIF support.

Just like cameras, enter IP Address, Username and Password and hit Find/Inspect to see if any ONVIF information comes over.
BI defaults to ports 80 or 8999 for ONVIF. Know your equipment. If ONVIF resides elsewhere, for example port 8080, you need to let BI know by altering 8999 to 8080 for the ONVIF port before hitting Find / Inspect.

The Find / Inspect dialog shares all the rich information coming via ONVIF.

System info

Opening <ip address> port 80...
HTTP Get / request...
OK
ONVIF GetSystemDateAndTime
2021-09-18T20:11:02.000Z
Requesting device information...
Manufacturer: Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd
Model: DS-7216HUHI-K2
FirmwareVersion: V4.25.000, build 200925
GetCapabilities...
Querying services

Pulling in profiles of the 13 cameras connected to this 16 channel NVR

Has Search services: /onvif/search_service
Has Imaging services: /onvif/imaging_service
Has media services: /onvif/media_service
Has RTP_RTSP_TCP, requesting profiles
profile token ProfileToken001
profile name ProfileName001
profile source is VideoSourceToken001

...

profile token ProfileToken013
profile name ProfileName013
profile source is VideoSourceToken013
profile source config is VideoSourceConfigurationToken013

Pulling in sub streams for each channel!
Notice the mapping that is also provided. Channel 49 corresponds to the sub stream for Channel 1.

profile token ProfileToken049
profile name ProfileName049
profile source is VideoSourceToken001
profile source config is VideoSourceConfigurationToken001

...

profile token ProfileToken061
profile name ProfileName061
profile source is VideoSourceToken013
profile source config is VideoSourceConfigurationToken013

Much more information is pulled over which is not documented here to conserve space.

Once you know what the profiles mean, easy to connect cameras.
In below example, I connect Channel 1.
I know Channel 1 is Profile 1. Based on the above ONVIF information, I also know the Channel 1 sub stream is associated to Profile 49.
Pretty easy to also guess what streams belong to which channels based on the intuitive Hikvision conventions.