Hikvision 7604 NI / Echo 5
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Hiya Im trying to setup the above two devices to show camera stream 1 on my echo 5,
I have used the following detailsrtsp://192.168.1.140:554/Streaming/Channels/101
(The above being the ip of the NVR), I have also tried 102, 201, 202 on the end and still no show of any camera’s.Authentication,
DIGEST
admin
(Password of the camera in question)Video resolution,
640x480 (4:3) (VGA)
Video Codec,
H264
Audio Codec,
None
Timeout (seconds),
30
I have tried all sorts of combinations with these parameters, especially the video resolution, but all I get when I ask Alexa to show me the camera is “Hmm, The camera is not responding”
FYI, The camera in question is a Hikvision DS-KB8112 vandal resistant doorbell, and according to the specification the video output is H264 and the audio output is G711
Any help with getting these to talk to each other would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Rob.
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@Rob-Cooke
Do you have any other cameras that you can view on Alexa?What is the model of your NVR?
To view your cameras on Alexa you need to use a loopback cable from your NVR to your LAN.
Your NVR will have have a network port that connects it to the internet. However, because Alexa is on your LAN you need to use another network cable which you plug into one of the free network ports on your NVR (one of the ports you would plug another network camera into) and then plug that cable into your home network switch.
Think of this as a feedback cable from your NVR back onto your home network so Alexa can access your camera.
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@Esso
What the heck?
The NVR will be on his LAN already if it has a 192.168.1.x IP. That’s some whack idea bro.
You will need monocle gateway in this case if I’m not mistaken.Can you view this in VLC? Make sure you set the resolution of the substream in the NVR to that of the Alexa.
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@FineSir
It’s not a wack suggestion. My NVR is connected to my LAN using the LAN port on the back of the NVR. If I type the IP address of my NVR into a web browser on my LAN I can access the web interface on the NVR.I can also access the cameras remotely using the Hikvision app on my phone.
You can do all of the above without using a loopback cable.
But… if you try to directly access the web interface of one of the cameras that is connected to the NVR’s other LAN ports using a web browser you will NOT be able to, even though the cam will have a valid IP address on the LAN.
This is the same reason why Alexa cannot show the cameras.
I have an 8 port NVR with 4 cameras plugged into ports 1 - 4. I also have a loopback cable plugged into LAN port 5 on my NVR which I also connect to my home switch.
This loopback allows you to directly access the web interface of any of the IP cams on the network using the cams IP address. Believe me, if you do not have a loopback cable you cannot directly access the web interface of any of the IP cams that are plugged into the NVR, even though they have an IP address on the LAN.
The proof is that if I disconnect my loopback cable from LAN port 5 on the back of my NVR, I cannot view my cameras using Alexa and cannot access the web interface of the cameras either. FACT.
Try Googling “loopback cable for nvr” and you will see I am correct.
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@Esso
I get your drift now. I can access my UNV cameras from my PC thru the NVR for config etc but I understand the NVR is just tunnelling the data and it’s not directly accessible on the LAN.
If you use the network streams provided by the NVR I don’t see a need to do this, if the security on the cameras is up to scratch then probably no issue in doing so.
What is the DHCP range on your LAN and the NVR LAN? No conflicts or subnet issues when running the loop back? -
Yes my NVR is 192.168.1.140, and I’m trying to access the sub stream of channel 1, which I believe should be 102 on the end, not had any camera’s connected yet to the Alexa app, it’s so frustrating…
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@FineSir
Hi, strangely enough I did get an IP issue with the loopback cable which subsequently disappeared.I have a Hikvision 8 channel NVR. I connect a CAT5 cable from one of the NVRs 8 network ports to the switch on my LAN. Remember this is not the same cable that comes out of the network port on your NVR which connects it to the internet. You are essentially connecting another cable to one of the camera ports and then putting that onto the switch on your LAN. This gives you another IP address on the LAN. When I look at the Network Configuration page on my Hikvision NVR I see two IP addresses. One is for the actual nvr and one is for the loopback which is shown as “internal NIC”.
One is .105 (NVR) other is .106 (internal NIC). The .105 is the IP address of the actual nvr and that is what I port forward to so I can access the cameras remotely
I don’t use the .106 for anything it was just asigned as part of the loopback process.
Without the loopback cable I can configure basic camera settings via the nvr but if you want access the actual web interface that is on the IP camera you will find you need to use a loopback cable.
I recall this is because the NVR is doing subnetting. Whist you appear to have valid IP addresses for all of the IP cams on your LAN, the nvr has its own subnet which is separately managing the cameras that are plugged into it. If you try to access the web interface on an IP camera you would be accessing it via the nvr which of course the camera is actually physically plugged into to. In this example the nvr would need to route additional traffic from the LAN through itself to the camera and this is what causes the issue.
This is also why Alexa cannot show the camera feeds.
The loopback cable gets around this problem by making the cameras available directly from the LAN (because the loopback cable is plugged into the same bunch of network ports on the NVR as your cameras).
I wonder if the loopback cable would be needed to access the web interface of a camera that was not plugged in to the nvr but that is plugged into the switch. I have one camera that is plugged into an 8 port switch in my sitting room. I might try disconnecting my loopback cable to see if I can access the web interface of that. I should be able to because that particular IP cam is a true LAN IP camera which is not physically plugged in to my nvr so should not be subject to the subnetting issues
I did a Google on “nvr loopback” but not that much information came up. I collated quite a lot of information when I set this up a few years ago and will try and post it later today.
Also using VLC as you suggest can be useful to see if the feeds are working.
Anyone who has an nvr could try the loopback cable quite easily so long as the nvr is close enough to their switch.
Also take note of the two IP addresses that you will see on your network configuration page. They should also be shown on the IP allocation table of your router. One of these is used to access the nvr remotely and the other is not used for anything (well, it might have a purpose but I have not used it for anything).
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My NVR is only a 4 port, and I have 4 camera’s in use on it, but they are all wireless, so actually the 4 channels are all in use on the NVR picking up and streaming the 4 camera’s but the physical ports on the back are empty. If I plug a port back into the switch though I would likely loose the wireless camera on that channel am I right?
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@Esso
Very interesting points there. I can see what the function for this is.
A camera on your lan won’t need any special things to communicate with other devices on the LAN. It will feed the NVR and still be accessible. I have a camera on my POE switch that uploads images each time it sees motion to my FTP server in my network. Taking the nvr out of the question…The loop back I feel is still a little redundant, the NVR should be able to easily handle all the requirements of Monocle and general operation…
I’d be curious as to what the ip structure is.
Most provided supplied routers in NZ you can’t even change the subnets or ip ranges on. So anything outside of 192.186.1.x isn’t going to register. -
@FineSir Thinking about it the camera in question is a POE camera plugged into the network via the switch, and the NVR just locks it up via it’s IP address and records it that way, the other three are wireless like I said, so there are no physical ports in use on the actual NVR.
I must add the whole system works absolutely fine, as in all channels are recording as necessary, and the Hik-Connect app works fine for remote viewing, and speaking via the door bell.
It’s just the integration with Monocle and therefore Alexa I’m struggling with,
I’ve also tried inputting the credentials for the camera in question on its own, rather than trying to access it via the NVR credentials. However as a stand-alone camera it’s features appear to be much less ie. there is no sub-stream options.
The range of ip addresses all fall within the acceptable range of 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254, so no issues there
??? It’s a Mystery
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@FineSir
I assure you a hikvision nvr cannot handle the requirements of Monocle without a loopback cable.I have 4 IP cameras. 3 of them are plugged directly in to the network ports on my nvr. My front door camera is plugged into a separate switch in my living room.
As a test, I removed the loopback cable that runs between my nvr and the switch. I could view my front door camera on my Alexa show using the Monocle Alexa skill.
My Alexa shows would NOT show any of the 3 cameras that are plugged directly into my nvr on my Alexa shows. When I say “Alexa, show driveway” she thinks about it for a few seconds, the screen flashes on and off and then she says “Hmm, the camera isn’t responding”.
The Alexa screen always starts to flash and then you know it isn’t going to connect.
As soon as I plugged the loopback cable back in I could view all of my cameras on my Alexa show.
I feel I have proven this by carrying out all of the necessary steps to show what is and is not possible.
I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has managed to get IP cameras that are plugged directly into an nvr to be viewable on an Alexa show using the monocle Alexa skill without using the separate monocle Gateway. I don’t think it’s possible because of the subnetting that is occurring within the nvr.
I would also just like to thank the guys and girls at Monocle because this is an excellent Alexa skill.
I mafe a post several months ago when I was trying to get the channel zero feed from my NVR to be viewable on my Alexa show so I could view four cameras at the same time.
You may think this is not possible because Monocle is not actually showing the content of the nvr it is showing the feed from each of the individual cameras. However, on the same LAN I can can use VLC Player to view my channel zero feed and it works fine on my laptop. I was therefore curious why the Monocle skill could not show the channel zero.
For those of you who do not know what a channel zero feed is, it is a way of viewing all of your cameras on the same image feed at the same time. This would be fantastic as it means my large 10-inch Alexa in the kitchen would be able to show all of my cameras at the same time which would be really excellent for my home security.
Monocle admin asked me to send them some logs but I made a post a few times to ask how I could send the logs so if anyone from Monocle is reading this please let me know how I can send you my logs to see if we can get the channel zero feed working on an Alexa. This would be a first and another excellent breakthrough for the Monocle team.