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Hikvision M series – New Firmware, For the last 6-7 years the go-to NVRs from Hikvision have been the K-series & I-series models, these have been a sturdy range of NVRs that (for the most part) have worked really well.
Recently though, we have started to see a growing number of issues with running the 8MP AcuSense/ColorVu models on these older NVR models and we believe a big part of the problem is that the bandwidth usage of these new 8MP cameras is exceeding what the older NVR models were built to support.
Ever since we first found out about this issue we have been chasing Hikvision to introduce new NVR models that support more incoming bandwidth so customers can more comfortably use the 8MP AcuSense/ColorVu cameras with their NVRs. Now, it looks like those new NVRs have arrived.
Hikvision M-series NVRs
Currently Available UK/EU Models: DS-7608NI-M2 | DS-7608NI-M2/8P | DS-7616NI-M2 | DS-7616NI-M2/16P | DS-7716NI-M4 | DS-7716NI-M4/16P | DS-7732NI-M4
(There are product pages for 9600 series M-series NVRs on the Hikvision Global website, these are not currently available in the UK/EU but should join the range in the near future)
The M-series range physically looks no different to the K/I-series models, the biggest changes appear to be in the hardware & software. Below are some of the things we have picked up on from the information Hikvision has provided:
Support for More Incoming Bandwidth – The 8ch M-series NVR supports 128Mbps which is an increase of 48Mbps on the old K/I-series models, it is still not quite enough for 8 x 8MP AcuSense cameras at full settings but it should be enough bandwidth for 6 x full setting cameras or 8 x with some settings reduced (e.g. frame rate, H.265+, etc…)
Features 8K HDMI Output – All the M-series NVRs support 8K HDMI 2.1 output for displaying the image from specialist ultra HD (24/32MP) cameras, on larger M-series models (7700/9600) that support 2 x HDMI outputs only one of the outputs supports 8K output.
Support for “Ultra HD Resolution mode” – Currently the details of this feature are unclear but it would appear to allow the NVR to support more ultra HD (24/32MP) cameras, but the limitations when this feature is enabled are not clear and we also think there would be bandwidth issue running 8 x 32MP cameras on an 8ch NVR (we await clarification from Hikvision).
Features Dual-4K HDMI Output – The larger 7700/9600 M-series models that support 2 x HDMI outputs can display 4K images from both these outputs.
Hikvision M series – New Firmware
Read More :
- Upgrading Hikvision DVR NVR Firmware 2023
- Hikvision Firmware Updates (NEW)
- Hikvision Hilook Firmware 2022
Below is a table of some of the advantages & disadvantages we have found with the M-series range
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Pros
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Cons
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| Price – you get all the above features for a price that is only 7-10% more than the current I-series models | Bandwidth – Although the increase in bandwidth is a big step in the right direction, it still is not quite enough bandwidth to be running an NVR fully loaded with High-Resolution Cameras. |
| Bandwidth – With more incoming bandwidth the M-series models can support more High-Resolution Cameras (8MP/12MP/24MP/32MP) | Advanced VCA Features – M-series does not include the “applying AcuSense to non-AcuSense” feature of the AcuSense NVRs or the deep learning algorithms & face recognition support of the DeepinMind NVRs. |
| Camera Resolution – With support to record & decode multiple High-Resolution cameras these M-series models are ready for the growing number of high-megapixel cameras (that are also getting more affordable) | |
| Decoding Capability – The K/I-series models had been limited to decoding 1 or 2 x 8MP cameras, the new 8ch M-series model will support decoding 8-ch@8 MP (25 fps). |
We have yet to get hands-on with any of the new M-series models so this list is only based on the limited information we have from Hikvision product pages and documentation, this list will likely grow over the coming weeks/months as we learn more.
This brings us to how we discovered these NVRs, as is traditional with Hikvision we had no prior knowledge of this new range. Our MD received a general industry email newsletter that mentioned the new top-spec 9600 M-series models, we were intrigued but not massively excited because we knew these 9600 models were not the most popular with customers. We did some further digging at the Hikvision website for more information on these new models, it was here that we stumbled across new product pages for the 7600/7700 M-series models.
We have contacted Hikvision and asked them for more information/documentation on these new NVRs but as of posting this, they have not provided us with anything, if we do get any new information it will be added to this thread.
We have also reached out about stock availability and lead times, the latest information we have is that the first M-series stock will not be arriving in the UK until November. If your installation is not urgent then you may wish to hold off for this stock and for more information to be made available, but if you do need a new/replacement NVR urgently then the I-series models are still available with firmware that was released this year and 3-year warranty.
Below are the use-IP product pages we have created for the new M-series models:
DS-7608NI-M2/8P 8-channel 8K M-Series NVR
DS-7616NI-M2/16P 16-channel 8K M-Series NVR
DS-7716NI-M4/16P 16-channel 8K M-Series NVR
DS-7732NI-M4 32-channel 8K M-Series NVR
If you are interested in any of the above models you can log in and click the “Notify me when this product is in stock” link, you will then receive an email notification when we mark that particular model as in stock.
As already stated above we have asked Hikvision for more information on these new models, but if you have any specific questions about them you can post them in this thread and we will try to find out the answers for you.
M series – New Firmware 4.63.010 available
New firmware for the M series NVRs has appeared on both the UK and global product pages. The new version is 4.63.010_230619 and is linked below (Hikvision UK product page). No release notes as yet. Updating mine now and will update below if I can see any changes:
No great changes that I can see from the web interface:
- At the login page there’s a link to download local service components. The properties show that the version bundled with this firmware has been updated again and is now 1.0.0.63
- At the login page there’s a pop up window to “enable the camera microphone”
- Once logged in, that also appears in Configuration > System > Channel Management > More Configurations
- Bad news for Safari users. Although live view and playback work fine, you can see in the left pane that menu of the menu items are missing. There’s no Network, Live View, IOT, Target Capture, Low Power Consumption settings available. All of those settings are available if login via Chrome for Mac.
- There are per channel audio configuration settings. These are greyed out even when selecting a channel that has an audio enabled camera. They may have been added in the previous version for microphone channels that were added – not sure. It would be handy to be able to adjust the audio settings for the cameras here without the need to log directly into each individual camera but that doesn’t appear to be possible.
- When logging in with Edge in Internet Explorer mode, there was also that the plugin was out of date (WebComponents.exe). The newer version is 3.0.8.32. The installation/update of that fails for me. That’s possibly due to the ARM 64 version of Windows 11 that I run on my Mac (using Parallels VM)
New firmware for the M series NVR is available on the Hikvision UK website. Version 4.63.000_230412. No release notes as yet. I’m about to install it. Hopefully it’ll resolve the issue with events from alarm inputs not being searchable from Custom Playback. It’s available here:
There are a few noticeable changes:
1 – Preview images (in the config pages) seem to load on Safari now whereas previously they would lag or not load at all.
2 – Platform Access > Hik-Connect settings now has ‘sub stream rate adaptation’
3 – Platform Access > Hik-Connect settings now has the option to switch between version 2.0 and 3.0 protocol (not sure what that will do but trying it now)
4 – Human/Vehicle filter buttons now available in the Hik-Connect app. This was also shown in the release notes for the 5.7.13 version of G5 camera firmware, however I think that only applies to cameras operating without an NVR as the change did not appear until the NVR was updated.