VPro (Acuseek) NVR - First Impressions

[JB1970]

A few posts to follow so I'll reserve a couple beneath this one to avoid it becoming unwieldy....I'll also edit/update these top three posts with any additional information regarding features, bugs etc.

I've been waiting impatiently for the new VPro NVR to become available. I've no real need to replace my DS-7616NI-M2/16P but wanted tor try the VPro as it has both AcuSearch and AcuSeek which my current model will not support. I've finally received (and installed) the DS-7616NXI-I2/16P/VPro yesterday. Performance wise this I model has a lower maximum incoming bandwidth and decoding performance than the M it replaces. However, the M is not available here in the UK yet and I'm running only 10 cameras (7 x 8MP, 2 x 4MP and a x 2MP) so hopefully it will be adequate.

Out of the box it's almost identical to the M model it's replacing, the exception being that the M has a BNC monitor output. Internally the main board is quite different, with an additional processor and fan (M Series left, VPro right):

Replacement was straight forward. I used the disks from the existing NVR. After activating the new NVR, I disabled the PoE channels in Device Access > Device Configuration > PoE Settings, before adding each existing camera entry manually using it's existing IP address and admin password in Device Access > Device > Video Device. Disabling the PoE channels does not turn off PoE; it simply turns off plug and play, allowing you to add your existing devices to the NVR PoE ports (or elsewhere) without overwriting their existing configuration (if a previously activated camera is added to a PoE channel and the admin passwords match, plug and play will wipe the existing configuration). Once all channels were programmed I plugged in the cameras and all came online. Settings were mostly maintained with a few exceptions:

1 - Motion was automatically enabled full screen, all channels, human and vehicle at 60% sensitivity. That's normal when installing a new NVR.

2 - All cameras encoding had been changed from H264 to H265 and the bitrates previously set had been halved. That was a bit annoying but didn't take long for me to correct.

Hard disks - All previous recordings were maintained which was useful. I did not need to initialise the drives and I've not even needed to use the recording database rebuild option. Everything is intact.

Firmware. The new NVR uses firmware platform K22B1. As yet I don't see any firmware links on the usual Hikvision pages:

It's arrived with version 5.05.335_250604 as above. Although there's no firmware on the UK, Europe, or Global Hikvision sites, a search using the serial number in Hik-Partner Pro has given me a link to 5.05.351_250705 which I'll load today. The release notes for that state that it enables Acusearch and Acuseek searches in the Hik-Connect app.

Edit: The digicap.dav update file is a massive 4.58GB.

Web UI.

I'm a Mac user so use Safari. The basics are working - live view and playback but there are some issues.

In the timeline there are event markers throughout the day in advance of the time, IE it's 1PM now but there are markers for 4PM today. AcuSeek/AcuSearch is partially working; the search is performed and gives a grid of results showing the targets, however playback of the clip fails in Safari with the following error '0x[object object]'.
- Following update to 5.05.351 no error, AcuSearch/AcuSeek events playing normally, timeline marker issue remains

Using Microsoft Edge after updating the plugin, it errors with 'Enabling playback failed' when trying to preview AcuSeek/AcuSearch results. The same issue with events markers for future times is there.
- Following update to 5.05.351 no error, AcuSearch/AcuSeek events playing normally, timeline marker issue remains

Using Chrome - no playback at all 'Enabling playback failed'
- Following update to 5.05.351 no error but playback windows whited out, timeline marker issue remains

Using Firefox - Playback works, same issues with future event markers, same issue with AcuSeek/Search but a different error 'Channel x no videos' (where 'x' is the camera number)
- Following update to 5.05.351 no error, AcuSearch/AcuSeek events playing normally, timeline marker issue remains

YMMV. I'm using either Safari or Windows based browsers via Parallels VM on an M1 MacBook. Edge, Chrome, Firefox might not have these issues on a native Windows machine.

Performance. It's only been running overnight but I'm not seeing any issues currently. All of my cameras (7 x 8MP @ 25FPS H264 CBR 16Mbps, 2 x 4MP @ 25FPS H264 CBR 8Mbps) can be played back simultaneously in a 9 way split without seeing the dreaded 'no resource' message.

Issues.

• Timeline issues in Web UI with event markers shown for times in the future
• Updating via web UI failed using Safari and Edge browsers. Failed also using HiTools Delivery. Had to resort to USB upgrade.

 

[JB1970]

AcuSeek.

AcuSeek is the ability to search retrospectively through footage for something of interest using plain text. The system can model 300,000 targets per day apparently. Where AI by camera is used, AcuSeek works across all channels. It works with all G5 platform cameras and the new H13, H13U third generation ColorVu's. The NVR has two 'engines' one is used for AcuSearch, the other AcuSeek.

There are a few broad categories to chose from; Favourites, Suggestions, Person, Vehicle, NMV (non motor vehicle), Object and Animal (at this point Object and Animal are greyed out and marked 'coming soon'). Once a category is selected, there are further sub categories. 'Person' offers top, bottom, accessory, behaviour, gender. 'Vehicle' offers type, brand, colour. You can just build your search by clicking the offerings how you want. For instance - Vehicle > Tesla > Red or Person > Black top > Blue bottoms > Sunglasses > Walking Dog. You can search across all or selected cameras and also select a time frame.

I've a 4 megapixel 2347G3 turret with 2.8mm lens and it's successfully identifying vehicles at about 8 metres while looking between our two parked cars. 'Mercedes' correctly brought up all Mercedes that had passed (including a Sprinter van!). While there are suggestions, you can also type what you want. In vehicles there are only around six brands listed so I tried 'Jaguar' and it picked up every Jaguar that passed along with JLR (Jaguar Landrover) models such as Range Rovers. 'Vauxhall' worked similarly well. 'Scooter' brought up both mopeds and people on electric scooters. One thing to note is that some search terms are Americanised; type in 'Estate' and you'll get no results, you need to click 'Station Wagon'. Similarly it's 'Small truck' not Van. Searching for a Person 'on phone' or 'walking dog' worked well too with just a couple of incorrect ID's (it picked up someone who just had their hand to their face, and someone pushing a suitcase (not a dog)

Overall it seems to work very well. Once the NVR has been updated searching should also be possible using Hik-Connect. The update has failed a couple of times so I need to try it via USB as it's a 4GB file.

I had to load the 4.58GB firmware update on a USB and update via the local UI which has worked. AcuSeek and AcuSearch can now be accessed directly on the Hik-Connect app by tapping the playback window then tapping 'AcuSearch' or'AcuSeek' icons (which appear for a couple of seconds when the playback window is tapped before auto hiding)

 

[JB1970]

Issues.

• Timeline issues in Web UI with event markers shown for times in the future
• Updating via web UI failed using Safari and Edge browsers. Failed also using HiTools Delivery. Had to resort to USB upgrade.
• 18-09-25 - Hik-Connect push notifications severely delayed [#post 37 details]
• 26-09-25 - Unexplainable failure of AcuSearch function. Resolved with power cycle [#post 45 details]
• 08-10-25 - Web server crash during event configuration. Resolved with reboot [#post 50 details]

 

[Prototype]

Have you seen that there is a promo running on these for installers?

Installers will receive 50% when purchasing their first bundle, which includes:
1x I/VPRO NVR + 2x 21x6G2(BLACK) IPC

 

[JB1970]

Have you seen that there is a promo running on these for installers?

Installers will receive 50% when purchasing their first bundle, which includes:
1x I/VPRO NVR + 2x 21x6G2(BLACK) IPC

Yes that’s how I got mine. It was an August promotion, but perhaps it’s continued as stock wasn’t available until late in the month.

 

[Prototype]

Yes it's until November now

 

[Prototype]

It looks like the 32 Channel version DS-7732NXI-I4/16P/VPro is also on the offer. Do you think that would be a better option for me as it provides a much higher bandwidth of 384 Mbps or would the un-used channels get in the way? I'd have about 18 spare

 

[JB1970]

It looks like the 32 Channel version DS-7732NXI-I4/16P/VPro is also on the offer. Do you think that would be a better option for me as it provides a much higher bandwidth of 384 Mbps or would the un-used channels get in the way? I'd have about 18 spare

The I4 is physically bigger as it has 4 SATA ports. There’s no harm in over speccing but it’s a bit of a beast size wise, and if it’s similar to the M4 has a much larger fan.

 

[Prototype]

The size isn't an issue for me. I've checked and it's only £36 more than a 16 channel so I guess it's worth getting the 32 channel over the 16. How are you getting on with yours? I'm interested to know if the ANPR works with non ANPR cameras.

 

[trempa92]

ANPR will only work with ANPR camera

NVR can get detection of object not OCR

 

[JB1970]

The size isn't an issue for me. I've checked and it's only £36 more than a 16 channel so I guess it's worth getting the 32 channel over the 16. How are you getting on with yours? I'm interested to know if the ANPR works with non ANPR cameras.

I’ve not had much time to mess around with it yet as I installed it a day before going away for a short holiday. AcuSeek works very well; I tried typing in a make, model and colour of a car in the Hik-Connect app and the results were good (I didn’t expect it to be able to identify the model).

Out of the box, plate recognition with non ANPR cameras isn’t possible. The NVR has one engine in use for AcuSeek and the other for AcuSearch. There is a Hikvision recognition module present that can be loaded but it needs its own engine so AcuSeek or AcuSearch has to be disabled. I guess that’s why I’m also not seeing a Face Picture library in the menu in it’s current configuration.

 

[trempa92]

96 series deepinmind have both engines active and its amazing

 

[JB1970]

96 series deepinmind have both engines active and its amazing

I’ll maybe turn off AcuSearch on mine and use that engine for recognition. I think, in domestic usage, AcuSeek will prove more useful than AcuSearch.

A question you may be able to answer @trempa92…AcuSeek seems to work very quickly, is the searching/object recognition all carried out locally? When I updated the NVR firmware the file size seemed huge, it was 4.58GB rather than the usual approximately 100MB size I’m used to. I wondered whether that larger file size was due to some database being stored locally on the NVR.

 

[trempa92]

Realtime metadata detection, saves on storage . Full local. Thats why its fast

 

[JB1970]

Realtime metadata detection, saves on storage . Full local. Thats why its fast

That’s good to know - thanks

 

[Prototype]

So far have you noticed any performance issues compared to the M series like playback resources or performance lags? Also is remote playback performance using the App any better or the same?

 

[JB1970]

So far have you noticed any performance issues compared to the M series like playback resources or performance lags? Also is remote playback performance using the App any better or the same?

I've not noticed anything yet in my setup. No difference in remote playback. I installed it the day before I went on holiday and only got back today so I've had no time with it really.

 

[Prototype]

Oh sorry I thought you were already back from your holiday. I hope you had a nice time

 

[JB1970]

Oh sorry I thought you were already back from your holiday. I hope you had a nice time

No problem.

 

[JB1970]

Out of the box, plate recognition with non ANPR cameras isn’t possible. The NVR has one engine in use for AcuSeek and the other for AcuSearch. There is a Hikvision recognition module present that can be loaded but it needs its own engine so AcuSeek or AcuSearch has to be disabled. I guess that’s why I’m also not seeing a Face Picture library in the menu in it’s current configuration.

I missed this information posted from @trempa92 while away

ANPR will only work with ANPR camera

NVR can get detection of object not OCR

That makes sense. The Target Recognition module that can be enabled looks to be for facial recognition and I guess that might add the Face Picture Library into the menu as is present in the other NXI models.

Regarding this comment:

I’ll maybe turn off AcuSearch on mine and use that engine for recognition. I think, in domestic usage, AcuSeek will prove more useful than AcuSearch.

Engine 1 is used for AcuSearch, Engine 2 is used for AcuSeek. If you try to enable the Target Recognition module you have to select Engine 1 or 2. Selecting Engine 1, you're presented with a warning:

"switching engine 1 working mode will unbind the engine and channel. Continue?"

When you click OK, you get a further warning:

"If AcuSearch algorithm is unbound, AcuSeek algorithm will be unbound simultaneously. Continue?"

From further reading in the manual, it appears AcuSearch must be enabled for AcuSeek and vice versa as they are components of the same module. As each occupies one of the two available engines, it appears that you cannot run both AcuSearch/Acuseek module and Target Recognition module simultaneously as a third engine would be needed.