Main stream and Substream simultaneous recording.

When I initially setup my Dahua NVR 4208 with six Dahua HFW4300S cameras, I enabled substream recording so I had both streams being recorded, and I did this in the "Record Control" settings, by setting the main stream and the sub stream to "Auto" for all cameras. After that I was able to go back in the recordings and watch either the main stream or the substream from any camera.

I need to have both streams because when I travel sometimes I am in areas where I have a slow network connection and if I want to see the recordings the only thing that works is the substream. I have my main stream set at 4096kbps 1080P and the substream at 1024kbps 704x480, both at 24fps. Of course, in live view, I have access to both main and sub streams so that's not an issue. However, in recordings I also need both main and sub streams.

Recently, I upgraded the firmware in one of the cameras, and before you can load the firmware through the NVR web interface, you have to turn off all recording in the "Record Control" settings. After upgrading the firmware for the one camera, I tried to re-enable recording as I had it before. However, this time, the NVR refuses to enable both main and substream recording at the same time. It gives me an error stating that both streams cannot be recorded at the same time. This makes no sense as I had it working before. Upgrading the firmware in one camera should have nothing to do with this. I've tested just enabling main and sub recording for just one camera that has not been upgraded, and still, the NVR refuses to let me do the same thing it allowed me in the past. Does anyone here have both main and sub streams recording enabled at the same time?

Thanks.

When I initially setup my Dahua NVR 4208 with six Dahua HFW4300S cameras, I enabled substream recording so I had both streams being recorded, and I did this in the "Record Control" settings, by setting the main stream and the sub stream to "Auto" for all cameras. After that I was able to go back in the recordings and watch either the main stream or the substream from any camera.

 

I need to have both streams because when I travel sometimes I am in areas where I have a slow network connection and if I want to see the recordings the only thing that works is the substream. I have my main stream set at 4096kbps 1080P and the substream at 1024kbps 704x480, both at 24fps. Of course, in live view, I have access to both main and sub streams so that's not an issue. However, in recordings I also need both main and sub streams.

 

Recently, I upgraded the firmware in one of the cameras, and before you can load the firmware through the NVR web interface, you have to turn off all recording in the "Record Control" settings. After upgrading the firmware for the one camera, I tried to re-enable recording as I had it before. However, this time, the NVR refuses to enable both main and substream recording at the same time. It gives me an error stating that both streams cannot be recorded at the same time. This makes no sense as I had it working before. Upgrading the firmware in one camera should have nothing to do with this. I've tested just enabling main and sub recording for just one camera that has not been upgraded, and still, the NVR refuses to let me do the same thing it allowed me in the past. Does anyone here have both main and sub streams recording enabled at the same time?

 

Thanks.

Perhaps there is a newer firmware available for the NVR to cope with this issue? Either way, if it worked before you upgraded the firmware on the camera, are you able to roll-back to a previous known-working version?

I don't think I would like to go back to a previous firmware version on the camera. It was unstable and needed constant rebooting. In addition, I don't think that upgrading the firmware on the camera caused the NVR to lose a feature I had. If anything, that would be caused by an NVR firmware upgrade. What I am saying is that when I enabled both the main and the substreams recording simultaneously, I was on an older NVR firmware. After I upgraded the NVR firmware, the settings remained and I was still able to record main and sub simultaneously. If the newer NVR firmware does not allow simultaneous main and sub recordings, the only way it could've been enabled is because it was carried over from the older NVR firmware, since I enabled it prior to the NVR firmware upgrade. However, when I had to turn off recording in the NVR due to the camera's firmware upgrade, then the restriction on the NVR kicked in and now it no longer allows me to turn both main and sub recording at the same time. I wish there was a way to hack it. On a different note, there might be a way to do this by adding a second hard drive to the NVR. I see there are different settings for where the main and sub streams should be recorded, like HDD1 versus HDD2. I would have to play with that.