mysmarthome/hik-vision camera

The following are the screenshots of HikVision camera setup.

If you get "Parameter Error" when saving the settings, that means you are not using the right browser with correct plug-in.

The HikVision cameras work best on IE11 browsers, where it will install an active-x plug-in. This plug-in lets you see the live view, and also lets you play the recorded content. HikVision requires that plug-in to be installed to save settings. If you are on Windows 10, just go to run command, and type iexplore.exe to open old internet explorer, and go to your camera URL. It will then ask you to install that active-x plugin.

Also, for the text overlay to work, the authentication for web must be digest/basic.

The "Integration Protocol" under Advanced settings is only visible if you have the latest firmware. The reason you don't see that option in the above screenshots is because I had older version of firmware, and I updated it to enable text overlay feature.

The following is the Home Assistant REST API sensor that sets a given text to the camera. For more information, go to https://github.com/skalavala/mysmarthome/blob/master/packages/cameras.yaml#L141

rest_command:
  set_camera_textoverlay_left_bottom:
    url: http://192.168.xxx.xxx/Video/inputs/channels/1/overlays/text/1
    username: !secret camera_username
    password: !secret camera_password
    method: PUT
    content_type: 'text/xml'
    payload: >-
      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <TextOverlay version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.hikvision.com/ver10/XMLSchema">
      <id>1</id><enabled>true</enabled>
      <posX>45</posX><posY>520</posY>
      <message>{{ message }} </message>
      </TextOverlay>

Make sure you check the "1" checkbox under Text Overlay, enter some text and save settings if you want to update the text programmatically. Also, if you get the "Parameter Error" while saving, that means you are using wrong browser!

Make sure you use IE11 browser with the ActiveX plugin installed.

Hikvision settings are best updated using IE11 browser!