Downgrading an EZViz CS-CV216-A0-31EFR IP Camera

After upgrading the firmware on a CS-CV216-A0-31EFR EZViz IP Camera it no longer supported ONVIF and RTSP. Below are the instructions on how to fix this.

I have a few of these EZViz IP Cameras around the perimeter hooked up to a NVR (Network Video Recorder).

They were cheap when I got them and they support ONVIF so they easily integrate with the NVR I have.

While doing a little maintenance I happened to log into one of the cameras via the Android app and noticed there was a firmware update for it. Obviously being the security conscious person I am, I installed the update.

After it installed the NVR couldn’t connect to the camera and its no longer possible to access the RTSP stream from the camera either.

The Problem

After the upgrade if you nmap the camera you’ll see the following:

chippy@fire:~/src/ezviz_cam$ nmap 192.168.1.34
Starting Nmap 7.80 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-02-08 21:15 SAST
Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.34
Host is up (0.0079s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
8000/tcp open  http-alt
8200/tcp open  trivnet1
9010/tcp open  sdr

For comparison a working, non-upgraded, camera looks as follows:

chippy@fire:~/src/ezviz_cam$ nmap 192.168.1.35
Starting Nmap 7.80 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-02-08 21:15 SAST
Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.35
Host is up (0.0082s latency).
Not shown: 994 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
80/tcp   open  http
443/tcp  open  https
554/tcp  open  rtsp
8000/tcp open  http-alt
8200/tcp open  trivnet1
9010/tcp open  sdr

It turns out that EZViz have disabled both RTSP and ONVIF support for “security reasons” in the new firmware update. (I do wonder if this has anything to do with people buying the cameras and no signing up for their cloud platform?)

The Possible Fixes

After some googling it appears you can re-enable RTSP support on the new firmware using one of the following methods.

📱Android/iOS App - Enable RTSP

For some cameras it can still be turned on via the Ezviz Android/iOS app Go to Profile -> Settings -> LAN Live View -> Start scanning -> Select the Camera -> Settings -> Local Service Settings -> Enable RTSP

This didn’t work for me though as I could never connect to the camera from my Android phone in this way.

🖥 Windows Desktop App - Enable RTSP

Install Ezviz PC Studio
Start the application and connect it to your Ezviz Life Cloud account (without this step you won’t have the AppConfig.ini file)
Close the app and go to the root directory of Ezviz Studio on your PC (c:\Program Files (x86)\Ezviz studio\config\)
Edit the AppConfig.ini file in your favourite editor (You’ll need administrative rights on the machine to be able to save the file)
Add the following to the end of the file and save:

[LocalOperation]
Show=1

Start the Ezviz Studio application and you’ll see Advanced under each of your devices. You’ll need to enter your Cameras Verification code when you click it.
Open the camera you want to enable RTSP on and goto Network -> General and makes sure the RTSP port is set 554 and then click Apply

📝 Note
This worked for me and enabled RTSP mode but I still didn't have access to the camera from the NVR as ONVIF support was still disabled.

The Fix

The only fix that I’ve found so far that enables ONVIF support is to downgrade the firmware on the camera.

⚠️ Warning
Do this at your own risk !!! I'm not sure what, if any, checks are in place to ensure you don't upgrade to the wrong firmware.

For this you’ll need to get a copy of the old firmware.

I found a number of posts that say the following URL worked for them:

https://usdownload.ezvizlife.com/device/{device-model-no}/2.0/{device-model-no}.dav

Where you replace {device-model-no} with the model no of your device, unfortunately this didn’t work for my camera.

After some experimentation I found the following URL format worked for my camera.

https://usdownload.ezvizlife.com/device/{device-model-no}/{device-model-no}.dav

And I was able to download V5.1.8 build 161213 of the firmware. (No way that I can find to specify the firmware version in the URL).

The final URL looked like this for my camera https://usdownload.ezvizlife.com/device/CS-CV216-A0-31EFR/CS-CV216-A0-31EFR.dav

Once you have the firmware file, you need to follow the steps above to install Ezviz Studio and enable the Advanced mode.

Once installed you can go to the Advanced Settings for your camera, then select System -> System Maintenance. Add your firmware file and click Upgrade and wait for it to down grade your camera.

Downloads

I’ve uploaded a copy of Ezviz Studio and the firmware for my camera here in case these go missing in the future and I need to do this again.

Firmware Image (Version V5.1.8 build 161213) - CS-CV216-A0-31EFR.dav
Ezviz Studio - EzvizStudioSetups.exe

Additional Links

Here are a few links to posts that helped me figure all this out.