As of late 2024, rumors in the installer forums suggest that with the shift to SSD caching and more powerful ARM Cortex-A76 chips (found in the new AcuSense 2.0 series), software decoding is replacing hardware decoding. This means future NVRs may allow playback of all channels simultaneously.
However, for current hardware, the limit is a physical wall. Trying to hack the firmware to remove it will void your warranty and likely crash the NVR due to RAM overflow. As of late 2024, rumors in the installer
Be aware that sometimes a different error is masked. If you see the message but only have 2 active users, check for: Solution: This is not a bug – it’s
Every Hikvision NVR has a specific limit on how many cameras can be viewed in Playback mode versus Live View mode. These limits are determined by the processor chip inside the NVR. not the free iVMS-4200.
Solution:
This is not a bug – it’s a deliberate performance limit in newer Hikvision software/firmware.
If you need high multi-channel playback (e.g., 9+ channels), you must move to a video management system (VMS) like HikCentral or Milestone, not the free iVMS-4200.