In certain circumstances, you may need to turn off the IR lights on your Hikvision camera. Let’s say you have enough light at your location and the IR is messing up the picture, in that case, you may need to manually turn off the infrared block.
Another situation is if the camera is actually installed indoors. You don’t really need the camera’s white lights turned on indoor since if someone is inside they’ll turn the lights on.
This article shows how to turn off the IR lights for both HD analog camera and Hikvision IP camera. Basically, you need to disable the options on the settings.
Turn off the IR light on a Hikvision TVI camera
The Hikvision TVI cameras are HD cameras that run over coax cables, sometimes these types of cameras are called HD over coax cameras (they’re not IP cameras). To turn off the IR block in these cameras is very easy.
All you have to do is to open up the camera (dome or bullet style), locate the IR block, track the cable powering the IR lights, and disconnect it from the motherboard. The cable type is shown in the picture below. After that, the IR lights won’t be able to power on.
Another way to turn off the IR lights is to access the settings of the camera and turn it off there. Go to the DVR screen and bring the camera on full-screen. At the bottom of the screen, you should click the “PTZ Control” button as shown below.
Well, the camera doesn’t have to be a PTZ type but this the way how you bring up the OSD menu (On-Screen Display).
The OSD menu allows us to access options on the camera that are controlled directly by the camera’s chipset (one of being the IR LED lights).
On the next window, on the right sight click the Iris + (which serves as the button “Enter”) to access the OSD menu.
Then you should see a few options popping on the screen as Video Format, Exposure, etc. Navigate via the little menu (UP-DOWN) to Smart Light and then click Iris + icon to enter the menu.
By default the light is AUTO but you can switch it OFF and it will turn off. Additionally, you can do other settings such as Threshold, Level, etc.
Don’t forget to click through the Save&Exit to apply the settings. You get the idea, once done the menu should disappear from the screen.
However, not all cameras support such features. It’s better to physically disconnect the IR lights.
Turn off the IR light on a Hikvision IP camera
You will need to log into your camera through its IP address. If you don’t know what the IP address is you find this using the SADP tool. Open up SADP while the camera is connected to your network; it will detect it and show you the IP address.
It should look something like 192.168.1.200. If the numbers are different don’t worry, just enter it into the address bar in Internet Explorer. After that, you should be presented with a login page; log in by entering your username and password.
Go to Configuration > Advanced Configuration > System and then Service tab. Untick the “Enable IR Light” option and click Save.
In a few camera models (different firmware) you may find the IR light option by going to Configuration > System > Maintenance and then System Service. Untick “Enable IR Light” and click Save.
Once you do that, the IR LED lights on the camera will be turned off. Keep in mind, that the cameras use internal white lights to see in the dark.
If you turn them off and the area is not well lit, the picture will be pitch black during the nighttime.
