How should I treat the implementation hints

Terms & conditions

To spare camera developers the efforts from having to look around & search in the dozens of ONVIF specs using our professional knowledge, we have put some implementation note in this document. However, you need to understand the following rules before reading these notes:

1. The implementation hints are not supported. The support effort is subject to consultant service which is available only through our distributor and require paying fees.
2. There is no guarantee of any accuracy indicated in the implemenation hints. Use on your own risk.
3. ONVIF verification should not be done by interpreting XML or "test report". Rather, it should be done manually & visually by operating the software and the camera and see if they interoperate as expected. Many camera ONVIF deficiencies are known to be caused by programmer's reliance on "test tools". One should not let machine to do what was meant for people's responsibility, especially when a programmer knows how to "cheat" the test-tool. Please read this article for more info.
4. Implementation hints does not substitute ONVIF spec in anyway. We still believe the best way to understand ONVIF is simply to read the specs and get very familarized with them.
5. If you need to test a working software, you're welcomed to download our software from our Free ONVIF Verification portal, for evaluation purpose.
6. For the actual spec documents referenced, please refer to What ONVIF specs are referenced?

XML namespaces

• Except for additionally described, all XML namespace prefix definitions used in the XML examples are consistent with ONVIF-Core-Specification-v230.pdf, 5.3 Namespaces.

Legends

• In the XML example, if you see this green-highlighted text, it means you must substitute the highlighted text into programmatic or proper value.
• The "<ver20/imaging>GetOptions" is a short-hand notation, meaning it refers to the GetOptions command of Imaging service 2.0, and it's actually different from Imaging service 1.0. This notation is required to clearly express the XML namespace changes among spec versions, especially from 1.0 to 2.0. For more details please refer to this technical article: What does ONVIF version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0 generally means? Why version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0 can be incompatible?
• The bold black text, depending on context, such as "GetProfiles" usually means a command name defined ONVIF spec, where bold green text, such as "Channel" usually means an internal NVR variable or configurable parameter used to determine the actual software behavior.