Good time!
There are situations when you need to open and watch a video on a computer recorded by a surveillance camera (or video recorder). And, it would seem, here they are files MP4, AVI, H264, MOV (and others) - all that remains is to open! ..
But after trying dozens of players and codecs, it is not always possible to open such videos (in fact, it was with me 10 years ago, when I first encountered a similar question) ...
In this article I will give several recommendations that should help in solving the indicated task.
So...
Note: I am not an expert on video equipment, and I can admit some inaccuracies in terms ...
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What to do with video from a surveillance camera / DVR
1) Try downloading alternative players
The most popular reason for the inability to open a video file is the lack of codecs (well, or various glitches with them). Therefore, the first thing I would recommend is:
- or install a good set of codecs (I recommend the "K-Lite Codec Pack" option "MEGA" - when installing, specify "Lots of stuff" in the settings - so you will have all the necessary codecs);
- or use players that do not need codecs in the system (for example, GOM Player, PotPlayer, Splash HD Player Lite, KMPlayer).
If you cannot play the video in the above players, it is possible that the file from the recorder was encoded into a "special" codec *.
* Important!
DVRs and surveillance cameras can encode video when recorded in their own format (a lot depends on the manufacturer and model of your device). If this is the case, then ordinary players and codecs will not be able to open such a video. This is done apparently so that no one (except the owner of the equipment) can edit the video so simply and easily.
There are two options for playing such files:
- find out the manufacturer and model of the device (on which the video was made) and download programs from the official website (usually, all manufacturers have software on their website for working with their equipment);
- use a HEX editor, find out the file header and try to manually find the required codec (decoder).
2) Use specials. Manufacturer software
For example, I will take one of the popular manufacturers of such equipment - the Falcon Eye FE-1104MHD Light video recorder (not advertising!). Going to the manufacturer's official website, I find a specific device model (see screenshot below).
Official website of the manufacturer FALCON EYE
At the bottom of the page are not only instructions and tech. characteristics, but also the software for working with the DVR.
Software
Actually, by downloading and opening the archive, you can find: a player (and not only for Windows), a converter, codecs, etc. "good".
Specialist. DVR manufacturer software
In principle, no further difficulties should arise with the processing of such a video ...
3) Use HEX editors and analyze the beginning of the file
In cases where the manufacturer and model of the device on which the recording was made is unknown (or there is no software on the official website, or it has been closed for a long time), you can try to find a codec for decoding the video manually. To do this, you need some kind of HEX editor (for example, you can take Win HEX).
Having opened a file in such an editor, you will not see the video, only numbers, letters, etc. will be displayed (many users are "frightened" by this ...). In fact, we only need to view the first 4 bytes of the file (see screenshot below, they are highlighted - "4HKH").
The video file was opened in a hex editor (for 4HKH - you can use this codec here, it integrates into the WMP player)
Using these 4-bytes, you can manually try to find the codec to decrypt the file. It is enough to ask a question in Google (Yandex) like "4HKH video compressor" ("4HKH video converter") and other derivatives.
In general, further actions may differ depending on what software for "decoding" and working with video you download ...
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That's all, for the additions - thank you in advance.
Good luck!
