H.265 - How to play the Footage on VLC and cut together in I movie ?

[ineedhelp]

Hi there

I have the downloaded footage from the NVR i beleive its in this format - H.265

VLC plays it without sound

No other media player is capable of playing it at all

I need to put the clips into I movie and edit them together including the sound

whats the best way to convert to a universal format please

thanks

=]

 

[Kyle]

Hi @ineedhelp

Use Hikvision's own media player, which is called VSPlayer.

When you open the video in there, right-click on the footage and you will see an option to convert to a more standard format, which should play sound on most media players.

 

[ineedhelp]

Hi @ineedhelp

Use Hikvision's own media player, which is called VSPlayer.

When you open the video in there, right-click on the footage and you will see an option to convert to a more standard format, which should play sound on most media players.

Hi Kyle problem is i am using vs player and i am getting a thick white line down the screen

i also see no option to convert

 

[ineedhelp]

i am on mac so i dont know if thats different from Windows setings?

any more help would be much appreciated

thank you =]

 

[spirch]

download video and play with ffplay (part of ffmpeg) if this cannot play it with sound, i would scratch my head

you can use ffmpeg to convert to other format

these are command line tools be aware that you will need to read some documentation

 

[Kyle]

Ah

i am on mac so i dont know if thats different from Windows setings?

Ah, sorry, yes it isn't supported on the macOS version of VSPlayer.

I think that the only way to convert the Hikvision MP4 format on a Mac is by using VLC player, but I'm not certain how good the results will be if you want to edit the footage, and I think that it can take quite a while.

In VLC, you should have the option to "Convert / Save..." in the "Media" dropdown.

 

[ineedhelp]

Ah

Ah, sorry, yes it isn't supported on the macOS version of VSPlayer.

I think that the only way to convert the Hikvision MP4 format on a Mac is by using VLC player, but I'm not certain how good the results will be if you want to edit the footage, and I think that it can take quite a while.

In VLC, you should have the option to "Convert / Save..." in the "Media" dropdown.

Hi Kyle,

I am using VLC however when I convert it does not play the audio on the converted file is there no other way of doing this, am i stuck ?

or am i missing something

thank you for your time

 

[ineedhelp]

download video and play with ffplay (part of ffmpeg) if this cannot play it with sound, i would scratch my head

you can use ffmpeg to convert to other format

these are command line tools be aware that you will need to read some documentation

thanks mate i looked at this but it seems to be beyond me i just want a simple interface to convert to standard format i really didnt think such a simple thing could be so hard :[ thanks for your input

 

[Kyle]

Just to check, can you hear audio with the recordings when you use VSPlayer?
Are you using H.265+ compression for the recorded footage?

 

[ineedhelp]

Just to check, can you hear audio with the recordings when you use VSPlayer?
Are you using H.265+ compression for the recorded footage?

Hi Kyle =]

yes I can hear audio with vs player fine

I am using H.265+ compression

can I send you a short clip to see if you can convert it with vlc or handbrake perhaps I am doing something wrong

thanks again

 

[spirch]

can I send you a short clip to see if you can convert it with vlc or handbrake perhaps I am doing something wrong

since it's the weekend and I might have sometime to kill, if you provide a sample video I can see what I can do with ffmpeg and provide you with the proper command line for the conversion

 

[Dan]

Hi @ineedhelp

I work on a Mac in our office, if you want to send your downloaded clip to info@use-ip.co.uk I will take a look and have a go at converting it for you.

It has been a long-running issue with all downloaded CCTV footage, but especially Hikvision. The issue is that the compression/encryption they use is non-standard and this makes playing back & converting the footage tricky.

There is also a security/legal reason, that is that they don't want the ability to access & manipulate the footage to be too easy because in court the evidence can be dismissed/disqualified if there is any suspicion that footage has been edited or manipulated.

 

[ineedhelp]

Hi @ineedhelp

I work on a Mac in our office, if you want to send your downloaded clip to info@use-ip.co.uk I will take a look and have a go at converting it for you.

It has been a long-running issue with all downloaded CCTV footage, but especially Hikvision. The issue is that the compression/encryption they use is non-standard and this makes playing back & converting the footage tricky.

There is also a security/legal reason, that is that they don't want the ability to access & manipulate the footage to be too easy because in court the evidence can be dismissed/disqualified if there is any suspicion that footage has been edited or manipulated.

Hi Dan i have sent you just a short clip via we transfer link email subject Forum Help request - forum user - ineedhelp thanks

 

[ineedhelp]

since it's the weekend and I might have sometime to kill, if you provide a sample video I can see what I can do with ffmpeg and provide you with the proper command line for the conversion

Hi Spirch i appreciate that but i was hoping for a more simple way of doing things as that software confuses me to be honest, i greatly appreciate the offer though =]

 

[Dan]

Hi @ineedhelp

Thanks for sending over your clip, I've had a go at converting it in different ways but every time the audio was not converted.

I think the issue is that the compression CODEC Hikvision uses compresses the video & audio data together in a way that most conversion tools just can't recognise and uncompress, so when you attempt to convert the file the software recognises the video data but can't uncompress the audio.

Unfortunately, I think the only way to successfully convert a small clip like this will be to install VSPlayer on a PC and use the converter tool built into the player.

 

[JB1970]

Hi @ineedhelp

Thanks for sending over your clip, I've had a go at converting it in different ways but every time the audio was not converted.

I think the issue is that the compression CODEC Hikvision uses compresses the video & audio data together in a way that most conversion tools just can't recognise and uncompress, so when you attempt to convert the file the software recognises the video data but can't uncompress the audio.

Unfortunately, I think the only way to successfully convert a small clip like this will be to install VSPlayer on a PC and use the converter tool built into the player.

Hi @Dan - I've rarely bothered with VS Player. However I've just exported a clip from one of my cameras with audio. It plays fine in VS player. However regarding the ability to convert the file from within VS Player, the instructions from within the app show the following:

When you click that first icon there are only two options and neither are the one shown from the instructions:

And 'Convert' is not an option in the right click menu:

Is it actually possible to convert a file using VS Player or just Hikvision myth? I must be missing something simple. My VS Player was one version out of date but I've updated it and it's the same with the latest version. I recall a year or so ago having issues getting the audio into another format when there was an accident outside my home I needed to provide footage for.

 

[spirch]

Hi Spirch i appreciate that but i was hoping for a more simple way of doing things as that software confuses me to be honest, i greatly appreciate the offer though =]

no problem, but looking at the result of Dan, it might be one last way of trying it (might fail anyway) before going to the vsplayer of windows

command line tool might look archaic but might also be one of the best (only) way sometime

 

[Kyle]

Is it actually possible to convert a file using VS Player or just Hikvision myth? I must be missing something simple.

I didn't realise, but both versions 7.4.4.5 (x64) and 7.4.4.8 (x86) are available to download on different Hikvision pages.

7.4.4.5 does not have any convert option, but 7.4.4.8 does - I've just tested both.
(This is on Windows only.)

I've tried Handbrake too, but like VLC, this does not recognise the audio.
You could try setting the audio encoding on the camera as AAC or MP3, which looks to be supported, but I'm not confident that this will work either (I haven't had a chance to properly test it yet, sorry).

---

EDIT - for some reason, the link above for v7.4.4.8 actually downloads v7.4.4.5 (I'll ask Hikvision about this), please download v7.4.4.8 here.

 

[JB1970]

I didn't realise, but both versions 7.4.4.5 (x64) and 7.4.4.8 (x86) are available to download on different Hikvision pages.

7.4.4.5 does not have any convert option, but 7.4.4.8 does - I've just tested both.
(This is on Windows only.)

I've tried Handbrake too, but like VLC, this does not recognise the audio.
You could try setting the audio encoding on the camera as AAC or MP3, which looks to be supported, but I'm not confident that this will work either (I haven't had a chance to properly test it yet, sorry).

---

EDIT - for some reason, the link above for v7.4.4.8 actually downloads v7.4.4.5 (I'll ask Hikvision about this), please download v7.4.4.8 here.

Perfect. Thanks @Kyle

What's strange is that the image from the instructions came from a pdf that is within both 7.4.4.4 and 7.4.4.5. Anyway I installed 7.4.4.8 on Windows (Parallels VM on my Mac) and tried a conversion of a short clip from a DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL with audio. I just selected MOV as the format, changed nothing else and it plays perfectly with the audio in Quick Time on Mac OS.

 

[spirch]

anyway, if you are interested here an example with ffmpeg

general command line
ffmpeg -i <input file name> -vcodec libx264 -acodec aac <output file name>

in my case it convert from

Input #0, mpeg, from '20230119T155928Z_20230119T160535Z.mp4':
Duration: 00:06:07.04, start: 28727.783667, bitrate: 5680 kb/s
Stream #0:0[0x1e0]: Video: hevc (Main), yuvj420p(pc, bt709), 3840x2160, 20 tbr, 90k tbn
Stream #0:1[0x1c0]: Audio: pcm_mulaw, 8000 Hz, mono, s16, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (hevc (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (pcm_mulaw (native) -> aac (native))

if you want to see all the details

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there is 4 files,

1. original file from the camera
2. output.mp4 converted file
3. convert.txt contain the command line
4. output.txt contain what ffpmeg spit out while processing