Viewing footage

**Fredly** · 09-04-14, 02:16 PM

After a car park accident I got a short video from the Liquorland store where it happened, I watched the footage on the stores equipment and the manager burnt me a DVD but when I got home I could not view it on any of my computers, laptops or on the 2 DVD players I have.

The DVD players say there is no content and the computers say there is an extension (.264) and because the extension is unknown I should be sure it comes from a trustworthy source, when I click "yes" it goes to play it and then a window pops up that says "windows media player cannot play file. The player might not support the file type or the codec that was used to compress the file" and there's a tab for web help.
the web help finds nothing.

Ive been back to the store and the manager can play it on his equipment but doesn't know what I can do to view it on any other device, I asked if he had formatted it and he didn't know anything about that either.

I think I may need to install the correct driver on my laptop to view it but have no idea on how to choose one, I'm hoping that someone familiar with Liquorland (Coles) CCTV equipment can steer me in the right direction.

**aa23** · 09-04-14, 03:04 PM

Try installing VLC. Free and should play it

**freakee1** · 09-04-14, 04:03 PM

yep - VLC will definitely play a .264

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**Fredly** · 10-04-14, 10:26 AM

Thanks aa23 and feekee1 for the info and link, I'll let you know how it works out.

**watchdog** · 10-04-14, 11:42 AM

or get him to record it in AVI format (useable by most media players)

**Fredly** · 10-04-14, 12:07 PM

I don't think the poor bloke has any idea how to operate the equipment so he probably doesn't know how to record any other way than what he's attempted, I suspect that the disc wasn't finalized as that is the result I get when I don't finalize a recorded DVD in my old recorder, the disc plays in my recorder but no other, then if I finalize it it does play in other devices. In any case, I think the footage on the stores DVR has been overwritten as the guy that hit my car says he went to get his own copy and the footage couldn't be found, maybe more operator error as I think Coles may want to keep at least 3 months worth of footage, and this happened one month ago now.

I have installed VLC from freekee1's link but the footage still won't play, the screen remains blank and there is no indication of any content at all even though the disc shows a small amount of filled space when loaded into the DVD drive of my laptop.

**Mods** · 10-04-14, 12:20 PM

Very surprised VLC didn't work. Try searching for h264 player - there are heaps out there. Other option is to download a h264 codec.

Cheers.

**Mods** · 10-04-14, 12:21 PM

... Or the other option would be to skip the playing part and see if you can convert it. Try 'convertxdvd' or 'winavi', or some other program that suports multiple formats.

Cheers.

**Fredly** · 10-04-14, 01:05 PM

Sorry Mods but I have no idea on how to try any of your suggestions they are too technical for me, I'd be happy to learn something from you if you have the time and patience.

**Mods** · 10-04-14, 01:40 PM

How big is the file ? Can you upload it. i can convert it and send it back.

Try using 'filebox' up the top of the screen ^^^^

**Drift** · 10-04-14, 01:43 PM

You'll likely need the player that's shipped with the DVR if it's not an AVI file. Most DVRs have an option to backup in a proprietary encrypted format to reduce the risk of tampering. It's likely this file that you've been given.

**MCman** · 14-04-14, 10:13 AM

yep, Drift is spot on. Even though the format might be h264 it almost certainly wont be the type that will play through VLC or the like.
It will just be named in this format but they could have named it anything. Go back and do another burn of the footage or any other footage and there will be an option to include a player for download with the footage.
This option may also be buried in the archiving menu somewhere too.

**Fredly** · 22-04-14, 10:03 AM

Sorted ! MCman hit the nail on the head, the player, called processViewerPro was hidden in the disc Contents and after I installed it and opened the file again the "play with ProcessViewerPro" was on the list of players I could open it with and it played straight up, the brand of DVR is Dalmier as a matter of interest.

And the dude that hit me is paying up after he saw the footage, win, win.

Thanks for all your help fellas !