After a break-in, a collision or a dispute, the footage usually has to go somewhere: a police or
insurer upload portal, an e-mail, a WhatsApp chat. Recorder exports rarely make it, because
portals and apps take MP4 with H.264 video and refuse .dav files, Hikvision program streams,
H.265 or 4-megapixel pictures.
How to prepare the footage
- Export the relevant period from the recorder in its own format (not as a player program).
- Upload the files, or a ZIP of the export folder.
- This page has Make it play everywhere switched on: the picture is re-encoded to H.264 at up to 1080p and 30 fps, and the sound to 48 kHz AAC.
- If the export was split, choose Join the clips into one video: the clips are put in recording order and the gaps between them are listed.
- Download the MP4 and the report.
What to send along
The report lists, for every original file, its SHA-256 checksum, the recorder's start and end time, gaps in the recording and anything that was damaged or left out. The MP4 carries the recording start as its creation time and, where the file stores it, a subtitle track with the recorder's date and time for every second.
Keep the originals
A converted MP4 is a copy made for viewing, not a forensic copy: re-encoding changes the picture data, and the recorder's clock may have been set wrong or to another time zone. Keep the original export unchanged, with the report. If the police ask for the original files, send those; the checksums show they are the same files.
Size limits of apps
WhatsApp and many portals limit the file size. A long recording can still be too large after conversion; cut it to the part that matters with the video trimmer, or make it smaller with the video compressor, both of which take the MP4 straight from the result.
More about what this tool reads and writes: CCTV Footage to MP4.