.dav file playing black screen only?

sk8board

Hi there,

I downloaded camera footage to a USB, its a standard .dav file. However when I try to play it on any media player, its just a black screen, no image, with the watermarks for "channel 1" or the date stamp - so theres definitely an image there, but it seems to be encrypted maybe?

I've tried converting to mp4 and it just plays the same black image with the watermarks

anyone any ideas?

altor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058327909/dav-file-playing-black-screen-only

Usually the recorder will have its own player.

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121526650#Comment_121526650

It does play locally, perfectly - it’s a business being sued by a customer, and when they copy the files to a USB stick for their solicitor, it just plays black with the watermarked, using the same player - it’s as if the image is encrypted when copied

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121526727#Comment_121526727

Sounds like the solicitor lacks the codec to decode the video component. What was it encoded in?

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121526738#Comment_121526738

That’s exactly what I thought, this is a codec problem - how can I check what it was encoded in?

it’s a .dav file that play off the cctv system using Amcrest SmartPlay.

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527101#Comment_121527101

From reading about the .dav format, it also encrypts the contents. They do have a standalone player which may work:

https://www.winxdvd.com/play-video/dav-file-player.htm

ryangontv

Could try screen recording it with OBS or something similar, yes it's a pain but if it works it works 🤷‍♂️

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527260#Comment_121527260

They copied the files over to usb, didn’t check that they actually played from the usb (which is fair enough I suppose, why would you think they wouldn’t play) - and then the cctv over-wrote the original content 🤦‍♂️.

ill give winXdvd a go; I’ve tried a few others

ryangontv

Sounds like a plan.