ffmpeg conversion .dav to any video files

Question

I am trying for days to convert .dav file (file generated by dvrs [image recorders]). I have tried several variations with ffmpeg and can not succeed.<

Answer 1

REM Convert DAV to MP4 and Concatenate and merge Files 
c:\RecordDownload\bin\ffmpeg -nostats -loglevel 0 -y -f concat -i mylist.txt -vcodec libx264 -crf 24 -filter:v "setpts=1*PTS" MERGED.mp4

REM Take merged video and speed it up for survey
c:\RecordDownload\bin\ffmpeg -nostats -loglevel 0 -i MERGED.mp4 -filter:v "setpts=0.1*PTS" FASTMERGED.mp4

This is what I used for a windows batch file that works, but I have found empirically that the amount of data generated by 6 3MP or 4MP cameras is overwhelming to process. I don't know if this will help

Answer 2

I have gone through above process and it was quite successful, only limit was in performing the operation with multiple files in batch. So, I came up with following solution.

1. First install ffmpeg

sudo apt install ffmpeg

2. Save following as convert.py then

import subprocess
from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join
onlyfiles = [f for f in listdir(".") if isfile(join(".", f))]

c=1
for i in onlyfiles:
    
    c=c+1
    list_dir = subprocess.Popen(["ffmpeg", "-y","-i",i,"-c:v","libx264","-crf","24",i[:-4]+".mp4"])
    list_dir.wait()

3. Run the code python convert.py

Answer 3

Using ffmpeg from dav to mp4

ffmpeg -y -i input-file.dav -c:v libx264 -crf 24 output-file.mp4

I use for security cameras and add -filter:v "setpts=3*PTS" param to slow video.

Reference to solution here

Answer 4

I spend few hours on unsuccessful attempts to do it with ffmpeg.

Problems: lower fps, processing stopping on with no frame error. Seems camera merges video stream in way that ffmpeg can't understand.

As I research, .DAV is kinda closed format from Dahua company.

Smart Player has ability to export video to AVI and it works for me. But it's Windows software.

Answer 5

for %%i in (*.dav) do (
  ffmpeg -i "%%i" -c:v libx264 "%%~i.mp4"
)
done

Try this for batch conversation. I have used another version of this to convert images & mp3's to videos. You probably need to tweak it a liitle to fit your needs.

Answer 6

ffmpeg doesn't support DAV (yet) as shown by ffmpeg -formats.

The reason why it appears to work for a while is because DAV is a Chinese modified version of H.264/AVC. ffmpeg attempts to guess your input format and it settles on its standard H.264 decoder as the best available match.

The decoding obviously fails at some point since DAV has vendor specific modifications. The format is also proprietary.

You can see this by running the following command:

ffprobe -i input.dav -v debug

The result is:

[h264 @ 0x264ec00] Format h264 probed with size=2048 and score=51

The score is only 51/100.