NEWBIE QUESTION: Is there a difference between .h264 and h.264?

[smw2102]

I was brought a video surveillance file that is a .h264. I have converted h.264 to .avi several times with no issues. However, my converters are not working with the .h264. It's hard to research, which I did for about an hour, due to people posting .h264, when speaking about h.264.

I hope I'm making sense? I asked the person who provided me with the file to get a the make/model of the DVR. It's usually easier to just download the proprietary viewing software.

Any help and or insight would be extremely beneficial.

Thanks,

-Michael

[jman98]

There's no difference, but my understanding is that many surveillance devices encrypt what they record, so that might be your problem. You could install MediaInfo on your PC and open the problem file with it and post the results here so we can see if anything stands out that might be a conversion problem. Can you play this file with any kind of standard media player like the free VLC or Windows Media Player? If you can't play it or it only plays in some kind of special player then it's probably encrypted.

[smw2102]

Thanks for the reply. Yes - I have tried VLC, but to no avail. I will give mediainfo a try, thanks.

[DarrellS]

.h264 is a raw stream. You may need to put the stream in a container for your converter to recognize it. Drop the stream into MKVmerge and save as .mkv.

If you are converting to avi, I would use Virtualdub.

If you still have trouble, posting a MediaInfo text file might help. (ooops, I typed too slow)

[smw2102]

Here is the mediafile text:

General
Complete name : C:\Users\Michael\Desktop\Video\6745654654.h264
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
File size : 345 MiB

Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=56
Width : 704 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive

[smw2102]

.h264 is a raw stream. You may need to put the stream in a container for your converter to recognize it. Drop the stream into MKVmerge and save as .mkv.

If you are converting to avi, I would use Virtualdub.

If you still have trouble, posting a MediaInfo text file might help. (ooops, I typed too slow)

Perfect! I used MKVtoolnix and it worked. Thanks for your help!

[DarrellS]

You are welcome.