convert .smv

[bigerniel]

Sujet : Need help decoding an old Smith Micro "VideoLink Mail" .SMV webcam video (1990s)
Hi everyone,
I have an old webcam video recorded with Smith Micro VideoLink Mail software (probably late 1990s), saved as a .smv file. The software is long discontinued and I can't find a working copy or player.
What I've found so far:
The file starts with embedded resource strings referencing "VideoLink Mail" (error messages, etc.)
FFmpeg detects a raw H.263 video stream inside (176x144, ~25fps) starting a few KB into the file
Extracting and decoding that stream with FFmpeg produces heavily corrupted/garbled frames — mostly colored noise blocks, not a real image
It's possible the video is interleaved with audio or extra framing bytes I'm not accounting for
Does anyone recognize this format, have a working copy of VideoLink Mail (Windows 98/XP era), or know how the container structures the H.263 payload? Any pointers appreciated — happy to share a hex dump or the file itself if useful.

[ProWo]

You can try clever FFmpeg-GUI.
It can handle smv video and convert it to modern avc/hevc mp4, mov, mkv aso.

[bigerniel]

Thanks for your answer but Unfortunately,i am a beginner and the software is too complicated to use; I can't get it to work.

[cholla]

Share the original file.
You will need to put it in a .zip file to post it in this forum.
7 zip is a good software for creating a .zip file.
Use zip for the format & Store for the compression level the default should work for the rest .
I just need to right click on the file & select 7 zip & "add to archive'

[Alwyn]

Try attaching it as is; it might work (SMV isn't listed in approved attachments but...)

If it doesn't, just change the extension to exe or similar, then we can change it back.

No need for 7zip, in Windows Explorer, right-click ("more options" if necessary) and towards the bottom choose "Send to >Compressed (zipped) folder".

Or put it up on Google Drive or similar.

[cholla]

@ Alwyn ,
I will give the extension change a try next time I have a file with an odd extension.
The Windows compression to zip is OK but it does slightly compress a file.
Or did on a video file I used it on.
7zip Store mode does not compress.
I only use Google Drive or similar if the file is too large to post.That is rare.

[bigerniel]

I'm trying with a Drive link because I couldn't even manage to upload the file—that shows you what my skill level is :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tEIQapuxRN2xKpCqFRev9vvNURdUPtoU/view?usp=sharing

[Alwyn]

@bigerniel, that's great, hopefully somebody will be able to work out how to open/convert it for you.

[cholla]

I did not have any success with this file.
I opened it in VLC but only saw a couple of artifacts.

I found a software that is supposed to open a .smv file but it is payware.
I have never used it & the trial would not open a .smv.

FileMagic is the software.
Other than the trail that failed I have never used it.

[bigerniel]

Thank you for your analysis, but I no longer have the original Video Link Mail software.

[autodidact]

I tried the script from here:
https://github.com/lenatron67/SMV-Conversion-Utility

It appears to have successfully converted the file.

[bigerniel]

Thank you very much.
You are going to make a family very, very, very happy.
I'll try to figure out how to do it, since I have about thirty of them.
Right now, I don't understand a thing...

[cholla]

@ autodidact ,
I admit I do not know how to use the the SMV-Conversion-Utility in the link you posted.
I'm not even sure I downloaded it correctly.

From his post I believe bigerniel even understands it less.

So for those of us not nearly as tech advanced as I know you are .
Please post some good instructions for downloading & Using the SMV-Conversion-Utility.

[lenatron]

Hi. Someone reached out to me via email (thank you whoever it was) and pointed me at this forum. I am the person who wrote the utility (or instructed Claude more like ). Fair point on how accessible it is to a non technical audience. I initially wrote it as (similar to OP) I had a bunch of 25+ year old files that my family couldnt access. I posted it to github more in case someone found it useful than actually thinking they would. Give me over the weekend to see if I can host it to a website that I will share here. Cant guarantee that the audio will sync perfectly (that was a massive pain in the original project) - but I can probably get something up and working. The other alternative would be an exe to run a user interface - but then you might run in to all sorts of 'are you sure you want to do this' windows warnings. And I dont even have a mac to start testing that side. Anyway. Thanks again to whoever sent me the message. And give me a few days to figure out the best approach.

[cholla]

I did not send the email but maybe I should have.
I suspect it was autodidact but apparently he already understood how to use the program.
So it may have been the OP bigerniel.
I do not have any .smv files except the one in this post.
I was curious to see if I could convert it.
I found none of the programs I have could do this.

autodidact has a couple of topics this forum where he does updates for FFMPEG for Windows 7 & older OSs & mkvtoolnix as well.

[lenatron]

I suspect your correct. @autodidact - PM or email me about adding to ffmpeg - that would be very cool!
Never let perfect get in the way of progress. a basic site wasnt too complicated
https://lenatron67.github.io/SMV-Conversion-Utility/

@bigerniel - please try this. Its hopefully easy to navigate. All processing is done on the browser and I dont store anything. I have tested this with a few of my original files and they work fine. Chrome/Firefox/Edge all work on windows. I dont have a mac so havent tested that. Because its on the browser it uses your PC to process. I havent tested on anything older than a few years. Hopefully its fine on older hardware, albeit it will be slow.

If you have any issues or some of your files dont convert correctly - let me know here or in github. I'd be happy to have a look!

[autodidact]

@lenatron,
I don't know who reached out to you but thank you for helping the OP.

@cholla,
If you want to try running it directly on your system, install Python 3 if you don't already have it. More recent versions are
not Windows 7 compatible anymore. It looks like 3.8.10 was the last to officially support it.
https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/

Download the smv2mp4.py script and the requirements.txt file.
https://github.com/lenatron67/SMV-Conversion-Utility

Then open a comand prompt and navigate to the location of the two downloaded files and first execute the following:

py -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Then try a conversion:

py smv2mp4.py input.smv [output.mp4]

Note that "py" is the python launcher name but if python.exe is in your PATH you could type "python" instead.

[cholla]

@ autodidact,
I tried.
I installed python 3.8.10 this went OK.

This is the Error I get:
"ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement av==17.1.0 (from versions: 0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.2.1, 0.2.2, 0.2.3, 0.2.4, 0.3.0, 0.3.1, 0.3.2, 0.3.3, 0.4.0, 0.4.1, 0.5.0, 0.5.1, 0.5.2, 0.5.3, 6.0.0, 6.1.0, 6.1.2, 6.2.0, 7.0.0, 7.0.1, 8.0.0, 8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.0.3, 8.1.0, 9.0.0, 9.0.1, 9.0.2,
9.1.0, 9.1.1, 9.2.0, 10.0.0, 11.0.0, 12.0.0, 12.1.0, 12.2.0, 12.3.0)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for av==17.1.0"

Windows 7 32-bit cannot use av==17.1.0.
av==17.1.0 in in the requirements.txt file

[ProWo]

"ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement av==17.1.0 (from versions:... 12.3.0)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for av==17.1.0"
Windows 7 32-bit cannot use av==17.1.0.
av==17.1.0 in in the requirements.txt file

Try with 12.3.0

[Alwyn]

Got it working.

Tip: do not include the square brackets [ ] around the "output.mp4" in the script.

How do we increase the bitrate? It's only 187kb/sec with that script.

And also, get it to output constant frame rate?

[Alwyn]

Don't worry about setting up the Python stuff, just use Lenatron's web converter.

[cholla]

Don't worry about setting up the Python stuff, just use Lenatron's web converter.

Lenatron's web converter did not work for me.
Maybe this will help Lenatron's figure out the problem.
I got this Error message:

4pat's.smv

Sorry — something went wrong while converting this video. Please reload the page and try again. If it keeps happening, the computer may not have enough free memory; closing other programs can help.
Technical details

RuntimeError: Aborted(CompileError: wasm validation error: at offset 157947: v128 not enabled). Build with -sASSERTIONS for more info.

I treid ProWo's suggestion of "Try with 12.3.0" but it still fails with Errors.

[Alwyn]

@Cholla, you need to come to the Dark Side... Win 11 64bit.

[bigerniel]

Hello
J'écris en Français pour tous vous remercier,
Lenatron, j'ai réussi avec ton lien : https://lenatron67.github.io/SMV-Conversion-Utility/
Je vais pouvoir regarder tout ça avec émotion,
Merci encore et bonne continuation !

[cholla]

@Cholla, you need to come to the Dark Side... Win 11 64bit.

I will stay on the Ashla for now.

No luck & I tried 4 different browsers.

[lenatron]

Hello
J'écris en Français pour tous vous remercier,
Lenatron, j'ai réussi avec ton lien : https://lenatron67.github.io/SMV-Conversion-Utility/
Je vais pouvoir regarder tout ça avec émotion,
Merci encore et bonne continuation !

vous êtes le bienvenu!
So happy this worked. Enjoy the trip down memory lane.

[lenatron]

Don't worry about setting up the Python stuff, just use Lenatron's web converter.

Lenatron's web converter did not work for me.
Maybe this will help Lenatron's figure out the problem.
I got this Error message:

4pat's.smv

Sorry — something went wrong while converting this video. Please reload the page and try again. If it keeps happening, the computer may not have enough free memory; closing other programs can help.
Technical details

RuntimeError: Aborted(CompileError: wasm validation error: at offset 157947: v128 not enabled). Build with -sASSERTIONS for more info.

I treid ProWo's suggestion of "Try with 12.3.0" but it still fails with Errors.

I do want to try and fix this. Can you let me know a few details please.
1. Do you know what processor you are using? From Win 7 recollection It should be somewhere in computer properties on control panel (or a quick search on how should get you there)
2. Your browser version - e.g. if its firefox - what version of firefox.

Thanks!

[cholla]

@ lenatron,
Here is the information requested:
4GB RAM
CPU

[Attachment 93967 - Click to enlarge]

Browsers tested:

[Attachment 93968 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 93969 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 93970 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 93971 - Click to enlarge]

[lenatron]

@cholla - give it a go again. The issue was the processor - the code claude wrote assumed that processor would support some fancy math module - which the AMD above just missed out on. 'I' re-wrote it so it should work on an older PC now. It should be live - all you need to do is reload the page.

[cholla]

@ lenatron,
The converter on your site worked like a charm. Quick & easy.
Thanks for the extra effort.