Video View Issues

[Loobie]

Hi All,

To cut a long story short, I was recently in a car crash and assault. I have been sent a video of the incident however I've been unable to view it on my Mac, I have tired several different players etc but I've only had luck viewing it on a PC using and this was via a friend who is unable to record the footage and send it over to me. (I only have his shaky and poor phone footage of it)

Is anyone able to view the footage and record it so I'm able to view it or if possible convert it to a format that I would be able to view on my Mac?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, P.S mods if this is in the wrong section I apologise, please move or delete as you see appropriate.

Many Thanks,

L

[poisondeathray]

Did you try VLC for your Mac ? It can play almost anything

A problem with "converting" it is if it's not done correctly, you will lose details, create artifacts - not something you want in an accident video

[Loobie]

I used VLC daily and it keeps erroring when I try to play it

[poisondeathray]

What does the error say ?

Perhaps the video is corrupt ? Maybe an issue with "sending" it over to you

[Loobie]

It was the same file my friend viewed a few days ago, so I don't think there's any issues with it.

Just comes up like below

[poisondeathray]

The duration is "zero" - so it's probably corrupted

What is the filesize ?

How did your friend "send" it to you ? Maybe try resend the original file.


When something like that shows up in VLC, even if you try converting it, it will probably be corrupted too . But you can try something like handbrake (it probably won't work if VLC can't view it)

[Loobie]

It's the same file I sent to him the other day and it worked fine for him. It's copied straight from the CD they sent me.

It's an ASF file, I've had issues playing on a PC using VLC too.

[davexnet]

It's the same file I sent to him the other day and it worked fine for him. It's copied straight from the CD they sent me.

It's an ASF file, I've had issues playing on a PC using VLC too.

What is the size of the file, and what does mediainfo say about it. Put it in view>text mode and post the output here.

[poisondeathray]

No modern phone records in ASF . So I think your friend might be converting it or has some tech issues. Converting it is "bad" for the earlier reasons - quality loss etc...

Ideally you would want the original recording from the phone, unaltered

Or did I read this wrong? Is the ASF file from soemthing else, and the footage is not from a phone ? What is this "CD" and where did it come from ?

[Loobie]

It's the same file I sent to him the other day and it worked fine for him. It's copied straight from the CD they sent me.

It's an ASF file, I've had issues playing on a PC using VLC too.

What is the size of the file, and what does mediainfo say about it. Put it in view>text mode and post the output here.

General
Count : 325
Count of stream of this kind : 1
Kind of stream : General
Kind of stream : General
Stream identifier : 0
Inform : 5.78 MiB
Complete name : /Users/xxxxx/Desktop/INC 10 11th c02872 ST Forecourt 2 vehicle RTC and assault.asf
Folder name : /Users/xxxx/Desktop
File name : INC 10 11th c02872 ST Forecourt 2 vehicle RTC and assault
File extension : asf
File size : 6056908
File size : 5.78 MiB
File size : 6 MiB
File size : 5.8 MiB
File size : 5.78 MiB
File size : 5.776 MiB
Stream size : 6056908
Stream size : 5.78 MiB (100%)
Stream size : 6 MiB
Stream size : 5.8 MiB
Stream size : 5.78 MiB
Stream size : 5.776 MiB
Stream size : 5.78 MiB (100%)
Proportion of this stream : 1.00000
File last modification date : UTC 2017-02-11 12:10:12
File last modification date (local) : 2017-02-11 12:10:12

No modern phone records in ASF . So I think your friend might be converting it or has some tech issues. Converting it is "bad" for the earlier reasons - quality loss etc...

Ideally you would want the original recording from the phone, unaltered

Or did I read this wrong? Is the ASF file from soemthing else, and the footage is not from a phone ? What is this "CD" and where did it come from ?

The file I'm talking about is the original file, sent to me from the owners of the CCTV camera, the phone footage wasn't good enough to use. I'm unable to view the original footage on my Mac.

[Loobie]

I'm happy to upload the file, if anyone can try to play it or make a copy I can view that would really help.

[poisondeathray]

Go ahead and upload it

But CCTV cameras and security systems sometimes have encryption and you need to use their provided proprietary software to view the file . Or were you able to view the file on your friend's computer with "normal" software ?

[Loobie]

INC 10 11th c02872 ST Forecourt 2 vehicle RTC and assault.asf

They provided VisioWave Player, they were able to view it using this. Agreed that it might be encoded.

The issue is that I' unable to view it on a Mac, at this current time I'm unable to access any other device to view this on.

[poisondeathray]

This is encrypted. You need their software to view it. Does their software not work on a mac ?

If their software does not have export options, then the only way to "convert" it is to screencapture

[Loobie]

There software doesn't work on Mac, I asked my friend to screencapture it but they do not have a clue about this and it became somewhat difficult to explain it to them...

My issue is that the insurance company need this info ASAP to portion blame, and I want it resolved ASAP so I can sort my car issues out.

Is there a way to unencrypt it so it can be viewed on any format?

[poisondeathray]

Is there a way to unencrypt it so it can be viewed on any format?

Not very easily.

The fastest, "best" solution is to screencapture the output from their proprietary software, assuming it doesn't have an export option (often security software will have export options, but sometimes they are low quality "proxy" formats)

[Loobie]

Yeah, it didn't have this option (although it was rather hard to tell over FaceTime)

Thanks for your help, guess I'll have to try something else.