What codec do I need for this video file?

Question

I have a video file from my Hikvision NVR which I cannot play on Windows 10 in either VLC or Windows Media Player - all I get is a black video and the seek bar just whizzes along...

I can play this video in VLC on Windows 7 so I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that it is a new computer.

Media Info gives me the following:

Complete name               : C:\Users\cos\Web\PlaybackFiles\2018-07-18\192.168.1.250_02_20180718224704172.mp4
Format                      : MPEG-PS
File size                   : 3.40 MiB
Duration                    : 1 min 51 s
Overall bit rate            : 257 kb/s
FileExtension_Invalid       : mpeg mpg m2p vob pss evo

Video
ID                          : 224 (0xE0)
Format                      : AVC
Format/Info                 : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile              : Main@L5
Format settings             : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC      : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames   : 2 frames
Duration                    : 1 min 51 s
Width                       : 2 560 pixels
Height                      : 1 440 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0
Bit depth                   : 8 bits
Scan type                   : Progressive
Color range                 : Full
Color primaries             : BT.709
Transfer characteristics    : BT.709
Matrix coefficients         : BT.709

Audio
ID                          : 192 (0xC0)
Format                      : MPEG Audio
Duration                    : 1 min 51 s
Compression mode            : Lossy
Delay relative to video     : -5 min 7 s

Text
ID                          : 189 (0xBD)
Format                      : RLE
Format/Info                 : Run-length encoding
Duration                    : 1 min 41 s

I'm sure this is a codec, or perhaps lack of codec, issue but I need some help to determine what the cause of the issue is.

Has anyone experienced thisbefore?

Answer 1

There is hardly any video in your AVC file. The data rate is 0.2Mb and the frame is a full size PC desktop resolution (WQHD) instead of a "real" video resolution such as 1920x1080. Based on its size, I'd guess you only have 2 frames in there. That would be stretching a bit if you need a real video file. A low bandwidth (25Mb) AVC source of this size would be 100x bigger.

Try using a standard HD res at the source, a bigger bitrate and more key frames.