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Converting D-Link D-ViewCam .DVF files to .AVI

February 14, 2009 14:10 by docbliny

I ordered another HDHomeRun Thursday and was expecting it to arrive Friday. Well, after having some friends over for dinner I got around to checking the UPS order tracking and it stated “Delivered – Front door”. Well, I certainly couldn’t find it. So I started D-ViewCam to check the security footage from our front door and guess what? No UPS guy had ever walked past our front door Friday.

The software that comes with certain D-Link web cameras is pretty awful. It also creates proprietary files (MJPEG/MPEG4?) along with additional information such as motion detection details. This was the first time I wanted to actually get the video out in a format that I could actually forward on if needed which I didn’t end up needing. Amazon had placed a replacement order with free next day shipping about two hours after I emailed customer support. Of course, this didn't really help on a Friday (OK, OK… Saturday) past midnight.

Turns out that D-ViewCam doesn’t work all that well on a Windows Home Server, at least through Remote Desktop. I was able to set the start and end cue points only once for an export. Other times they were disabled making it impossible to actually export anything. And the one time I was able to export, I ended up with a zero length file.

Long story short (I’ll leave out having to install VS2008 in a virtual machine since D-ViewCam doesn’t work under 64-bit Vista either), a few hours later I had a custom utility that will take a .DVF file and convert it into an .AVI. Unfortunately, I have to use the libraries from D-ViewCam to do this, which means you’ll need to have that installed. In addition, the format (compression) doesn’t seem to work (It doesn’t have any effect. The same goes for exporting via D-ViewCam).

The story also has a happy ending, the person who received the package a few streets down was kind enough to bring it over this morning, so now I have 4 tuners in Vista MCE, but getting that to work is another post altogether.

Dvr Convert Screenshot

The utility is a quick hack. It will only convert the whole file, and this will take several hours. It doesn’t do batches, and you can’t cancel it (unless you kill the app with Task Manager). I didn’t want to spend the time writing these unless someone actually asks for these features.

It’s available on the downloads page. Just extract and run DvrConvert.exe. Let me know if you want the source.

I’ve only tested with D-ViewCam 2.03 (available here) which is listed to work with the following cameras:

DCS-900
DCS-900W
DCS-G900
DCS-910
DCS-920
DCS-950
DCS-950G
DCS-1110
DCS-2000
DCS-2100
DCS-2100+
DCS-2100G
DCS-2120
DCS-3110
DCS-3220
DCS-3220G
DCS-3410
DCS-3415
DCS-3420
DCS-5220
DCS-5300
DCS-5300G
DCS-5300W
DCS-5610
DCS-6620
DCS-6620G
DCS-6110


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Categories: dotnet | Home Automation
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Comments (5) -

3/5/2009 7:48:31 PM #

Drew

Hi... Thanks for the app! I'd like the source code so I can add support for multiprocessors.

Drew Canada

3/8/2009 10:32:04 AM #

docbliny

Drew, I just added the source to the downloads page. I'm not sure if it'll help you with what you want to do. As I mentioned, I'm using the controls from D-Link for the conversion. I guess you could instantiate multiple instances to utilize more cores/processors.

docbliny

4/24/2009 11:54:02 AM #

Mike Cook

Hi
I downloaded the DVF converter, but it crashes when I try and convert the dvf file.

The details of the error message is as follows:

Operating system: Microsoft Windows NT 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1
CLR Version: 2.0.50727.3074
Processors: 2
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x8002000F): Parameter not optional. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8002000F (DISP_E_PARAMNOTOPTIONAL))
   at System.RuntimeType.ForwardCallToInvokeMember(String memberName, BindingFlags flags, Object target, Int32[] aWrapperTypes, MessageData& msgData)
   at MEDIAPLAYERLib._DMediaPlayer.FileOpen()
   at AxMEDIAPLAYERLib.AxMediaPlayer.FileOpen()
   at DvfConvert.Console.btnConvert_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in \\bliny1\Videos\DvfConvert\Source\Console.cs:line 138
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

I'm trying to convert a 13Gb file, which D-link software has created recording video using the 5300G camera.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike Cook United Kingdom

4/24/2009 11:56:58 AM #

Mike Cook

addendum to previous post:

I thought it may have something to do with the file size, but same happens when I try converting 1 hour of footage - around 50Meg

Mike Cook United Kingdom

4/24/2009 3:20:59 PM #

docbliny

Mike had two problems: 1. He had an older version of D-ViewCam installed, and 2. for some reason the 13GB file wouldn't work (The smaller, regular sized files worked).

docbliny

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