What's DAV Format and How to Play DAV Video?
I have a .dav file from a security video that I am trying to play. I need a player or at least a converter.
Many video surveillance system, CCTV security system, including DVR365, Dahua, Hikvision and many others recording video into DAV format. DAV file incorporates modified MPEG compression and is saved in an encrypted format.
To play DAV files, you need a special player since DAV format is not accepted by computers, media players and portable devices. One of DAV players is DVR365 PC Player which can play DAV files on a stand-alone PC elsewhere. Note that you need first put DAV files onto a CD or similar and then the DAV files can be played back by it.
How to Convert DAV to AVI, MP4, etc?
What should I do if I want to play DAV files on computer or portable devices like iPhone, Android, etc? Luckily, there is a free tool named Dahua AVI Convert (648KB), which can help you convert DAV file to AVI format. If your operating system is Mac OS X, you'd better to download the Mac version.
Unfortunately, it only converts DAV to AVI. If your target is to convert DAV to MP4, DAV to MOV, DAV to MP3, DAV to WAV, etc, we highly recommend this DAV Converter (for Windows, for Mac) which allows you to change the converted DAV file to other video and audio formats. Note that this tool doesn't support directly converting DAV files but only convert the converted DAV file.
The Steps to Convert DAV Files
After convert DAV to AVI by Dahua AVI Convert, click "Free Download" button to get the trial version of this professional DAV Converter and run it.
Step 1 Add the converted DAV file
Drag the converted DAV file directly to the program. It is the easiest way to import file. If you have multiple converted DAV files, just drag the folder where the converted DAV files are to load into Faasoft DAV Converter.
Step 2 Set output format
Click "Profile" drop-down button to select output format, for example, choose "MP4 MPEG-4 Video (*.mp4)" as output format if you need to convert to MP4 format.
Step 3 End the conversion
Hit the big "Convert" button to start the conversion from the converted DAV file to other video or audio formats.
Once the last step is finished, the DAV files can be played back on computer, and portable devices like iPhone, ipad, Apple TV, Android, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Creative Zen, Zune, Google Nexus, Microsoft Surface, etc and media players like iTunes, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, and edited by iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, etc and uploaded to video sharing sites like YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, BBC, and more.
Other Tools to Open or Convert DAV Files
Currently, only a few tools are compatible with DAV files. Here we list two of them for reference.
1. CCTVWindows works for Windows PCs suitable for controlling and monitoring multiple alien DVRs and alien IP cameras over the LAN or Internet.
2. ffmpeg can convert .dav files to other formats like mp4. You would need to install ffmpeg. Then you can run a command like: ffmpeg -i in.dav out.mp4