Provided by: dhav2mkv_1.4.1-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       dhav2mkv - DHAV video to MKV format converter

SYNOPSIS

       dhav2mkv [OPTION]

DESCRIPTION

       dhav2mkv is a standalone tool which converts DHAV(H.264) video to MKV(H.264) video.

       dhav2mkv  only  operates  at  media  container  level,  thus  the H.264 data is exactly as
       provided by the DVR (with all its bugs).

       dhav2mkv does not support specifying a channel number.  It  assumes  the  stream  holds  a
       single  channel,  instead  of a theoretically possible 'n' multiplexed channel stream. The
       reason that option support was dropped is  that  some  DVRs  generate  DHAV  streams  with
       incorrect  channel number such way that two or more channels collide with the same channel
       number, what makes impossible to differentiate one from another.  Also  there's  the  fact
       that DHAV multi-channel multiplexing is not used in practice.

       This tool is part of the TaniDVR project.

OPTIONS

       -i, --in-file
              <input DHAV file> (default: empty -- uses stdin).

       -o, --out-file
              <output MKV file> (default: empty -- uses stdout).

       -x, --sixty-hertz-ntsc
              (default:  not  enabled).   If  defined,  assumes  NTSC field frequency to be 60Hz,
              instead of the typical 59.94Hz.  Some cameras do generate exact 60Hz  video.   This
              switch does NOT affect PAL video.

       -r, --ts-proc
              0  -  No  correction  will  be  performed to the buggy DHAV stream timestamps.  1 -
              Perform timestamp correction (default).

       -h, --help
              Prints help message and exit.

USE CASES

       •  To convert already-existing DHAV files to MKV.  Those files may be tanidvr-generated or
          generated by the software included with the DVR itself (due to legacy, or by choice).

          DHAV files are only (currently) playable with the software included with the DVR, while
          MKV is a modern, open and  commonly  supported  container  format.   Using  a  standard
          container also allows the video to be recompressed for better storage usage.

       •  To  create  a  video  hub (a video repeater), propagating DHAV media which, at the end-
          point, is converted to MKV.

          The DVR itself supports a very limited  number  of  simultaneous  connections  (usually
          slighty more than hardware channels). Also, near the maximum active connections the DVR
          tends to be even more unstable. Direct  connections  to  the  DVR  should  be  kept  to
          essencial minimum.

          dhav2mkv allows the conversion of ongoing DHAV video (doing that with MKV is not viable
          for technical reasons). Any  stream  starting  point  (down  to  byte  granularity)  is
          acceptable.  Also,  temporary  source  interruption  with  lost/corrupted  data suffers
          automatic resync (what is also done by 'tanidvr', when outputting MKV data).

          A simple media hub may be implemented with existing complementary software such as ncat
          (from nmap project) with its '--broker' option.

       •  For Digital Forensics. Some police forces already use dhav2mkv for last-step recovering
          of video evidence from apprehended DVRs.

EXAMPLES

       •  Convert an existing DHAV file to MKV.

                     dhav2mkv -i MyVideo.dhav -o MyVideo.mkv

       •  Using dhav2mkv instead of tanidvr's internal routines.  NOTE: NOT NECESSARY in practice
          since tanidvr can output MKV directly.  It is shown only for didactic purposes.

                     tanidvr -n 0 -m 1 -t 192.168.0.12 -u admin -w secret1234 -c 2 | dhav2mkv > channel_2_video.mkv

       •  Simple media server and some clients.  NOTE: INSECURE. NOT to be implemented as-is.  It
          is shown only for didactic purposes.

                     (server at 192.168.20.1)
                     tanidvr -n 0 -m 1 -t 192.168.0.12 -u admin -w secret1234 -c 5 | ncat --broker -l 192.168.20.1 2000

                     (clients ; same/other host)
                     ncat --recv-only 192.168.20.1 2000 | dhav2mkv | mplayer -cache 32 -
                     ncat --recv-only 192.168.20.1 2000 | dhav2mkv > channel_5_realtime_backup.mkv
                     ncat --recv-only 192.168.20.1 2000 > channel_5_realtime_backup.dhav

AUTHOR

       dhav2mkv was written by Daniel Mealha Cabrita <dancab@gmx.net>.

       This manual page was written by Marcos Talau <marcos@talau.info> for  the  Debian  project
       (but may be used by others).