Fix broken 264 files from cheap security cameras

The market is full of cheap security cameras; they have one problem: the files they generate, which are allegedly 264 files, are impossible to play on any player – they will only play on proprietary software.

This page is meant to be a one-stop shop to convert those files into something playable, in Linux, Windows and Mac. (Note: Windows an Mac are coming), thanks to the work of Ralph Spitzner and Ian Macallan (please note that if you found this page useful you should strongly consider clicking on the “Donate” button on this page).

Please note that I didn’t code anything: all I did was package the necessary commands in a bundle, so that normal users can actually view the videos provided by those cameras.

Linux

For Linux, download the file broken264fixer, make it executable:

chmod +x broken264fixer

And simply run it:

broken264fixer inputFile.264

The result will be inputFile.264.mkv, which is fully playable.

Technical notes

The “264” files created by those cameras are not actually MP4 files – instead, they are files that contain interleaved blocks of video frames and blocks of audio samples, seperated by the HXAV/HXAF markers (in Ralph’s own words). This is likely due to the fact that the camera makers don’t want to pay licensing fees to create proper MP4 files.