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Playing .264 video files in VLC player

How to play .264 video files from IP cameras/DVRs?

.264/.h264 is the file extension for video files exported/recorded by IP cameras and DVRs. Many users are struggling to find the way to play .264 files on PC. In addition to using the specific media players provided by your supplier. Actually, you can play the .264 video files on VLC media player. However, the default setting of VLC media player will not be able to play .264 files. This article intends to teach you how to play .264 video files in VLC meida player. If you think this article is helpful, please share this article, so that helping people to find the correct method to solve this headache.

Part 1: How to play .264 video files?

#1. Download and install VLC media player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player that plays most multimedia files, in addition to play files, the VLC player can play real-time video stream via RTSP protocol.

VLC player : Download and install VLC Player from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

#2. Run the VLC media player

Open the VLC media player, and select "Preference" from the Tools menu.

VLC Reference

 #3. Select "All" to show all nest preference settings

All Preference Setting

#4. In "input / codecs" column, select "Demuxers"; Demuxers are used to separate audio and video streams.

Demuxers

#4. Changing the default setting [Automatic] to [H264 video demuxer]

Demuxers

#5. Open the .264 file, making sure to select "All Files"

Demuxers

When searching online, you may find many posts that using AVIgenerator (V1.8, V1.8, V2.0 etc) can convert the .264/.h264 files to AVI format which most of media players can support. However, when I tried this method, I failed to generate .AVI files for my .264 video files recently recorded by IP cameras. According to Larry - the software engineer from Spreadys, AVIgenerator can process .264 raw files into the AVI container, most of them are basic wrappers, the image quality of generated .AVI file will be poorer than original raw files.

Part 2: How to convert the .264 video files to MP4 files?

After I tried all the media players and converters, all these software/converters failed to achieve this. However, by coincidentally, I successfully used the VLC built-in converter and handbrake software to convert the raw .264/.h264 video files to playable MP4 files.

#1. Select [Convert/Save...] from the drop menu of Media

Convert/Save VLC Menu

#2. A [Open Media] window will pop-up, click "Add" to add the .264 file needs to convert. Then, click "Convert/Save" button to continue.

[Open Media] window

#3. Selecting " Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)" in Profile list, click "Config" icon to config the profile setting.

Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)

#4. Selecting the "MPEG-TS", not the MP4/MOV (default), then go to "Audio codec" to disable audio.

Convert/Save VLC Menu

#5. Go to "Video codec" tab, choosing "H-264" in Codec listing, then select/check "Keep original video track". This step is very important.

Audio codec
Video codec

#6. Clicking "Save" to save the profile setting, then click "Browser" to select the directory where the generated file need to be stored. Thereafter, click "Start" to proceed file generating. Just several seconds, you will get files with .ts file extension.

#7. Run the Handbrake software, import the .ts file to convert.

Handbrake software

Lastly, Handbrake is my favorite media file converting software. I spent the whole day to find the way to play and convert .264/.h264 video files, unfortunately I solved this. If you think this article is helpful, I appreciate if you can share this article to let more people know this simple method.

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