8

As part of a legal matter, I received a copy of a security video encoded using what appears to be an 'IMM5' codec, apparently often used by police. I also received a copy of 'BackupPlayer', which can play this video. Note that no media player I have installed, including VLC, is able to play it. IMM5 does not show up in the standard codec packs, and Google searches are surprisingly fruitless.

I would very much like to transcode this into a more common format, as it contains a deeply important moment, and I want the option of viewing this video for decades to come.

Handbrake is unable to handle the file, presumably because I do not have the IMM5 codec installed. Anyone have any pointers?

Peter Mortensen
  • 12,326
ChrisInEdmonton
  • 8,796

7 Answers7

3

If all else fails, you can try Virtualdub: http://virtualdub.org/ It offers the option to export to a series of BMP files, which you can then stitch together using a more common codec.

Did some googling, and IMM5 seems like a pretty obscure format, possibly without open-source implementation, too.

How about (and this is really the last option) using a desktop recorder tool (Fraps, VLC - yes, it can do that too.) and recording the video as it plays in that "BackupPlayer"? Since it's CCTV footage, it's probably low-resolution and framerate anyway, so you shouldn't have any noticable quality loss when doing that.

Jeroen Baert
  • 505
3

This obscure format seems to be produced by a number of DVRs that use the Infinity encoding chip. The references that I have found relate to the IMM4 codec, but may still be worth trying.

The article IMM4 Codec and MEncoder describes how the author converted IMM4 video to other formats, so my advice is to read it carefully. The codec was found to reside in VCMIMM4.dll, which would still probably need to be registered with regsvr32.

MPlayer counts IMM4 among its supported formats and may install the codec, as also explained in the above article.

I have found a download on the cctvone.com website that seems to have an installation file for the IMM4 codec, found here and again here. I have no personal experience with that website.

There may also be some connection between the IMM codec family and the GeoVision CCTV MPEG4 Codec, so you might try installing that as well.

harrymc
  • 498,455
2

FFmpeg now has a decoder for files encoded with the IMM5 codec. It is not in a released version yet so in order to use it, you will have to build it from the master branch.

It was added on August 29th in this commit

06needhamt
  • 121
1

See this blog, too:

https://spreadys.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/portable-smplayer-with-fjht-imm4imm5-and-imm6-codecs-included/

the link is taken from this reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1un7cx/converting_this_imm5_avi_file_into_something/

In particular, I've installed the mm4,5 and 6 codec and played the video with Windows Media Player successfully.

luca76
  • 115
0

I found an installer for the IMM5 codec in http://www.versiton.com/downloads/software/, named icodec_mmx_v5.0.0.8.zip (although the installer claimed to be for IMM4 v5.0.0.8).

After installing this, I was able to play the file in Windows Media Player, or open it in VirtualDub.

mwfearnley
  • 7,889
0

Run BackupPlayer setup.exe and install the IMM4 codec. Then download and play on Realplayer 16. That has a converter that allows you to convert for different devices. Works perfectly for me. Nicely converts to .m4v despite being IMM5 codec

British Dave Video Forensics
  • 1
-2

You can download the codec form this side https://www.lorextechnology.com/security-camera-systems/security-and-surveillance-cameras-system-with-lcd-monitor/L23WD-Series-1-p#downloadsTab Select: Codec - L23WD Series. When installed the codec you can open the file with potplayer and then by right click in the viewer window select video capturing, convert the file in a mkv Regards Martin

Martin Wermuth
  • 1