V1.4.
About SiraView SiraView gives police officers straightforward access to a wide range of digital CCTV video. Developed in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office, it is specifically designed to make the task of viewing such video simple and accurate.
Licensing If you are using a registered licensed version of SiraView it will start immediately and be ready to view video. If your license is invalid, you will be prompted to either buy a new license or begin a free trial. The free trial mode lasts for 3 days and is designed to enable you to use SiraView as normal while you arrange a license renewal. Note that video convert/export is not available in free trial mode. When the free trial finishes, SiraView enters watermarked mode.
Loading Video using the Open Video Wizard The Open Video Wizard can examine the contents of the CD/DVD (or other storage device, USB stick, hard disk etc.) looking for compatible video files. To start the wizard use the File -> Open video wizard menu option, or use the toolbar button. The wizard will prompt you to choose a location to search for video. The wizard will then build a list of all the files on the device and examine them for video contents.
Loading Video without using the Open Video Wizard If you know which file to choose to open the video, or if you know which decoder you wish to use to attempt to decode the video, you can use the traditional method of loading video instead of the Open Video Wizard. To open a file use the File -> Open video menu option, and select the appropriate file from the hard disk, USB device or CD/DVD.
Single-channel or Multi-channel Digital CCTV footage usually contains views from multiple cameras. SiraView enables you to view a single camera in full-screen mode, or all cameras in multi-channel mode. Multi-channel mode shows a 4x4 grid of cameras at one time. If there are more than 16 cameras available in the video you can scroll down to see them all. All cameras Single camera You can switch between multi- and single-channel mode by using the toolbar buttons or by clicking on the video frame.
Playback & Navigation SiraView gives you precise control over the video. You can play the video forwards or backwards, step through it a frame at a time, or jump directly to where you want to be.
In some cases SiraView cannot tell whether a time offset should be applied. You should make a judgement in such cases as to whether the displayed time is accurate, or whether a correction should be made. Anywhere that you see the time info icon information about the time displayed. in SiraView, you may click on it to obtain further In the example on the left, you can see that there is no time offset embedded in the video file. This means that the displayed time and the embedded time are the same.
Discontinuities in Video Multiplexed video is common in CCTV systems because many cameras need to be recorded simultaneously. The recording system will switch between cameras and store some frames from each in turn. In addition, the system may be set up so that a particular channel gets recorded at a higher frame rate than others. Some systems are alarm-based, which means they only record video when an alarm is triggered – perhaps by someone opening a door, or triggering a PIR sensor.
Exporting & Printing Still Images Still images can be saved as a Bitmap image or sent to a printer. The viewer must be in single camera mode and be paused for these options to be available. To save a frame as a Bitmap image: use File -> Save Frame menu option, or click on the save frame icon on the toolbar, or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + S. You will be asked to enter a filename.
Quicktime Export The QuickTime MOV file export can provide the highest picture quality (by selecting the high picture quality option), or can produce a small file (by selecting the “Small file size” option). If you must export video from SiraView, we recommend using the high quality mode QuickTime file. Image Quality High quality video – optimises the output for picture quality. This will produce large files, but the image quality will be good.
Time Options DVD does not support the variable frame rates commonly found in CCTV systems. To get the CCTV footage to play back at a reasonable rate on 25 frame-per-second DVD it is usually necessary to duplicate frames. The DVD exporter gives you three options: Playback at normal speed, but jump over large gaps – large gaps in the video (for example, where an alarm-based system only records when something happens in view) are skipped over. A “large” gap is defined as 1 minute long.
Generic Decoders Some of the decoders built in to SiraView are known as “Generic” decoders: GenericADV601, Generic Folder Of JPEGs and Generic JPEG. These decoders only know how to decode images – they cannot decode timestamp or camera number information. If you load a file using a generic decoder, you will be able to see the video frames, but playback speed will be wrong, timestamps won’t exist, and all channels (if it’s a multichannel video) will be displayed multiplexed in the same window.
The Main Screen Here’s a quick reference overview of SiraView’s main playback screen. Select which camera to view in single camera mode Select which track to view, if supported by the decoder Audio present * Switch between single camera and multi-camera modes Warning icon appears if a frame could not be decoded Go to time available when a video is loaded.
SiraView + (Audio) capabilities SiraView+ is now capable of recognising the audio data streams where present in CCTV footage. If you are running the standard release of SiraView and the system detects audio, SiraView presents one of 2 audio icons on the toolbar. By clicking on this icon the following dialogue will be presented: Upgrade will need to be purchased to listen to the audio Audio stream currently playing you may need to check you volume is turned up.
Supported Digital CCTV Video Formats Below are details of the digital formats supported by this software and a description of the structure of the files in each format. Some manufacturers regularly change their formats so there is no guarantee that all variants of a format are supported. Please note that often a single format may be known my many different names. The table below records the aliases we’ve come across.
Loronix CCTVWare Meerkat Index File Meerkat Master Index File Sira Video Index Mitsubishi Mitsubishi V2 Mobile Phone 3GP Mobile Phone MP4 MPEG-2 DVD** New Wavestore Nuvico NVDV2 Octar/ Initial Electronic Systems Oggle OmniVision OVR 2200 Pelco Endura Pelco PNS Petards CryptoVision Sanyo Southeastern MPEG4 Stork Synectics Tecton Darlex Teleste MoRIS TimeSpace X100 TimeSpace X200 Tomohawk MJP Uniplayer UVMS V4 Player ViconNet VideoSwitch Viseum Evidence Locker Visimetrics JPG2000 Visimetrics MPEG-2 Vista Smar
Notes on Selected Decoders Decoder Notes AD Holdings VCR Each video is contained in a single file with an .mjp extension. AData Each video is contained in a separate file with an .ajp file extension. This digital CCTV format is known by several names including "AData", "LJD Dedicated" and "JPEG2000". AL Net The video is held in files which have a .vsd extension. There can be multiple files in a folder, but opening any one loads the whole set into SiraView.
month and day of the recording (for example "20070306". The folder contains an "Index" folder containing .inx files and other folders containing .img files. Opening any one of the .inx or .img files will open all of the video with the folders. Video recorded from different cameras may have different images size. SiraView shows the smaller images surrounded by a grey border so that each image is displayed at an identical resolution. DV file Decoder only supports PAL format files.
GeoVision Open the .avi file from the GeoVision system. SiraView supports GEO MPEG4, GEO MPEG4 (ASP) and GEO H264 variants. Some GeoVision examples do not contain camera or time information, in which case SiraView will still play the video but will give you a warning about the missing information. Geutebruck Each video is contained in a single file with a .MBF extension. HeiTel Each HeiTel video file has a .hpx extension and must be opened individually.
cameras recorded at the same time it is necessary to open the Meerkat Master Index file. Meerkat Master Index File These have the a .mix file extension and require a second file to be present that has the same base file name but has a .jpg extension. SiraView will load video for all camera present within the video file. Mitsubishi MitsubishiV2 All the TLX files in the selected folder are loaded.
file with an “inf” extension in the INFO directory, which is a sub-folder of SANYO. Sira Video Index This is a special format that permits SiraView to play video from hard disk images. Prior to viewing the contents of a hard disk using SiraView, a separate application is used to create a set on index files for the video. You must have both the index files and hard disk before the video can be played. Southeastern MPEG4 Each video is contained in a single file with a .avf file extension.
TimeSpace X100 Each video is contained in a separate file with a .oba file extension. TimeSpace X200 Loads and plays all XBA files in the folder Tomohawk MJP The video from a one camera is held in a single file with an .mjp file extension. The proprietary video compression algorithm by the Tomohawk recorder can result in parts of images being replaced by earlier images. Usually this happens when a moving object such as a person or car has similar colours to its background.
Vista Smart Player The video consist of multiple pairs of files in a folder. The files in each pair have the same name but one has an .idx file extension and the other has no extension. Open any .idx file to load all of the files in the directory. VSE Mpeg4 variant This decoder opens files which have a .vse file extension and whose format used MPEG4 compression. There are other files with a .vse file extension and compression based on JPEG which this decoder does not yet open.
Licensing & Support SiraView is copyright © 2009 Sira Defence and Security Ltd. On installation the software will run as a free trial for 3 days after which you must purchase a licence. To purchase a licence contact us at the address below. You will need to supply us with the node code which can be found in the ‘Help about’ box.
Licensing & Configuration of Export Export of video sequences is only available for fully licensed copies of SiraView – it is disabled in free trial mode. In addition, it is possible for your system administrator to explicitly disable export in the license file, or in the configuration file (See SiraView Configuration Guide – for more detail). Support is only available via email: support@siraview.
