This update to Amped FIVE brings a new and improved Batch Convert DVR utility, along with developments to Advanced File Info, the linking filters, and many others.
Welcome back to yet another update for Amped FIVE. The big news for this release is that we are reintroducing the new and improved Batch Convert DVR utility after a complete redesign of it. In this post, you will learn how powerful it can be to process large amounts of data using multiple folder and file selections, along with various output structure options.
This is a timely reminder that many native evidential exports from surveillance systems are just “data” until they have been processed correctly. The data contains the video, the audio, and the timing information. Without the correct identification and extraction, however, that data can be compromised.
This is where the Amped Engine comes in, and in this latest FIVE update, we have added several new video formats, such as MXG from Mobotix. More importantly, the extraction of proprietary audio and timing information has increased thanks to users assisting in new format identification.
Let us now look at how the new Batch Convert DVR uses Amped Engine to deal with the hundreds of different CCTV formats.
See the New Features in Action
Batch Convert DVR
Batch Convert DVR can be found under the Utilities dropdown menu. Once open, simply drag a folder or folders into the main window to populate the Source Material.
In the above example, a folder named Export was dragged in. Within this folder were a series of other folders, all covering different dates. Individual folders and files can be selected using the checkboxes. After source selection, you need to specify where you want everything to go, using the Output Folder data entry.
The next decision is how to structure the converted files.
Setting the Output Folder Structure
You may notice that the files contained within the folders are named the same. This is common with DVR exports and can cause some difficulties if each export has several streams included. Separating and converting them all may result in files having the same filename. However, having them all inside the same folder can help you to perhaps concatenate multiple files together at a later stage.
We are sure many of you would have had days of footage, where each dated folder contained 24 other folders containing all the video files for that hour. Within the Output Folder Structure are three options.
The default is to mirror the input folder structure. The result will be that all folders will be copied and the converted files will be in the five folders.
The other options place all the converted files into a single folder.
However, one of the options places every converted file into a separate sub-folder. This may be required, especially if you have several proprietary files with 16 cameras and each one has a timestamp and audio.
If you decide to place all the files into the same output folder, you can now prepend the original folder name. There is a slider to select how many levels you require.
Let us have a look at a basic output, placing all the files into the same folder but with the original folder names prepended to the filename.
If we only want the files from Camera 1 (Video000) from each day, you can just use Windows search.
What source material you select depends on your case. Then, how you want to manage that data will also be dependent on the tasks required.
Customizing Extensions to be Converted
Along with the standard Convert DVR tabs, we have two new ones. The first is Extensions.
This controls what file extensions are passed to Amped Engine, and what are not. This is handy to avoid conversion errors when other information files may be included in folder structures.
Visualizing Error Messages
The error messages are in the Messages tab.
If files fail to convert, you can identify which ones here, and save the log for reference. You can also load the file into Advanced File Info to examine the data better. If you identify that it is not a video, you can add the extension to the exclude list using the dedicated button on the bottom right.
Batch Convert DVR is a very powerful tool, with multiple use cases when dealing with large amounts of data from different sources, and then bulk exports from the same source. However, it is important to understand the data first. Perhaps, by using the standard Convert DVR and Advanced File Info to make some decisions on individual files. This will give you a good understanding of the data before attempting large batch conversions.
Batch Conversion, linked with Windows sorting and restructuring, and then concatenation of data using Convert DVR make handling huge data extracts much easier.
And now for the rest of the updates.
Convert DVR
The first news is that the naming of audio files extracted from proprietary data now matches the naming convention of the video. This allows easier identification of each file’s associations.
Next is an important change for those users still stuck on Windows 7 or 8. Due to several improvements within Amped Engine, a small number of proprietary conversions will not be possible due to the use of architecture within Windows 10 and 11. Our advice is to update your operating system as soon as possible to ensure you benefit fully from the software.
Image Loader
Support has been added for the WEBP image format.
Most web browsers use this modern image format due to the advanced compression used. They can now be loaded natively into Amped FIVE if recovered as evidence.
Another format now fully supported through Image Loader and drag and drop is WBMP. This is a basic Wireless BMP, that consists of only black and white pixels.
Remember, if you find an image format that is not fully supported, please let us know. This helps the entire Amped family.
Advanced File Info
The first tab, which was previously called “Summary”, now only contains data derived from the FFMS Multimedia library. As such, the tab is now named FFMS.
Having the data in this tab being sourced from a single library, makes things easier when comparing data sources, such as between FFMS, MediaInfo, and FFprobe. You may also note that Fps (Frames per second) is now the data calculated and reported by FFMS and is no longer the Base FPS of the container. The next change here is an update to ExifTool. We are now using Version 12.77 and this is reported at the top of the output data.
Hint: all this data can be copied and pasted into other documents if required.
Finally, we have a change to the Frame Analysis. Depending on the order of decoding, calculated value columns, such as PTS Duration, would often be positioned further along in the column list. To solve the problem of having to move these manually, all columns are now fixed at the start.
You can always move them after all calculations are computed if required.
Hint: use the Export in TSV or Open in Excel buttons at the bottom to utilize the data for any specific analysis or graph requirements.
Annotate
A quick, but handy addition to Annotate is an increase in the size of Keyframe indicators.
As you increase the size of the player panel, the indicators of keyframe location will increase dynamically. This helps to make them much easier to visualize.
Timeline
Many processes in Amped FIVE can only be completed once the user has been notified of detected irregularities. In Timeline, one of these messages warns you that different frame rates may cause an undesired output.
The ability to hide all future messages has been added to control the project rather than a single filter. Checking this box will result in no message being presented for subsequent timelines.
Frame Size
Such a useful filter that gives you the ability to place your video or images into a larger “frame” without resizing the original. This also allows for annotations to be placed outside of the video.
The filter has various Video and Print Presets to help resize to your desired output. This is where we have added two new printing sizes, “L” and “L2”, both at 300 dpi.
We hope this helps those users who still have to prepare outputs for both screen and paper.
Reset Layout and Options
A small change here.
This will not only return program options and window layout to the default. However, from this update, it will also reset any changes to the application Display Scale Factor. If you ever need to restore all the defaults, you may need to adjust any Windows scaling settings if you have configured those.
Program Options
Following on from the reset options, we have a small change to the Program Options.
You can now decide what the default playback mode should be. The default is now to use the “Presentation Time Stamp (PTS)” from within the Container Format. Read on to find out how this is displayed in the Player Window.
Player
The playback mode options are accessed through the right-click of the cog at the left of the Player Window.
As detailed earlier, the default is now to use the container frame rate. The Play icon will be yellow to identify this mode.The decision on which playback method to select all depends on the file, the format, how it is being decoded, and if a data timestamp is available.
When a proprietary format has no timing information and is being decoded directly with no data extraction, allowing FFMS to control the playback may be an option. When a proprietary format has a data timestamp, but no internal timing control on the video, then Timestamp-based playback may assist.
There have been huge developments in lossless data extraction from proprietary formats, allowing many more standard containers to be used. As a result, setting PTS as the default should minimize the need for changes.
Audio Writer
We have made some speed improvements to the Audio Writer.
When transcoding the audio into a new format, rather than simply copying the data using “Stream Copy”, we have removed some unnecessary data handling to process the audio much faster. With large durations, you should find a noticeable difference.
History
In the last update to Amped FIVE we introduced Nested folders in the History panel.
Following along from this we have now increased the number of Folders, Chains, and Filters you can manage inside the History window.
As you can see in the above example, there are several exhibits in this, with multiple videos in each, and then several chains dealing with the different aspects of the case. Although you can manage everything in a single project, it doesn’t mean you have to. Working with individual exhibits in separate projects may be easier. It all depends on your case, and specifically, if you need to use the link filters to join clips together, perhaps using Timeline.
Link Filters
We have just mentioned the linking filters and to assist you when using Nested folders, we have made some improvements here too. Although it is shown here using Timeline, the update affects all Link category filters.
Within the Input to Add dropdown, and the Inputs window, you will now see the entire folder tree. This should help when identifying different chains, perhaps with the same filename, but in different folders with different processing filters.
Hint: remember that you do not need to use the Input to Add Dropdown, the Inputs window supports drag and drop directly from History. This can be much easier when using many folders and chains.
Export Video and Export PDF
Both of these export methods are now in their own menu, found under the Utilities master menu.
Using them will create an output but it will not be within the report or your process history. The Export Video options provide a method to utilize Windows Video Codecs for specific purposes. The Export PDF function allows a quick PDF Image Sequence if forensic image export is not immediately required.
Always use the Video Writer for full integrity of the video creation, or the Sequence Writer with PDF for forensic image sequences.
Sequence Writer
It is Sequence Writer where we find another small update.
If you attempt to write to a folder that already contains data, a warning message will now appear. If continued, any files with the same filename will be overwritten.
Hint: remember the image sequence PDF we mentioned earlier? Just use the PDF tab to automatically create a PDF image sequence, using the images.
Tools Panel
One last small change here.
The File Info tool will be the first data shown within the Tools window after loading a video or image. This gives immediate information about the file type with basic data.
Bugs
Thanks again to the users reporting strange behaviors and replicable crashes. With your help, we have fixed the following issues:
- Fixed a bug in the Copy and Verify utility that would cause the process to fail when selecting certain file path configurations.
- Fixed a bug in the Copy and Verify utility to allow the drag & drop of a folder into the “Save Log to” selection.
- Fixed a bug in the player which caused reverse playback, preventing its normal use.
- Fixed a bug with link filters that would cause one frame to be written to an incorrect location when used with the Video Writer.
- Fixed a bug that caused the software to crash when copying a folder into the history panel.
- Fixed a bug that caused a disabled filter to produce an error, which also stopped a project from loading.
- Fixed a bug with the Sequence Loader incorrectly presenting a warning message while writing images to an empty folder.
- Fixed a bug in Audio Writer causing an incorrect duration of the exported audio file.
- Fixed a bug in Reverse which caused a crash after any Link filter.
- Fixed a bug causing the Add Log File filter to be added to the wrong chain.
- Fixed a bug within the Convert DVR utility that would not allow stream copy to an MP4 container.
- Fixed a bug within the Import Replay Project functionality with projects using converted files.
- Fixed a bug that caused image and audio files to open with the Video Loader when accessed via shortcuts from Advanced File Info.
- Fixed a bug in the History panel that would produce an incorrect warning message when cloning a chain containing a disabled Write filter.
- Fixed a bug that would cause a crash when playing multiple audio and video clips in reverse.
- Fixed a bug in the panel that would result in an incorrect warning message when disabling and re-enabling a filter.
- Fixed a bug within the Milestone Loader and exports containing special characters.
- Fixed a bug in the Add Text filter that would cause text position to change within the filter parameters.
- Fixed a bug in Load Timestamp where timestamps failed to load with “-extracted” and “-decrypted” files. These are generated during the conversion of some proprietary video formats.
Don’t Delay – Update Today
If you have an active support plan you can update straight away by going into the menu About > Check for Updates within Amped FIVE. If you need to renew your SMS plan, please contact us or one of our authorized partners. And remember that you can always manage your license and requests from the Amped Support Portal.