Using PC to view SD card recordings

Cameras
,
22

Are you running the Wyze app under BlueStacks? If so, check out its grouping feature. You should be able to view 4 cameras at a time.

23

I realize the original poster is likely asking for something much simpler than what I do but in the interest of sharing here goes:
TLDR : use commands in terminal to run ffmpeg to concatenate the files together for viewing.

I use a Mac, and the Terminal to get this done.
Pull the card for a camera, open a script in a text editor, change the cam name so the videos go into the right place, save it, run it. wait.

Here’s the shell script:

#!/bin/bash

#get yesterday’s date formatted
YSTRDT=$(date -v-1d +%Y%m%d)

unset CAMNAME
while [ -z ${CAMNAME} ]; do
read -p "enter cam name: " CAMNAME
done

STARTFOLDER=“/Volumes/UNTITLED/record”

for DAYDIR in $(find “$STARTFOLDER/” -type d -maxdepth 1 -name ‘20*’)
do
OUTFILEDIR=“/Users/andys/movies/WYZE/$CAMNAME/”
OUTFILEBASE=$(basename $DAYDIR)
OUTFILENAME=“$OUTFILEDIR$OUTFILEBASE.mp4”
echo “output filename $OUTFILENAME”
if [ ! -f $OUTFILENAME ]; then

FILESFILE="/tmp/wyzeFiles.txt"
rm -f $FILESFILE

echo -n "Finding candidate files .."
FILELIST=$(find "$DAYDIR" -type f -name '*.mp4')
echo ".. "$(echo -e "$FILELIST" | wc -l)" found"

for filename in $(echo -e "$FILELIST" | sort -V)
do
  echo "file $filename'" >> $FILESFILE
done

echo "running FFMPEG"
#RES=$(ffmpeg -loglevel panic -nostats -f concat -safe 0 -i $FILESFILE -c copy $OUTFILENAME)    
ffmpeg -loglevel panic -nostats -f concat -safe 0 -i $FILESFILE -c copy $OUTFILENAME

echo ".. done (exit code $?)"

fi
done

2 Likes
24

Thanks for sharing, very similar to my approach (also on a Mac). It also tends to be faster than approaches that use programs. (Which mostly call ffmpeg anyway.)

25
  1. First you need a micro SD card reader, transfer video files recorded by wyze to your PC. Recommend this USB 3.0 SD card reader with Type-C adapter for MacBook, PC.
    https://amzn.to/2QMvA5t
  2. Installing FFmpeg on Windows, head on over to https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ and download either the 32-bit or 64-bit Static version (depending on your system).
  3. Using FFmpeg on Windows
    3.1 Create a batch file and save to MP4 files directory with the following script:

:: / -------------------------------------------------------------------------- /
:: (C) fastoe.com
:: / -------------------------------------------------------------------------- /
@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set targe=‘’
set DIR=%~dp0
set ROOT=%DIR%

for /f “delims=” %%f in (‘dir /b/a-d/s %ROOT%*.mp4’) do (
set target=%%f
echo file ‘!target!’>> filelist.txt
)

3.2 With our shiny new list we can now tell ffmpeg to use it to concatenate to a single file:
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i path\to\filelist.txt -c copy output.mp4

References :

Enjoy!

4 Likes
26

A little slow to respond - but yeah, that works. I was premature in my statement.

27

You can view a complete hour at a time by using VCL media player. It allows you to add a complete folder at a time and they are saved to the SD by day, then hour. I however use my dash cam software. I can still only view an hour at a time unless you transfer the videos into one folder. The dash cam software makes it easier to scrub though and if needed join clips. The dash cam software does not encode anything unless you want to make a custom length clip that could contain mutable clips if you wanted to do so.

1 Like
28

Is this proprietary software that will work only for registered owners of a certain dash cam or product line? Or is it a freely available program/app that can be used by anyone?

I see a number of “free” or “free to download” dash cam software products out there, and the built-in ability to scrub multiple clips and join them without re-encoding would be a nice improvement over VLC (as wonderful as it is). Thanks!

29

I use the $25 version of a program called “dashcam viewer”. Just search for that and most likely it will be the top result. But I also have a dashcam. Some use it for drone footage too. Not sure if I would buy it if I did not have a dash cam or a drone. They have a limited free trial version and I would definitely try that first just to see if it works on your system. I CAN ONLY VIEW AN HOUR at a time because of the file system. If all the videos got saved into one folder then you could view much more. Heck I scrub through a full months worth from my dash cam but that does not record continuously. It has a bunch of features not needed that won’t work like speed and gps stuff. But for scrubbing, magnifying the image and zooming in it works. Looking it up I see it has a 1200 clip limit. So If the files got saved in the same location you could go through 20 hours at a time.

Does anybody know if the script above puts all the files into one folder or just an hour? If it does then that script would work great with the dash cam program. I am not technically inclined that much to know about scripts put perhaps I will try to figure it out in my spare time.

2 Likes
30

And so it was - thank you!! Your summary was spot on also. As you say, not sure I will need all those features, but will definitely play with it a bit! :slightly_smiling_face:

31

I just wanted to make sure that you also seen my edit. The program can load 1200 clips. That is equal to 20 hours of 1 minute clips from WYZE cam.

Also I tried to move all videos for the day into one folder. You can’t because the clips are all named the same for each hour. Such as 01, 02, 03 and so on. So at this point I see no easy way of viewing more than an hour worth of clips.

32

I use Garmin VIRB Editor.

33

I truly believe that access to the sd card files is a software issue and if that is the case then why would Wyze not include it in either a firmware or software update???

3 Likes
34

I think they could. But when they add a way for us to access the SD card they also add a new path for hackers to attack.

And I know from our own audits in a voluntary system less than 20% of users actually use a strong or even unique password. And less than 5% actually use 2FA.

So if they expose the video files to the app or an api they are creating a juicy target for hackers. The first time someone’s inadvertent sex tape gets published on a porn site and Wyze has new owners. :grimacing::grimacing:

It can be done safely but it’s going to be non trivial.

1 Like
35

How does that interface with the cameras and is setup straight forward??

36

So more fun with batch files or shell scripts to rename them? Whee! :unamused:

I’m thinking using this software might just be a reason to justify buying a drone… :grinning: :grinning:

1 Like
37

How about the option to view the video files from a PC, through the cloud, without needing to get a ladder, remove the camera SD card, and then plug it into the computer?

2 Likes
38

I use the free version of the BlueStacks app to view my cameras live and to check playback. I have 4 cameras currently set up, and have them set up as a group so all 4 are visible, or I can view them independently.

Just a thought…

-Phil

1 Like
39

Many of us feel the same way!

Be sure to vote on these longstanding Wishlish items - it may do some good eventually…

1 Like
40

When I have saved clips to my computer, I simply rename them. I use the date, and then some info to remind me of what the clip is about.

41

What OS do you use??