Convert DAV (Dahua CCTV) to MP4
DAV is Dahua's proprietary format for DVR and NVR recorded footage. Inside is almost always a plain H.264 Annex B stream with a small vendor header. Wave detects the raw bitstream, wraps it into MP4 with proper timing, and gives you a file every player can open.
What actually changes
Dahua DVR / NVR devices, plus their many OEM rebrands (Amcrest, Lorex, Honeywell, some Swann models), record channel footage into .dav files. The container is not an ISO base media file - it's Dahua's own wrapper around a raw H.264 Annex B elementary stream, sometimes with a small proprietary header, sometimes with per-frame timestamps in a private structure. Standard players either refuse the extension outright or open only the first channel with visible glitches.
Wave inspects the first few bytes of the file to confirm the leading NAL start code (00 00 00 01) that identifies a genuine Annex B stream, then invokes ffmpeg with a `-f h264` hint so the demuxer treats the file correctly instead of guessing at a container that isn't there. From that point the conversion is a re-mux: the H.264 NAL units are copied bit-for-bit into an MP4 container with a synthesized time base (25 fps by default for surveillance sources; adjustable in a future release). No re-encode, no visible quality loss. If your .dav file is actually multi-channel or carries audio in a Dahua-specific track, only the first video channel comes across in the current build.
Dahua Technology is one of the two largest surveillance-camera manufacturers globally (the other is Hikvision), and its OEM-rebranded devices dominate the small-business and residential security-camera market in North America and Europe. The .dav format has changed subtly across firmware generations, but the underlying pattern - H.264 Annex B bitstream with a minimal proprietary wrapper - has been consistent since roughly 2015. Older firmware sometimes produced .264 files instead of .dav; those handle through the same path via the <a href="/h264-to-mp4/">raw H.264</a> page.
The typical use case is evidentiary: exporting a specific incident clip from the DVR interface, then needing to share it with an insurance adjuster, police officer, or lawyer who does not have Dahua's SmartPSS player installed. The MP4 output plays in any browser and any operating system, which matches what those recipients actually have.
Three steps.
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Step 1
Drop your .dav file onto the card.
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Step 2
Wave inspects and shows Fast copy - the H.264 stream inside copies straight into MP4.
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Step 3
Convert and save the MP4.
Answers, specifically.
What if the .dav is actually the Dahua proprietary "player-bundled" format?
Some Dahua DVRs export a .dav that is actually a container of channels + a bundled proprietary player .exe. Those cannot be converted by any browser-side tool because the payload is not a raw bitstream. If your file is under 100 MB and Wave rejects the byte sniff, that is almost always the reason.
Will timestamps overlay on video (the burnt-in date / camera name) still show?
Yes. Burnt-in overlays are baked into the pixels themselves, so they survive the remux exactly as-is. Only metadata timestamps (recording start time as a container field) would be lost, and those did not have any interoperable representation to begin with.
Multi-channel export - can Wave handle a 4-camera DVR export?
Not yet. Wave currently reads the first video channel and drops the rest. Multi-channel demuxing is on the roadmap. For a full 4-camera export, use Dahua's SmartPSS export tool to separate the channels first, then convert each .dav individually.
Is the video quality identical to the source?
Yes. The H.264 stream is copied without re-encoding. Every pixel and every audio sample the source produced is preserved.
Will the MP4 play in a browser video tag?
Yes. The output is standard MP4 with H.264 Baseline / Main / High profile as the source captured. It plays in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and every current browser through the standard <video> element.
The frame rate looks wrong - people move too fast or too slow.
Wave assumes 25 fps for the synthesized timebase. Most Dahua cameras record at 25 or 30 fps, but the DVR export sometimes captures at 15 or 20 fps for bandwidth reasons. If the playback speed feels off, use a desktop ffmpeg install with '-r <actual-rate>' to force the correct frame rate on remux.
Does the DVR timestamp overlay survive?
Yes if it is a burnt-in overlay (baked into the video pixels by the camera). If the timestamp lives in a Dahua-specific metadata channel that renders alongside video only in SmartPSS, that overlay does not travel - MP4 has no equivalent.
What if my DAV came from a Hikvision or Amcrest device?
Hikvision uses its own format extension (.mp4 usually, sometimes .mpg) that is not the same as Dahua .dav. Amcrest DVRs are Dahua rebrands and produce true DAV files that work here. When in doubt, drop the file - Wave inspects the actual byte structure and either handles it or shows a clear error.