Tip #21Kinesense LE

How to match CCTV players by file signature

Drop a video on the PlayerManager Start tab to find a matching player by file name or file signature, and add new hex signatures to the player library.

Patricia McCabeSoftware Engineer

Before the Kinesense team and all our computers melt in this warm Summer weather we’re going to go over some of the new features in version 3 of PlayerManager.

Start tab

The PlayerManager Start tab with a Select File button and a Drag Video File area.

When upgrade to version 3.0 and start up PlayerManger now you are no longer greeted with the list of players but with the new start tab. (As you can see on the lower right you can switch back to the original view if you wish) Using either the Select File button or by dragging a video into Drag Video File area you can now quickly find matching players.

PlayerManager listing players that match a video by file extension, each with a Launch Player button.

From here you can either directly launch the player by clicking the Launch Player button or see the player details in the Manage Players tab by double clicking on the player you wish to view. This pages replaces the Look Up tab from previous versions of PlayerManager. Players are matched by the file name of the video (as before) or by the ‘file signature’ of the video header (this is new!)

File Signature

The Manage Players tab with the search bar and the File Signatures field labelled.

A major new change is the addition of file signatures as a way to search for players. A file signature is a string of bytes (written in hexadecimal) which uniquely links a files to a video player. When you select a file from the Start tab PlayerManager will first search the binary data in the file and try to match it with any file signature it finds in the library. If it finds any they are show at the top of the list, followed by the file extension results.

PlayerManager results with players matched by file signature at the top, highlighted in red, above file extension matches.

To find a new signature for a particular file format use a binary file viewer (e.g. “HXD”). Look for a series of bytes at the beginning of the file that is consistent between many different examples of that video file type.

A video file open in the HxD hex editor with the first bytes of the file selected.

The Player Details panel with a hex file signature typed into the File Signatures box.

Adding this signature to a player can be done by either typing it into the File Signatures box, as above, or selecting Add File Signature Add File Signature button to the right of the File Signatures box.

The Add File Signature dialog with the signature, start position and end position fields.

Using Add File Signature allows you to add a start and end position for where the hex will appear in the file. This can also be done by manually typing it into the text box and putting the start position in square brackets [].

A player with two file signatures entered with their start positions in square brackets.

Those are just two of the big changes made in new PlayerManager. Now I’m off to see if I can hook my computer up beside the fridge before I melt from the heat!

Format support

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