Answered retrieving video from BMW advanced car eye

GJ5

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I have a pucker BMW advanced car eye with front a rear cameras installed May 2018. Yesterday a ford fiesta driver went psycho simply because I was driving at 20mph in a 20mph zone. I have great footage of his unprovoked aggressive/intimidating driving on narrow a lane. I have reported the matter to the MET police so that will take its course (or not).
Anyway - I have the video footage on my PC and I can play back both cameras fine using the BMW software. Only some freeware video players will play the video - VLC is the best but it can only plays the rear camera.

So in readiness for the police to request a copy of the video I would like to:-

1) Extract the front and rear video footage so that these can be played on most PCs without the BMW software

2) The BMW Car Eye software has flipped (mirror image) the front camera view - anyone know how to flip it back. Front image originally played fine and I did play with the mirror button for the rear camera image - but that should not impact the front. The mirror image button is removed when the front video is playing. Software bug?).

3) I tried to load the video into video editing software - nothing would load the BMW files. Does anyone know of any freeware video editing software that will load the BMW files so that front and rear clips can be extracted and text added to the screen to narrate the scene.
 
What is the file extension on the video ? .mpg ?

My first thought is to find an application that can convert the video so a more universal format - mp4 or something like that.
 
Thanks - they are AVI files so already standard(?)- Do you think a format converter would allow me to choose rear or front camera?
 
AVI is just a container - unfortunately, there could be anything inside it. There’s no such thing as a standard AVI.

Really odd that VLC won’t play it, it usually plays anything.

Is there no export feature in the BMW software?

Worst case scenario, you may just have to screen capture from the BMW app.
 
There is a program called MediaInfo which tells you about the content of video files:
MediaInfo
Could you tell us what that reports?
 
Ok, just done a bit of research. Looks like the BMW camera embeds both video files in the same container. So the best thing to do would be to try working with the original file. See if you can demux it into separate files.
 
Hi
Thanks much for the comments
VLC plays the video - I have also just found the option within VLC to play both channels concurrently- VERY NICE. VLC plays the front camera correctly. So I can ignore the buggy BMW software.
So the problems are now
1) VLC plays the rear channel as a mirror image (as saved by the camera) - I would prefer if this can be flipped (The BMW software does this)
2) I would still like to break out the channels (demux as stevelup metnioned) - anyone know software to do this
3) Then edit/splice the video to create an simple to play evidence file
4) Video capture off the screen is possible - any recommend the software for this?
GJ
 
If VLC will play I thought there was also an option for streaming the file too. If you get no joy stripping the file out you might be able to use this as a feed to capture software.

Out of interest the bmw system is that built into the car?. Was wondering when manufacturers would allow access to all the cameras they add these days.

What's the quality like?
 
Out of interest the bmw system is that built into the car?. Was wondering when manufacturers would allow access to all the cameras they add these days.

What's the quality like?
Yes this is an add-on - it is the pucker BMW camera installed by BMW. I have never previously had a dash cam so I can't compare. I had a small incident the week after it was installed where a car driver scrapped (minor) my wing whilst the car was unattended/parked on the kerbside. The errant driver checked the damage she caused me and left the scene leaving no details. The pictures and sound were so clear of the lady that there was no doubt when, how and who- you could even see her face as she decided that no one was looking and if she left nobody would know it was her. She got a surprise when her insurance company called her up the next day.
 
Yes this is an add-on - it is the pucker BMW camera installed by BMW. I have never previously had a dash cam so I can't compare. I had a small incident the week after it was installed where a car driver scrapped (minor) my wing whilst the car was unattended/parked on the kerbside. The errant driver checked the damage she caused me and left the scene leaving no details. The pictures and sound were so clear of the lady that there was no doubt when, how and who- you could even see her face as she decided that no one was looking and if she left nobody would know it was her. She got a surprise when her insurance company called her up the next day.

That's awesome and exactly what a dash cam should do. There are too many dishonest numptys around these days. I worry about aftermarket cams as they don't always work as planned and are a target themselves for thieves. Built in dash cams should be standard now and the roads would be a safer place if they were.
 
You're correct the 2 streams are contained in an avi wrapper. I used quicktime on my Mac to seperate the streams in to individual files.

I don't know if QT for windows will do the same thing.
 
I have the BMW Advanced Car Eye 2.0 installed in my wife's X1.
The 2.0 app on my iPhone reveals all three images, Driving (Front/Rear), Parking, and images.
However... when downloading the files onto my PC (Windows 10), the rear camera videos do not exist. I have used VLC and Windows Media player. BMW here in Mississippi has advised me to download the "Advanced Car Eye Viewer" software. When attempting to do so my PC blocks the site do to high risk corruption.
If anyone here can help resolve this issue I am going to make damn sure the BMW dealer is aware of this fix before they sell another system.

Thank you
 
The website is HTTP: instead of HTTPS:, that would generate a security warning.
I have seen sloppiness like that with manufacturer's download sites.
 
The automatic download contains an installer with two PDFs of instructions, PC software and camera software.
 
There is no https version unfortunately. It's all pretty dodgy. BMW software should be hosted on a website clearly owned by BMW...

I'm sure it's legit, but they really ought to be more on top of their game.
 
It may well have been assigned to one of these:
tenor.gif
 
Thank you stevelup.

I have downloaded from your link. Correct... BMW should have more knowledge of the products they support.
 
Well... Thank you for the link. I was able to download without any problems, however, it will not open the videos I have saved from the camera. I am at the point of taking the car back and having them uninstall the system for a full refund ($885.00).
 
I think you should. If they can't support it properly, you're entitled to ask for that.
 
stevelup,

I have narrowed my troubleshooting down and discovered that if I go to my ACE 2.0 App on my iPhone I am able to view recordings of both front and rear videos, however, when I access my SD card on my Windows 10 PC using either the VLC or Windows media player I can only find the front view recordings.
BTW, all parking videos and manual shots have always been accessible as well.
Can you offer any further advice?
 
No, sorry, I know nothing about this.

One thing you could try in VLC is to see if there's more than one stream. So whilst it's playing, click Video > Video Track and see if there's more than one track.
 
The website is HTTP: instead of HTTPS:, that would generate a security warning.
I have seen sloppiness like that with manufacturer's download sites.

Why is it sloppy to not offer https for downloads. Yes there is a move to everything over https but it's not like you are transferring sensitive information. On that particular site you could sign it but that wouldn't necessarily make it any better.
 
Because the security certificate for HTTPS prevent hijacking of the connection.
With HTTP the connection can be redirected to a fake site, either when you connect or during the session.
 

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