bvr2mp4

A free, open-source utility for Windows and macOS that converts Blue Iris .bvr recordings to standard MP4 files. It keeps the camera overlay, variable frame timing and audio, and it runs entirely on your computer.

Download the latest release or visit bvr2mp4.com.

Why this exists

Blue Iris stores recordings in its own BVR container. Those recordings do not open in ordinary media players, and someone receiving a raw file needs Blue Iris just to watch it. bvr2mp4 reads the container directly and writes a normal video file that can be played and shared without Blue Iris.

What it preserves

• H.264, H.265, MJPEG and Xvid video carried by BVR recordings
• Camera names, timestamps and other text overlays stored in the file
• Per-frame timestamps, including variable frame rates
• FLAC and uncompressed PCM audio
• Main or low-resolution sub-stream selection from dual-stream recordings

The parser has been tested against recordings from Blue Iris 3.66, 4.8, 5.4 and 6.0. Real CCTV recordings are never included in this repository.

Windows application

1. Download bvr2mp4-windows-x64.zip from the latest release.
2. Extract the folder.
3. Run setup-ffmpeg.cmd once. It downloads FFmpeg directly from the upstream BtbN project and verifies its checksum.
4. Open bvr2mp4.exe.
5. Choose a .bvr recording and where to save the MP4.
6. Select Convert to MP4.

After the one-time FFmpeg setup, conversion is fully offline. The release ZIP does not redistribute FFmpeg. See WINDOWS.md for manual setup.

Windows may show a SmartScreen warning because the free build is not signed with a paid code-signing certificate. The release is built from this repository by GitHub Actions, and the workflow is public.

macOS application

1. Download bvr2mp4-macos-arm64.zip (Apple silicon) or bvr2mp4-macos-x86_64.zip (Intel) from the latest release.
2. Run brew install ffmpeg-full once. Homebrew's plain ffmpeg formula is built without libass, so it cannot draw the camera overlay.
3. Move bvr2mp4.app to Applications, then right-click it and choose Open the first time.

The app is ad-hoc signed rather than notarised, so macOS reports an unidentified developer until you open it that way once. See MACOS.md for the details and the quarantine flag.

Command line

Install Python 3.11 or newer and FFmpeg with the subtitles filter, then:

python -m pip install -e .
bvr2mp4-cli recording.bvr -o recording.mp4

Useful options:

--no-overlay          copy the video without burning the overlay
--no-audio            omit audio
--sub                 use the lower-resolution sub-stream
--resolution 1080p    resize while converting
--duration 30         convert only the first 30 seconds
--soft                create an MKV with a selectable overlay track

Set BVR2MP4_FFMPEG to an explicit FFmpeg executable when it is not on your PATH.

Development

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
python -m bvr2mp4

scripts/build_windows.ps1 and scripts/build_macos.sh package the desktop application with PyInstaller on their own platform. Tagged releases build all three packages and attach them to GitHub Releases through .github/workflows/release.yml.

The website is plain HTML and CSS under docs/. Run it locally with:

npm install
npm run dev

Privacy

bvr2mp4 has no account system, telemetry or hosted conversion service. It does not upload recordings. The application starts FFmpeg locally to decode and encode video.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. Do not attach CCTV recordings to a public issue. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the safe sample process.

Licence and attribution

The bvr2mp4 source is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Release packages do not redistribute FFmpeg; the first-time setup downloads a GPL build from its upstream project. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Blue Iris is a product of Perspective Software. bvr2mp4 is an independent project by Umar Salim and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Perspective Software.