Formats → Synectics
Synectics recordings burned to a disc, or handed over as an ISO image of one. We convert these exports to standard MP4 with a browser-based player, without re-encoding the recorded video.
A disc written to the ISO 9660 standard cuts every name down to the old DOS shape of eight characters and three, so the recording files arrive named .SYN and the date and time that were in their filenames are gone. The number left in each name is the recorder's storage slot, not its place in the recording, so the files are not in the order they happened — and each camera's picture is split across two files that have to be matched to each other before anything will play.
The usual result is that the footage exists, is perfectly good, and cannot be watched by the person who needs to watch it — because the only software that opens it is the manufacturer's own, it is Windows-only, and the machine it needs to run on is locked down.
Extensions get reused and renamed, so the reliable test is the first few bytes of the file. On any machine, without installing anything:
xxd -s 0 -l 16 "your-file.SYN" # macOS / Linux
certutil -dump "your-file.SYN" # WindowsA Synectics export begins 53 59 4E 2D 41 56 2D 32 — the ASCII text SYN-AV-2 — the same recording the recorder writes to a hard disk, only under a disc's shortened filename.
Each camera is written as two streams in separate files, one carrying the full pictures and one the movement between them, with a timestamp index inside every file. A per-camera database on the disc holds the GPS fixes, the speed and the vehicle's inputs.
It does not open without the manufacturer's own software.
A disc leaves no time in the filenames, so the clock is taken from the recorder's own record of the session rather than guessed at from the order the files sit in. Where a recorder is known to burn a different time into the picture than it writes to its metadata, that difference is applied and stated on the certificate.
Read by own parser. ffmpeg cannot open this container at all, which is why the ordinary tools a customer already has produce nothing from it. We read it ourselves. The source-side integrity digest is therefore taken from the extracted stream, since that is the only point at which the original picture data can be measured.
Nothing is taken from the filenames, because on a disc there is nothing in them to take. Each file is identified by what it contains, matched to its partner, and put back in the order the recorder's own clock gives — so every camera plays in step, at the rate it was actually recorded at, with the GPS track on a moving map and the vehicle's speed, braking and indicators read out alongside.
The coded video itself is copied, never re-encoded. That is the point: what you receive is the recorded image, not a compressed copy of it.
One standard MP4 per camera, a browser player with every camera on a shared timeline, and a certificate digesting the coded picture data before and after — which match, because the video is copied rather than re-encoded. What every conversion includes → · How the check works →
One credit converts up to 4.7 GB. Your first conversion is free. Pricing →
Not sure whether yours will convert? Send us one .SYN export that has given you trouble. We will tell you whether it converts, usually the same day, and there is no charge for finding out.
Try it — first conversion free or email enquiries@veriframe.co.uk
Synectics recordings burned to a disc, or handed over as an ISO image of one. A disc written to the ISO 9660 standard cuts every name down to the old DOS shape of eight characters and three, so the recording files arrive named .SYN and the date and time that were in their filenames are gone. The number left in each name is the recorder's storage slot, not its place in the recording, so the files are not in the order they happened — and each camera's picture is split across two files that have to be matched to each other before anything will play.
Because it is a proprietary Synectics format. General-purpose players such as VLC, Windows Media Player and QuickTime are not built to read it and usually show nothing or refuse the file. In practice: It does not open without the manufacturer's own software.
As it stands, .SYN opens only in Synectics's own player, which is Windows-only and often has to run on a locked-down machine. The dependable way to open it anywhere — any operating system, no install — is to convert it to MP4, which is what we do. The recorded video is copied, not re-encoded, so what you watch is the recorded image itself.
Send us the .SYN export — ideally the whole folder as the recorder wrote it. We convert it to standard MP4, one file per camera, with a browser player and a certificate that digests the coded picture before and after so the result can be verified independently. The first conversion is free. If it turns out not to convert, we may ask for the player it shipped with so we can make it work.