Formats → Synectics SynX
The SynX generation of Synectics recorders. We convert these exports to standard MP4 with a browser-based player, without re-encoding the recorded video.
The picture data and its index live in separate files. Reading the data in the order it happens to sit on disk rather than the order the index gives produces visible ghosting whenever anything in frame is moving.
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.pdt" # macOS / Linux
certutil -dump "your-file.pdt" # WindowsA Synectics SynX export begins 00 00 00 01 — an Annex-B start code — the payload is raw H.264, with no container at all.
The picture data and its index are separate files: .pdt holds the P-frames and .idt the I-frames. Because there is no container, nothing in the file says what order the frames go in — that is what the index is for, and reading them in disk order instead is what produces ghosting on anything that moves.
Playback that looks broadly right but ghosts and tears whenever anything moves, because the frames were read in the order they sit on the disk.
Same recorder family as .synav, and the same discrepancy between the filename time and the burnt-in clock. It is reconciled the same way, so the overlay and the picture agree.
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.
Frames are ordered by the index rather than by file offset, which is what keeps motion clean.
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 .pdt / .idt 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
The SynX generation of Synectics recorders. The picture data and its index live in separate files. Reading the data in the order it happens to sit on disk rather than the order the index gives produces visible ghosting whenever anything in frame is moving.
Because it is a proprietary Synectics SynX 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: Playback that looks broadly right but ghosts and tears whenever anything moves, because the frames were read in the order they sit on the disk.
As it stands, .pdt opens only in Synectics SynX'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 .pdt 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.