Formats → TimeSpace
TimeSpace vehicle recorders, as fitted to buses, coaches and HGVs. We convert these exports to standard MP4 with a browser-based player, without re-encoding the recorded video.
The export is a single container holding every camera interleaved, together with GPS fixes and the vehicle's own inputs. There are two container variants in the wild and they are not interchangeable, so a tool written for one produces nothing useful from the other.
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.xba" # macOS / Linux
certutil -dump "your-file.xba" # WindowsA TimeSpace export begins FC FE ED FE — or FC FB ED FE — TimeSpace ships two container variants and they are not interchangeable.
One .xba holds every camera interleaved, plus GPS fixes and the vehicle inputs. The recorder's creation time in the metadata is already local, so no timezone shift is applied.
A tool written for one TimeSpace container variant produces nothing useful from the other, usually without saying why.
The recording time is taken from the recorder's own metadata rather than inferred, so the clock on the footage is the clock the vehicle was running to.
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.
Both variants are handled. Cameras are separated and resynchronised, the GPS track is recovered and drawn on a map that moves with playback, and the CAN and vehicle inputs — speed, braking, indicators — are read out alongside the picture.
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 .xba 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
TimeSpace vehicle recorders, as fitted to buses, coaches and HGVs. The export is a single container holding every camera interleaved, together with GPS fixes and the vehicle's own inputs. There are two container variants in the wild and they are not interchangeable, so a tool written for one produces nothing useful from the other.
Because it is a proprietary TimeSpace 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: A tool written for one TimeSpace container variant produces nothing useful from the other, usually without saying why.
As it stands, .xba opens only in TimeSpace'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 .xba 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.