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HDR / Evidence and legal work / Exports, formats and players

Video exhibits · getting the file to open at all

CCTV exports and players, Hull. The disc arrived; nothing on your computer will open it.

CCTV is not ordinary video. A recorder writes the picture into its own container, indexes it by time and channel, and ships a player to read it back. Those players are usually Windows programs, some want the recorder that made them, and on a Mac they do nothing. So the disc sits on a desk and the case waits. What we do is dull and it works: read the structure to find the real format, copy the stream into something any machine opens, leave the original alone, hash both, and set out what was converted and how, so it can be tested. None of it improves the footage. If the recorder is not yours, we need the owner's authority.

No data back, no fee on most jobs An exhibit from day one It is being written over now

Ring us, in confidence
0800 6890668

Why nothing will play it.

Not ordinary videoA recorder does not write a file your computer knows. The picture goes into the maker's own container, with stream markers nobody published and frames ordered by time. Point a general player at it and the frames come out in the wrong places.
The native fileIt carries the recorder's own timestamps and its channel data. Re-encode it and those go, and some of the picture quality goes with them.
The player discUsually a Windows program sent on the same disc. It will not run on a Mac, one or two want the recorder model they came from, and often no player is sent at all. That is the point where the disc goes in a drawer and the matter stalls.
What we do with itRead the format off the file, convert without re-encoding, leave the original alone, hash both, and set out what was done so the conversion can be tested.

The format, the player, the clock.

Not one of these? Ring us →
What you haveWhat the fault isWhat to try
A .dav or .264 fileVideo wrapped in a container the maker wrote and never publishedSend the player with it
A disc with no player on itCommon enough. The format then has to come off the file itselfSend us the whole folder
A Windows-only exeIt will not start on a Mac, and often not on a newer PC eitherAsk for a converted copy
A phone video of a monitorIt has been through a screen, a lens and a re-encode, so it is not the footageGo back for the export itself
The recorder clockThey drift, they get set wrong when the system goes in, and nobody puts them forward in MarchThe gap against a reference clock is measured and stated, never assumed
Sending it to us: insured, tracked post to the intake lab; the way home is paid at our end. Ring before it goes if you would rather someone checked the packing with you first. It is all written down on the sending page.

The stages, one by one.

The casebook in full →
01

A case number first, then a free diagnosis Free

Each item that arrives gets a case number the day it lands. An engineer looks at it and finds the real fault, and that costs you nothing. You are told in plain terms which files can come off the drive and which cannot. A price follows — one figure, written down. No work starts until you have seen it and agreed to it.

The diagnosis is freeOne price, put in writingNothing to pay yet
02

Work out what it really is

The extension tells you very little — .dav, .264, .dat, .vid, or an .mp4 with its insides rearranged. The format is read off the structure of the file. Encrypted exports need their password file, and without it nothing opens them.

Format read off the fileThe extension proves little
03

A copy that plays

The stream is copied into an ordinary container rather than re-encoded, so nothing is added and nothing is thrown away. The file as it came off the recorder is kept.

Stream copied, not re-encodedOriginal kept
04

The clock, checked not assumed

The recorder's time is set against a reference clock and the difference recorded. British Summer Time is where most of the trouble sits. Whatever the gap turns out to be, it goes into the report as a figure, so nobody has to guess at it later.

Offset against a clockWritten down, not assumed
05

You sign it off, then it comes back

You are not billed while you are still thinking. The list of what came off the drive goes to you first, and the invoice waits on your word. Files go home on media bought in for the job, with the postage back on us. We keep the job open until you have opened them on your own machine.

You approve the listing firstCopied onto new mediaReturn postage at our cost

What we see on the bench

  • The file is fine; the player is wrong — recorders wrap H.264 or H.265 in an undocumented container with their own stream markers, ordered by time not by stream. A general decoder matches frames to the wrong ones and the damage spreads.
  • The maker's own player is not the answer — it can alter the image in ways it does not disclose, and where it reads round the disk index you are left with pictures carrying no date or time at all.
  • A re-export is not the same file — an AVI made from an H.264 recording came out two frames short at an hour boundary, with the metadata still matching. Footage shot at 944 by 1080 gets shown stretched to widescreen, and everything in it changes shape.
  • Redaction is a separate job, and a small one here — where uninvolved people have to be masked before a clip is shared, faces and plates can be blurred on a short export, and the masked version goes out under its own exhibit reference, never as the master. Hours of multi-camera footage is not work we take on.

What has to be in the parcel: the recorder's own file as it came off, a copy an ordinary machine will open, a hash for each, the player or a written statement of the format where no player exists, the clock offset, and an account of where the footage came from and who has held it. Page one of the report says this is not an accredited laboratory.

One case from the casebook.

HU · HUL-2026-0872LOGGED ✓

A licensing hearing, and a disc that would not open

A bar off Humber Street handed its solicitor a disc a fortnight before a licensing hearing. Four video files and a player that would not install, in an office where everyone works on a Mac. The format was read off the files, the stream copied into something that plays, and the original left as it was. Both were hashed. The recorder's clock was over half an hour fast and had never been put forward in March, so the report gave the offset.

Claim settledCourt-ready export

Before you box it up.

Do these first

  • Ask for the export, not a clip
  • Ask for the player to come on the disc too
  • Note the recorder make and model
  • Copy the whole folder, not the video file alone

What not to do

  • Re-encode it to make it play
  • Record the screen and send that on as the file
  • Rename the files to something tidy
  • Expect a conversion to sharpen it

What we get asked on the phone.

The disc will not open on my computer. Why?

Because it is not ordinary video. A recorder wraps the picture in its own container, with stream markers nobody has published, and a general player cannot read them. The file is usually intact. The software you are pointing at it is the wrong software.

The player will not run on my Mac.

That is normal. Most are Windows programs, and a few will only work with the recorder model they came from. Send the disc in and you get a copy that opens on anything, with the original kept as it came.

Does converting it make the picture better?

No, and be wary of anybody who says it will. Detail the camera never captured cannot be put back. A conversion done properly is faithful to what was recorded and no more than that. Done badly it drops frames or stretches the shape of things, which is why the original goes back alongside it.

Is the time on the footage reliable?

Often it is not. Recorder clocks drift, get set wrong on the day the system goes in, and are rarely put forward in March. We measure the gap against a reference clock and put the figure in writing.

What people read after this.

Video off recorders → Dashcam and bodycam footage → Reports for the court → Forensics and evidence →

The recorder is overwriting it now.

The clip you want is being written over while you read this, and the deadline has not shifted. Log a job. The first look costs nothing, and what you tell us stays private.

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