Saving Evidentiary Video

[smith693]

I work for a medium sized DAs Office in Texas. We get DVDs of in-car videos from our police agencies and the copying and storage of this evidence is a real hassle. I do not know much about video.

I was thinking of the following and wondered if it would maintain these files.

When a disc comes in...

1) Open Explorer and drag the Video_TS file into our secure storage drive and discard the disc

2) Use a program like VLC Media to be able to open and view the VOB files.

3) When a copy is needed for court or something else, create a mpeg of the video using Womble .


Is this a safe to do? Is it possible?

Thanks in advance.

[sh0dan]

First two steps seems fine. For the final step, you could look into software that can extract the parts you need without re-compressing it. That way the court will get the exact data that has been recorded.

I know there is some software called MpegSchnitt that does that.

[smith693]

Thanks for the reply.

I will check it out. Step 1 and 2 is really what worried me. Obviously, losing this data for the future would be a train wreck.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Is there any reason why you can't just use the original DVDs? They are already MPEG, aren't they?

If not, why not keep the original DVD anyway just in case of problems down the line (e.g., server screw up)?

[smith693]

We are looking to go "paperless" as an office so keeping a file with the dvd is a step back.


The original will be available at the original agency and even though it will be a huge hassle, we can get another in an emergency. That contingency needs to be an exception, not a rule though.

Yes, I guess the VOB is a mpeg, right? But, I have had problems just changing the extension. It seems to work flawlessly in exporting the VOB files and converting to mpeg in Womble. But, that's all I have tried so far. Are there other good ones? Freeware?

[neuron2]

Do you need audio also or just the video?

[smith693]

Audio too.

Our dvds are written on Panasonic DVD writers and an example Video_TS file looks like this:

Video_TS.BUP
Video_TS.IFO
Video_TS.VOB
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_.VOB

Like I said, if I can pull this whole folder into a storage site and then recreate as an mpeg that would be great. Mpegs allow me to redact video on short notice based on court order.

[2Bdecided]

For the final step, you could look into software that can extract the parts you need without re-compressing it.That's exactly what Womble does.

Some software chokes on VOBs because it's an MPEG-2 video program stream plus extra information for DVD use.

You can, of course, dump the entire video_ts folder back onto a DVD and have a bit-identical copy of the original DVD which (if burnt with an application that will treat it as a DVD video disc) will play on anything (well, anything that plays DVD-Rs).

Or, as you suggest, edit using womble and save MPEG-2 video files to use as you want.

Cheers,
David.

[PhillipWyllie]

Why not author the DVDs with chapter points to the relevant parts? What about the original footage, is that recorded in MPEG-2? If you re-encode then a good lawyer may be able to argue that the evidence has been tampered with(it has been changed). If you need to present several parts for court, various programs exist to cut out the wanted parts without re-encoding. DGIndex, ProjextX being 2 (free)examples. ProjectX won't output VOBS though, and it'll modifiy the video and audio by removing redundant frames.

[olyteddy]

I'd use ImgBurn in read mode and store the original disks as ISO. That way you can at anytime recreate the original disk. You can use VLC to open the ISO files if you need to view them at any time. If you need to extract clips you can use DVD Shrink in reauthor mode to take DVD Ready clips out without re-encoding straight from the ISO.

[smith693]

Great ...

Thanks for the tips guys...I will start lookinf at it right now.

[laserfan]

I don't have Womble, but VideoReDo Plus TVSuite is an MPEG2 editor which will also open your saved VIDEO_TS folders directly, and let you easily output any portion or all of the video therein with a simple Save As. You can Save As a DVD, if that is what is used in the courtroom, or as an .mpg file if it's to be played-back using a laptop/PC.

[smith693]

I'd use ImgBurn in read mode and store the original disks as ISO. That way you can at anytime recreate the original disk. You can use VLC to open the ISO files if you need to view them at any time. If you need to extract clips you can use DVD Shrink in reauthor mode to take DVD Ready clips out without re-encoding straight from the ISO.


That worked great!!! Exactly what I needed, thanks a lot!!

[smith693]

I don't have Womble, but VideoReDo Plus TVSuite is an MPEG2 editor which will also open your saved VIDEO_TS folders directly, and let you easily output any portion or all of the video therein with a simple Save As. You can Save As a DVD, if that is what is used in the courtroom, or as an .mpg file if it's to be played-back using a laptop/PC.


I will check it out, thank you!!

[GrofLuigi]

Sometimes, for mid-term storage and/or cutting, I use DVD Decrypter in IFO mode (no file splitting = creates just one VOB). That VOB can be edited later with Womble, VideoReDo... to create single MPEG file that can be played on computer. But I use DGIndex to cut portions I need and reauthor to DVD with MuxMan free edition.

This works very well if there is no protection on the DVD and no menus to worry about (which is the case here).

GL