CCTV conversion for solicitors

Footage reaches you however the client had it — a disc, a USB stick, a shared cloud folder — in a format that will not open without the manufacturer's software — and that software is the thing your IT will not install. We convert it to something that opens anywhere, and issue a certificate that stands up when it is challenged.

The problem, as it usually turns up

• A client sends you an export from their DVR — on a disc, a stick, or a link to cloud storage — and it plays on nothing.
• The other side discloses footage with a vendor player attached, and your network will not run it.
• You need to send footage to counsel, an expert or the other side, and you cannot ask all of them to install software.
• Footage is central to the claim and you need to be able to say, if pressed, that it has not been altered in handling.

The certificate is the part that matters here

Every conversion is issued with a certificate recording a digest of the coded picture data before and after. Because conversion is a container change rather than a re-encode, those digests match — which demonstrates that the footage relied on is the footage the recorder produced, rather than merely asserting it.

The method is published and needs no cooperation from us. It reproduces with ffmpeg and a short script, so the other side can check it themselves. That cuts both ways, which is the point: it is as useful for testing what has been disclosed to you as for standing behind what you disclose.

The method, in full, with the commands →

Disclosure that the recipient can actually open

A converted job is standard MP4 files plus a single web page. It works on a locked-down machine, on a disc handed across a courtroom, from a shared folder, and on the other side's laptop without them contacting us or holding an account. You are not asking anyone to install anything.

What it costs, and how it is billed

£40 covers a conversion of up to a DVD's worth of footage, on a card, with no account manager and no minimum — a disbursement on the file rather than a spend that needs sign-off. Your first conversion is free.

Full pricing →

Handling and confidentiality

Footage is processed in the United Kingdom in ISO/IEC 27001 certified data centres, deleted automatically within 24 hours, never backed up, and never used for anything but the conversion you asked for. Our data processing agreement is published rather than negotiated, and we are registered with the ICO (ZC219332).

Data processing agreement → · Security overview →

Criminal work

Conversion of a CCTV export is a named sub-activity of FSA DIG 300 under the Forensic Science Regulator's statutory Code of Practice. If your matter is criminal and you need the position on Code compliance stated in writing, ask us before instructing — we would rather set it out plainly than have it raised later.

• Formats we convert
• How verification works
• Pricing
• Security overview