NDR / Claims, court and footage / Exports, containers, viewers

Video exhibits · getting the file open in the first place

CCTV file will not open, Nottingham. The disc arrived; not one thing you own will open it.

£400 + VAT, and you get back a copy that opens on anything, alongside your export in the state it reached us. Your problem is that CCTV is not standard video. The recorder wraps every image in a layer of its own, organises the files by channel and time, then gives you a viewer it wrote itself. Most of these viewers need Windows. A few will only work with the model that made the disc. None will work on a Mac, and this is how a disc finds its way into a drawer somewhere in Nottingham while a matter goes quiet for a fortnight. There isn't much glamour in fixing this. Read the container out of the structure of the file. Move the stream into a format most computers can read. Leave the original untouched. Hash both versions and document each step so another examiner can follow what was done. This doesn't improve the quality of the picture. If the system isn't yours, we need the owner's permission before going ahead.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Treated as an exhibit from the moment it lands Every hour, the loop writes over more of it

An engineer will talk it through with you, in confidence
0115 8220606

Why no player will open it.

Not video as your computer knows itA recorder doesn't create files your computer has seen before. The image goes into the maker's own wrapper, the streams are marked to a private scheme, and the frames go into the file in the order they were produced, not by stream. A general player handed that will put them together wrongly.

The file the recorder wroteThe timestamps the box wrote are in the file, along with the channel details. Both are removed when a re-encode takes place, along with some minor loss of quality.

The viewer supplied on the discGenerally a Windows executable, found on the disc with the video. It will not run on a Mac, a couple work with their own recorder only, and many times no viewer was provided at all. That is when the disc goes into a drawer.

What this bench does with itThe container is read out of the file and the stream is transferred without re-encoding, your original remains intact, both are hashed, and every step of the conversion is recorded so anyone else can repeat it. £400 + VAT. In most cases you only pay if we recover your data.

The format, then the player, then the clock.

Something else? Say what it does →

What you are looking at	What usually causes it	What that means for you
An extension of .dav or .264	Video inside a proprietary wrapper the maker never documented	Send the player along with it
A disc that came with no player on it	This happens quite often. The container is then read out of the file's own structure	Get a quote, then post the entire folder
An .exe that runs on Windows only	Useless on a Mac, and very often useless on a newer PC as well	Ask us for a converted version
Someone's phone pointed at a monitor	Re-encoded from film of a screen, it is no longer the exhibit	Go back and ask for the export itself
The recorder's own clock	They drift, they get set wrongly on installation day, and no one corrects them	Compared to a known reference and reported as a number, never assumed

Getting it here: first of all you need to get a quote, either by phone (0115 8220606) or through the online form. Once you have your quote, send it to our intake lab by tracked, insured post: Manchester Data Recovery, Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5AN. Alternatively, you can drop it in there Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, without booking an appointment. Postage to return your data once recovered is paid for by us. If you are unsure what should go in the box and what should stay at home, contact us before sealing it and one of our engineers will walk you through exactly what needs to be sent and what can be left behind. All other details on packing and postage can be found in our packing and postage guide.

The order we work in.

More jobs like this one →

Booked in the day it arrives, and the first look is on us Free

Your case number is assigned when the item is received. Then an engineer works out what went wrong (no charge). At this point, you receive a basic summary of which parts are recoverable and which are not. You also receive a single written quote for the price of the recovery. Accept the quoted price or turn it down, and there is no obligation to pay anything.

The first look is freeOne fixed figure, in writingNo charge at this point

Establish what the file actually is

An extension typically tells you very little: .dav, .264, .dat, .vid, occasionally an .mp4 whose contents were reordered internally. It is the internal arrangement of the data that settles it. If the export was encrypted, the password file that belongs with it has to come too; otherwise nothing opens.

The format read out of the fileThe extension tells you next to nothing

A copy that opens anywhere

There is no re-encoding. The video stream simply moves into a standard container as it stands, with nothing removed or added, and your original recording stays intact so it travels home alongside the copy.

Stream copied, never re-encodedYour original stays as it is

The clock difference is measured

The recorder's clock is compared to a reference clock and the difference is recorded. Most of it is often the seasonal hour. Whatever the difference between the two clocks, it is reported as a number, which avoids unnecessary arguments at a tribunal.

Compared with a reference clockWritten down as a number, not guessed

The file list comes before the bill

A complete file list will be provided before any invoicing. Simply say "yes" or "no" to what we found: yes means it is billed, no means it is not, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. What we find is posted to you on media purchased specifically for your case, at no additional cost to you. We consider the process complete once you have opened those files yourself on your own computer.

Nothing is charged until you agree the figureNew media, bought in for your jobWe pay to send it home

What turns up on recorder disks

It is the player that fails, not the file: undocumented wrappers surround the H.264 or H.265 stream, the markers inside follow the maker's own scheme, and the frames are ordered by time rather than by stream. A generic decoder pairs each frame with the wrong neighbours and then builds on those errors.
The manufacturer's viewer does not solve the problem either: it can change what you see without saying so, and once it reads beyond the disk index the pictures come out without any date or time information.
Re-exporting produces a brand new file, not the original: an AVI made from an H.264 original dropped frames at the hour boundary, and its metadata still agreed with itself. Widescreen is how non-square pixels look on screen, and every proportion in the image shifts with them.
Redaction is a different job, and deliberately a small one: where someone with no involvement in the matter has to be obscured before footage goes out, we make a short export with the faces and number plates blurred and send that under its own exhibit number, never as the master copy. Hours of multi-camera material is too much for our bench to take on.

In the parcel: the exact file you sent us; a second version that opens anywhere; a hash value for both; the time difference as a number; either the manufacturer's playback software or, if none was provided, a written description of the container; and a record of where your footage started and everyone it has passed through since. The first page of the report states clearly that this laboratory does not hold any forensic accreditation (no ISO/IEC 17025 and no UKAS). It is wise to know this before spending any money rather than after. That accreditation belongs to a statutory Code covering criminal proceedings in England and Wales only. Civil cases, family cases, employment cases and insurance instructions all fall outside it. For civil matters, the report is written to the expert's duty under CPR Part 35.

One of these, from start to finish.

NG · NTG-2026-2022ON THE LOG ✓

A licensing hearing a fortnight off, and a disc nobody could open

Two weeks before a licensing hearing, a Lace Market bar had sent four video files to its solicitor with a viewer that could not be installed on any of the Mac computers at the practice. Reading the container out of the files themselves let the stream move into a playable format. The original export stayed intact, and each version was hashed. The recorder's clock turned out to be more than half an hour fast, never updated when the clocks changed, so the difference was given as a number rather than left for the other side to argue.

The insurance claim brought to a closeExhibit-numbered export supplied

What helps, and what does damage.

Worth doing first

Ask for the export, not a trimmed clip
Ask for the viewer on the disc too
Take down the recorder's make and model
Copy the entire folder across, not only the video

What makes it harder

Converting it over and over until it plays
Filming the monitor with a mobile phone and calling the result the file
Tidying the filenames up
Expecting a conversion to sharpen anything

What gets asked before posting.

Nothing on this computer will open the disc. Why?

Because it is not video in a form your machine recognises. The recorder wrapped the picture in a custom wrapper of its own and labelled the streams to a private scheme, so a generic video player has nothing to work with. There may well be no problem with the file itself; the program you are using is the wrong one.

The viewer will not run on my Mac.

Likely not. Almost every one of these viewers is a Windows executable, and a couple will only work with the exact model that made the disc. Get a quote, send it to us, and we will return it in a standard format that plays on any device, along with your original export exactly as it arrived.

Does converting it make the image clearer?

No. Be cautious of any firm claiming otherwise. If the camera captured the detail, it was captured; conversion after the fact will not create it. Done carefully, the copy matches the recording. Done badly, it drops frames or distorts the shape of the picture, which is why your original recording always goes home with the converted copy.

How much can I trust the time in the corner of the picture?

Generally not much. Recorder clocks drift, many were set wrongly on installation day, and only a few are adjusted when the clocks change. Here the recorded time is compared to a reference time and the difference is recorded as a number, so neither side needs to argue about it later.

Start here if the same thing is happening to yours.

What the recorder still holds → Dashcam or bodycam clips → What the report contains → Jobs that end up in court →

Power the recorder down before the loop reaches your clip.

Remove power from the DVR before you do anything else: as long as it is powered, it keeps writing, and the oldest footage goes first. Then get a quote and post the disk in. The first look is free. CCTV and DVR work is £400 + VAT, quoted in writing before any work starts, and anything recovered from the disk goes no further than our bench.

0115 8220606

Get my quote Posting it to Manchester

Disks, cards and whole machines

Start with what it is doing

Footage, forensics and reports

The price, and what happens next