Forensics: Name that codec in one note

Sometimes I feel that I lose track of the founding purpose of this blog - which is to educate people in a non-commercial way about audio and video forensics. In that spirit, I will let the non-specialists among you in on a current trick of the trade - namely, G-Spot. G-Spot is often the first thing a video forensics professional turns to when a piece of digital surveillance video evidence won't play on the laboratory's workstation.

G-Spot is a software application developed by Steve Greengerg to identify what codec is needed to play a video file. Given the plethora of low-cost digital video recorder (DVR) security systems on the market, many, if not most, with their own proprietary codecs, G-Spot can be a life saver. Here is a link to a review of the application (Note: there is some sexual innuendo, but I did not find it to be overly crude).

Now you know what drives many video examiners to distraction every day and what they turn to for the answer.