Free DME & DFIR Resources

The AFMA Board of Directors has recently completed a draft of the Bylaws for the organization. This is available on the AFMA network at http://theafma.ning.com/forum/topics/bylaws-for-the-afma for comment. This draft document will be available for comment for 30 days - any suggestions for updates or additions must be submitted within this timeframe. We ask that if you do submit changes or additions please write them in a form that can be easily amended to the document. For example, a change or addition should be submitted as: “Section 15.2 Any changes or additions will be written in the form of the document.”

Two new features introduced this week allow members to easily share their profile with non-members, should they so choose.  Members can now choose if they'd like to allow non-members to view their profile by editing their profile options; the default is set to not allow non-members to view your profile.

Additionally, members can now create their own custom URL to their profile page.  The custom URL can be set right from the member's profile page, and can be changed to whatever you like (e.g. http://www.media-geek.com/larryc will bring visitors directly to my profile, which I've set to allow public view).  Furthermore, members can now choose as to whether they want visitors to their profile to be able to view their personal files/images via the associated settings tab when editing your profile.

Stumbled on to a well done video from Computerphile called "How Blurs & Filters Work", which I thought some of you may find interesting. Discussion centers on what an image kernel is and how they're used in image processing. Video is under 8 minutes and is embedded after the break. Enjoy.

Did you know you can preview your encoding output before writing it to a file with FFmpeg? Just call on your old friend ffplay and use the same encoding options/settings you're considering with FFmpeg. When you do you'll see exactly what the output will look like without having to wait for the entire file to be generated and saved.

Easy peezy lemon squeezy. 😎

At least on paper, the HTC EVO 4G from Sprint absolutely crushes. It's not just one killer feature that puts the EVO over the top; the spec sheet reads like a wish list for anyone who's owned a touchscreen smartphone. We won't find out until this summer whether Sprint's exclusive 4G phone makes the best of its features, but in the meantime, here are five things to get excited about:

Full Story - http://www.pcworld.com/article/192286/sprints_htc_evo_4g_5_killer_features.html

That's a tall order, right?  VLC from VideoLAN.org has become the go-to media player for most, as it can play so many things that Windows Media Player won't, and it's free.  Well, how does it do that, play more than other players?  The Libavformat and Libavcodec libraries, the same ones created by and for the FFmpeg project (and so many other multimedia applications). 

VLC & DirectShow Filters

DirectShow is one of Microsoft's multimedia frameworks, formerly known as ActiveMovie, which replaced Microsoft's earlier Video for Windows framework.  VLC supports DirectShow-based input sources through a module (not very well, IMO, though), but the default Windows version downloaded from VideoLAN cannot reference 32-bit DirectShow filters installed on your Windows PC for audio/video decoding (i.e. filters/codecs registered in your Windows Registry), as the default version downloaded is x64.

As an example, a DCCTV video file exported from a GeoVision system to an AVI file may be using the proprietary GMP4 video codec. In order to play the video, you must install the GeoVision GMP4 codec necessary to decode the primary video stream; this is a DirectShow filter.  DirectShow filters can only be referenced by applications that can leverage DirectShow, which we've established, VLC x64 cannot. 

"Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline." - https://blender.org

This is a project I've known about for some time, but hadn't looked at in quite awhile.  Wow.  VFX & compositing geeks are going to love Blender 2.92.

Let's make it another great week my friends, be safe out there! 😎

It's a hot topic, maybe not for the general public, but certainly for many of my peers lately. I have yet to meet a Digital Evidence Technician or Analyst who has complained about having too much, hi-speed, secure, expandable & redundant shared storage.  Just sayin'.  😎

Storage & workflow optimization go hand-in-hand when it comes to Digital & Multimedia Evidence. 

The Ontario Provincial Police recently announced a Forensic Identification Video Analyst opening in Orillia, Ontario. 

For further information visit http://www.gojobs.gov.on.ca:80/Preview.aspx?JobID=8163

Positive & negative, in regards to perspective, can both have unintended consequences. While I don’t have any problem with people referring to me either way (Pessimist or Optimist), in my opinion, both are incorrect for me personally. “Oh, so you're a realist.” No, that sh!* is scary; reality. I’m a believer.

I published the remaining few paragraphs over on LinkedIn and have put the link below if you're interested. I was hoping it would be seen by a wider audience. All the best. - LC

(The original post no longer exists on LinkedIn.)

When a vendor sends us a demo system, it typically take great care to ensure that we experience the system exactly as the maker intends us to. So when VESA, the trade group responsible for the DisplayPort standard, said that it was sending PCWorld a multiple-monitor demo system similar to the one it exhibited at CES in January, I expected it to arrive bundled with a detailed guide and all the software needed to present DisplayPort in its best light.

Full story

1080 for sure, that's in the name.  They're all the same thing folks, and I'll be darned if I can find any formal video specification referencing any of them, so they share that too.  Is it all just marketing BS?  No, but surely the confusion has been leveraged by some DCCTV manufacturers, resellers, and the like to their benefit.

January 26-29, 2010 the Corona Police Department will host the Ocean Systems training course "Forensic Video Analysis - FVA 101, Introduction to Forensic Video Analysis".

The learning environment consists of lectures and hands-on exercises designed to allow the analyst to become familiar with the dTective system while working on real cases. Class is limited to 10 students so click here to find out more and get registered today!