Free DME & DFIR Resources

The FREE Windows File Recovery app is in the news again this week, with The Verge, ZDNet and others reporting on this "new" utility/tool.

Although it's not "new", as it was released in January, you likely haven't had a version of their OS that can run it until recently, unless you're an insider or developer. It is command line tool, but pretty simple to use (think PhotoRec/TestDisk). It can be used to recover from internal drives, HDD or SSD drives, cameras, USB and flash card storage. You'll need Win 10 version 19041.0 or higher.

Want to know what to encode with for great H.264 files? Robert Reinhardt, founder of VideoRx.com, is happy to tell you. One minute into his recent Streaming Media West presentation on how to evaluate H.264 encoders he gave the big reveal: FFmpeg is the best choice around.

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Do you use a YubiKey or the Google Authenticator app?  The latter is free, and now you can use either of them to enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) here at DME Resources.

Simply log-in and choose "Edit Profile" from the Control Panel, then select your preferred method from the drop-down options for "Authentication Method". 

Follow the prompts that will be shown to configure, then press the "Update" button displayed at the bottom of the page.

That was easy. 

LEVA will be providing their Forensic Imaging Techniques course May 27th - 29th, 2009 at the LEVA DME Lab, which is located at the University of Indianapolis. Visit the LEVA training schedule for the latest on all of the LEVA's course offerings.

LEVA recently announced that the New York State Police will be hosting their Photographic/Video Comparison course in Albany, NY April 4th through the 8th.

Photographic/Video Comparisons focuses on the science of comparing known objects, vehicles, clothing and humans with CCTV images of questioned objects, vehicles, clothing and humans. The process of cataloguing class characteristics and unique characteristics found in questioned evidence is examined in detail. Using Adobe Photoshop and other generally accepted scientific tools for imaging comparison work,analysts/examiners develop a scientific workflow involving the hands-on analysis of video evidence, criminal-case report writing and courtroom presentation.

Complete details and application forms are available via the LEVA website.

The ongoing clash between plasma and LCD HDTVs (or rather, their owners) rivals classic tech wars such as Apple versus Microsoft and Nintendo versus Sega in its ability to destroy friendships and alienate loved ones. As with any good tech fight, however, the skirmishes that occur in review comments and home theater enthusiast forums across the Internet are typically characterized by fans exchanging glib one-liners (in this case, about black levels and refresh rates). And many of those one-liners haven't been updated since 2002.

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I was out in Tacoma, WA last week to teach our DVR Assessment & Video Recovery course, and to provide a free seminar on Digital & Multimedia Evidence for area prosecutors, law enforcement and support staff. It was a really great class, and as always the group discussions during both the class and the seminar were really interesting and informative. Thank you to everyone who attended for their participation, and many thanks to Kim, Chris, and the entire Tacoma Police Department for being such amazing hosts.

If you missed the free seminar, we’ll be back out that way to provide it again on July 8th at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center, in cooperation with the Washington State Homicide Investigators Association (WHIA).

If you’re interested in our DVR Assessment & Video Recovery training course, check out our upcoming training dates and locations or contact us to inquire about hosting one of our training events.

Thanks again everyone. Be safe out there my friends!

Apple's security and OS updates included the latest version of QuickTime, which Apple has just made available for Windows PCs.

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Adobe's primary tool for tweaking and organizing photos was always destined to be part of the Creative Cloud offering, but for whatever reason it didn't make it in time for launch. As of today though, Lightroom 4 is available to download on PC or 64-bit Mac (or both, since you're allowed multiple installations) as part of a CS6 monthly license.

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Press Release

LEVA ANNOUNCES MAJOR INITIATIVE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF MOBILE VIDEO APPLICATIONS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

September 8, 2010

A major initiative for the advancement of mobile video applications for law enforcement was announced today by the Law Enforcement & Emergency Services Video Association. 

The Scientific Working Group on Imaging Technology (SWGIT - www.swgit.org) has released a new DRAFT document that is open for public comment until September 14, Best Practices for the Analysis of Digital Video Recorders.

Click here to view the PDF >

Members can now create work groups to organize, communicate, and more efficiently work with other Media-Geek members! Groups are a great way to work with and share information with your team, committee, task force, etc... To learn more about the all new Media-Geek Group features check out the related announcement in our members forum!

Oh yeah, BTW - we also just completed upgrading our private messaging system for members, providing a few more features and significantly improving performance. Now you can use auto-complete to enter recipients (again), add a CC line, create your own contact lists for sending to multiple members and more. When you get a second, check it out.

There ARE Non-square samples, and their shape IS NOT dependent on the # of scanning lines. There are also Non-Square picture elements in CCD and CMOS image sensors, but their electrical charge is never converted to digital in an analog CCTV camera.

Back in the day there actually were Non-Square pixel-based displays, but they were only used for special applications and are not found in the wild today.

If you are aware of a standard that defines the shape of 480i (NTSC) or 576i (PAL) non-square samples differently than through the use of the luminance sampling frequencies, please bring that to my attention. Thank you.