Hello,
A friend called me a couple hours ago and said that the bank he worked at had been robbed and that they had survelence video of the robber. However, the footage is bad, and they can't tell who it is. I'm doing this as a favor to him, so if I'm unable to help the situation it won't be a big deal.

I was wondering if anyone here has any tips. I have the entire CS3 Master Suite, and will be capturing off of a VHS tape.

Thanks for your help!
-Jordan

I know you want to help but why not let the FBI handle it? They do this every day and have the technology for it. If those are the masters, they may *insist* that they do it.

Yeah I know, its just a little thing to do....they alerted the authorities and everything. I just wanted to take a shot at it so my friend is bringing a copy of the tape home. And he has permission! :)

The FBI is not going to let you get anywhere near that video, but it would be fun.

Haven't you watched CSI or Law and Order? Any video editor worth his salt can take a grainy VHS video, zoom into the suspect's face, and "enhance" the image, making it look clear as day. Bonus points if the video program automatically cross-references the face with a database of all known criminals in the world, and gets a result within 10 seconds.

and tells the authorities where they had lunch based on the small stain on their clothing that is nearly invisible to the naked eye. LOL

No tips? Well it was worth a shot. :) Thanks anyway --

you have about as much chance to enhance that video as I do of becoming the leading candidate to be president ;-()

Oh wait, I'm not running!

Anyway back to the matter at hand. IF the FBI can't do anything with it with all of our money that was spent for fancy hardware and software then it's pretty much a lost cause. No not pretty much. It IS a lost cause.

The bank should invest in better quality gear-say some new cameras and a computer that records to DVD instead of the VHS. I don't believe it's all that expensive anymore. Plus it keeps customers happy.

Don

Back in 1993 I did some work with a bank security investigator in Austin, and a big part of his daily routine involved very careful analysis of low-quality VHS time lapse security tapes. He had an interesting and challenging job and he did it well. Could he get useful information out of low-grade VHS? Yes. Could you or I? No. There is nothing you can do with this video except stand back and let the FBI (or whoever the official investigating agency is) do its job.

I often wonder, as I see these awful images on my newscasts, why banks don't invest in better cams.
We have much better cams pointed at our construction sites. And they only cost about a grand apiece and dump to a hard drive.

what's vhs?







I kid, I kid.