CCTV footage on the news

It's actually to do with maximising profits, the CCTV manufacturers would rather licence people to use players etc than have a common standard.

The issue is in practical terms, it can cost prosecutions and allow offenders to get away with crime. They could, if they wanted to output to a nice H.264 MP4 file, some systems do - others use strange archives which must be extracted. The way you get around tampering with files is to export them from the system to a disc (which will store all sorts of information including an audit trial) with a master copy to use as evidence and a working copy to view, show in interview etc.
I've had to bail people pending CCTV, then rebail them later because the technology simply wouldn't work on our systems. Wholly unnacceptable,

Yep - though some use VGA or similar outputs which are a pain to capture in the field.



Codecs aren't always that proprietary - but the wrappers often are.



Many have SDI inputs (it's a nice connection standard that goes decent distances on coax) - fewer have SDI outputs, as SDI displays are higher-end.

Wow, I didn’t realise CCTV software was such a PITA. Thanks for all your posts. I guess I was too optimistic in thinking there’d be a standard for that kind of system. In the meantime, my friendly advice is to at least close the curtains when recording another screen