This one came to us as a reader submission. The writer does government advocacy, ran into a wall while trying to get courthouse security video in a family matter, built a way around it, and sent us a note so the next person would not have to. That is how advocacy actually works: someone hits a problem, fixes it, and passes the fix along. We are passing it along.
The short version of the Genetec video FOIL problem: agencies release footage in a format most people cannot open, and there is now a free way to open it.
The problem
Many New York agencies, including courts, sheriffs’ offices and police departments, run their cameras on a system called Genetec Security Center. When they release security or body-worn video under FOIL, they often hand over the file in Genetec’s own format. The file names end in .g64 or .g64x.
Those files do not open in a normal video player. Not QuickTime, not VLC, not Windows Media Player.
The only free program that plays them is Genetec’s own viewer, and it runs on Windows only. Genetec’s published FAQ lists Mac, Linux and Android as incompatible. The viewer has a “save as MP4” option, but according to the writer it works only if the agency employee who created the export ticked a box allowing it to be re-exported, and never on a password-protected export.
Why that matters
Picture the requester. They filed the FOIL request. They fought the denial or waited out the delays. They paid the fee, which for video is often charged per file and per hour of redaction. Then the file arrives and there is no way to watch it.
The record has been “released.” It has not been accessed. For anyone without a Windows machine, the agency has produced something that functions as a closed record.
The writer is careful to say this is not a legal argument. It is a practical one, and the reason it is worth writing about is that the remedy turned out to be simple.
The fix, and it is free
The writer built a converter and released it free under an open-source license: g64conv on GitHub.
It turns Genetec exports into ordinary MP4 files on a Mac, a Linux machine or a Windows PC, without Genetec’s software.
Two details matter for anyone who might need to rely on the video later. First, the tool copies the original video stream rather than re-encoding it, so nothing is altered in the picture. Second, it checks its own work: after converting, it decodes the result, confirms the frame count matches the source, and writes a record of that check. If someone later questions whether the video was tampered with in conversion, that record is the answer.
The writer also put together a survey of the other options people have tried, with sources.
We have not tested the tool ourselves. The writer has no commercial interest in it. It is a command-line program, which means it takes a little comfort with a terminal window; if that is not you, ask someone who has it.
What to do with this
If you are a requester who has received a .g64 file, you now have a route that does not require buying a Windows machine.
If you are an agency records officer, the better answer is to export in MP4 in the first place, or at least to tick the box that lets the recipient convert it. A requester who has paid for a record should be able to open it.
If your organization publishes guidance for FOIL requesters, this is worth a line. Ours is at Questions and Answers.
