License Plate Help

[Chili]

Hi All,

First time posting, so I'm sorry in advance for any naivety on video restoration or if this isn't in the right place.

Over the weekend, a friend of mine on a motorcycle was sideswiped on the highway and the driver left the scene. Luckily, she is OK. The people behind us got the whole thing on their dash cam but we can't make out the tag. I've uploaded it to this site. https://files.videohelp.com/u/307351/2023_0903_204410_018.MOV

Can anyone help? I know it's a long shot. State Troopers should be working to get the info for the driver as well, but I figured extra hands on this can't hurt.

Thanks in Advance!

[johnmeyer]

This is more than a long shot; it is impossible.

Are you sure that this is the original footage from the dashcam? The internal date stamp on the video says it was "taken" on September 3, 2023. Was that the date of the accident? If not, the dashcam owner either has the date set incorrectly or has given you a re-encoded copy.

Even by the horrific dashcam standards, this is really low resolution. Forget the "1280x720" lie, this is barely above 320x240 resolution. At the point of impact, you can't even read the license plate of the car directly to the right of the car with the dashcam.

Unless there is a better version of this, there is absolutely no way that you can get a plate number. You can get make/model/color, but that's all.

Sorry.

[Chili]

Yes, the accident occurred on the 3rd and this is what the driver sent me at the scene minutes after it happened.

I can try to contact the owner of the camera to see if there's a better quality video, but I think I have the best version.

Thanks for your input

[dellsam34]

Most messaging services compress videos before sending them to the recipient if that's what is used to get the footage from the guy, Ask for the original copy on a flash drive, Too much compression artifacts to be dashcam codec related. If not, your only chance is if you post it on social media and hope someone from the scene with a better footage may get in touch with you.

[Chili]

Thanks for the tip! Reaching out to them now.

[johnmeyer]

Most messaging services compress videos before sending them to the recipient if that's what is used to get the footage from the guy, Ask for the original copy on a flash drive, Too much compression artifacts to be dashcam codec related. If not, your only chance is if you post it on social media and hope someone from the scene with a better footage may get in touch with you.

I think you may have hit on the problem. As I said in my earlier post, the quality of this video seemed MUCH worse than normal dashcam video.

[Chili]

I re-uploaded: https://files.videohelp.com/u/307351/2023_0903_204410_018%20(1).mov

It does seem to be a bit better...what do you guys think? Still impossible?

[johnmeyer]

Here is a still shot from my own dashcam. As you can see, it too is pretty awful, even though it is one which gets good reviews. (Someone gave this to me as a Christmas present -- I wouldn't have spent my own money to buy something like this). However, bad as it is, you will find that you can pretty easily read the license plate on the car to the right, which is about where the car on the right was in your video at the moment of impact. However, the car directly in front, which is actually a little closer than the perp's orange car was in your video, has a license that is impossible to read, although at least there is a little something there. Your video has no pixels at all that can be used.


[Attachment 73657 - Click to enlarge]

[dellsam34]

I re-uploaded: https://files.videohelp.com/u/307351/2023_0903_204410_018%20(1).mov

It does seem to be a bit better...what do you guys think? Still impossible?

Unfortunately the license plate is still not clear, You didn't mention if you get the original version from the guy or not, if this is the original then his dashcam sucks.

[johnmeyer]

If you zoom in on the perp's license plate and count the number of pixels, the image is 3 pixels high by 8 pixels wide. Since there is no information inside of a pixel, there is no way you could make out even one letter with 3 x 8 pixels, much less a license plate. This video is 1280 x 720 (and actual sensor may be less than that). To resolve a license at that distance with the lens used would require even more than 4K (3840 x 2160).

Pretty awful accident. I hope the motorcycle driver survived.