Recorded video can serve as a dynamic and effective tool for archiving, analyzing, and exhibiting data. Digital video now allows the user the same level of resolution, or greater, as typical still photography. Additionally, the video can record the motion of a vehicle, or an object such as a railroad crossing gate arm, not possible through a still photograph. The video also has the capability to record time-sensitive information that cannot be captured using a conventional camera.

Video can also be used as a means of extracting information, such as object measurements using the mathematical process of videogrammetry. Regardless of who recorded the video or when it was recorded, an engineer with the proper tools can many times extract dimensional data such as the length of tire marks, location of gouges, or speed of vehicles from a video.

Once recorded, video can be a powerful means of exhibiting data. Whether the video consists of animations recorded to DVD, a sequence of still image captures, or a re-enactment of an event, video can demonstrate objects in motion in an accurate and persuasive way.