As video systems evolve from analog systems to digital systems, police are increasingly collecting and analyzing digital video evidence. The benefits and challenges of digital video evidence from a forensics perspective are considered. Although digital video is easy to manage and the images do not degrade over time, there are some problems with digital video images that compromise their forensic use. The biggest problem with digital video images is compression; today’s technologies sacrifice the amount of detail retained in the image for the sake of storage capacity. For forensic applications, that detail may prove crucial. The technology of compression is explained and the types of compression, full-frame and conditional, are described. Full-frame compression often results in blurry images, while conditional compression drops the details. These problems of compression may be problematic in a court of law where novel scientific evidence, such as the use of digital video images, must pass the Frye or Daubert tests. This may be a challenge for digital video images. The need for digital video industry standards similar to the standards in the analog video industry, is underscored as vitally important for their use as forensic evidence. To respond to law enforcement needs, standards should address the proprietary security systems manufactured to only be viewed with the manufacturer’s viewing system. These proprietary systems cost law enforcement valuable investigatory time when they discover they do not have the equipment necessary to view the digital video. The Digital Video Standards Committee has been recently formed to address such issues. Once standards have been developed, manufacturers will need to follow the guidelines as a condition to selling their equipment to law enforcement agencies. In terms of passing the Frye or Daubert tests in a court of law, the author suggests that manufacturers should perform an independent audit of their systems and publish a white paper describing why their technology has been proven to work.