What to say when asked if you want a MPEG or DVD..
Every video deposition we take we ask the client what format they want their video in. There is two standards in the industry; MPEG1 and DVD, each are completely different from each other.
MPEG1 – This is the format of choice for all the trial presentation software packages.
PROS:
- Can fit 2 hours on a CD
- Practically any computer can play this file type
- Easy to edit
CONS:
- Degraded video quality
- Will not play in a CD/DVD deck (like the one in your living room)
- Can not convert to DVD and have DVD quality
DVD – This is just what it sounds like, a disk no different from one you’d rent from Blockbuster.
PROS:
- “DVD” quality
- Will play in any DVD player
- Can convert to mpeg1
CONS:
- Not compatible with trial presentation software
- Difficult to edit
So which should you ask for? Well that depends on what you’re going to be using it for. If you know that you’re going to use Sanction, Trial Director, etc. you will save some fees by ordering a mpeg1. If you are planning on playing back video clips on a TV you should ask for DVD. MPEG1 does not look good on televisions as the quality is pretty low.
I’m working on a bunch of video depositions that opposing counsel had taken.. Synching them for trial.. He’s using a PIP (picture in picture.. where he turns into a little box at the top right and the elmo takes up the whole screen, and vise-versa) with an ELMO, and while that used to be a decent idea, in today’s world it’s a big no no if you’re using technology in trial.. here’s why:
(example: He’s examining the police office and pulls the police report up)
1. It’s a major distraction trying to focus on the document, we humans tend to process what we see before what we hear, and so while the picture is switching, we look at what is happening and tend to over look what we hear, which happens to always be a question or answer, since it takes a few seconds to switch between ELMO and camera.
2. It’s almost unreadable when we show the video in trial. Unless you get so close you can’t see the whole document it becomes blurry during the video conversion process. Unless you’re playing back HD video (which it’s not being recorded in nor do any trial presentation software package support) you just see a page with something on it.
3. We do this with Sanction or Trial Director, it’s one of the basic features, and it only takes a couple of clicks to tell the video to move panels and pull up a document in another, essentially the same as PIP. And, you can actually read the document. BUT, I still revert back to issue #1, in that it’s a distraction.. I once worked a case where we had over 300 different blowups and exhibit call outs in only 7-8 hours of video.. my eyes were literally bouncing back and forth as documents came up and down.
4. It adds an unnecessary cost if you plan on using technology in your trials. I’m not sure what we charge for this feature in our video depositions, because I always talk clients out of it.
When it comes to issues like these this is the difference people that use technology, day in and day out, make.. we go to trial, and we know what does and doesn’t work with the latest technology =).
Audio editing is something that we run across from time to time. Sometimes it’s old cassettes or voicemail that was recorded in a digital format, but today’s job was taking the audio from a old and barely functioning digital audio recorder and exporting it to mp3.
The easiest way we’ve found over the years is to run a stereo cable from the headphone jack of your source (in this case the recorder) into the microphone jack of your computer (in this case a Macbook Pro). And that’s where the magic and simplicity of Audacity comes in.
It’s as simple as opening the program, pressing record and then pressing start on the recorder. The program will capture the audio and then has many editing options such as: Normalizing the audio, noise removal, amplifying the sound and many many more filters to help make your audio sound as good as it can. With a click of the export button you now have the files ready to burn onto CD or send via Email. Really simple.
Give it a try if you ever need to transfer or edit audio. It’s free so it can’t hurt anything, and it runs on pretty much any OS out there.
Today i want to share a few tips on how to reduce microphone hum. Since Microphones and microphone cables are espefially sensitive to hum picpup because of the great amplification needed for microphone level signals (few millivolts). The hummign can be caused to microphone signals because of ground loops and because of induced noise. Here are some tips to minimize microphone hum pickup:
* Use low impedance microphones (150-6000 ohms). All modern recording equipments and mixers are designed to work with low impedance microphones.
* Use microphones with balanced outputs (three pin XLR connectors). Thus kind of microphones pick up less hum than unbalanced microphones.
* Routinely check microphone cables to make sure that the shield is connected at both ends.
* Check that the screw near the XLR connector on the microphone is securely screwed in place inside microphone handle.
* Do not connect the ground on XLR connectors to the shell of the connector, because ground loop hum may occur if a grounded shell touches a metallic surface.
* Do not ground microphone juction boxes or snake boxes except through the cable shield.
* DO NOT PLACE MICROPHONE NEAR METALS…. i learned this the hard way, trust me.
According to surveys, jurors remember 80% of what they see as opposed to 20% of what they hear. Our exhibit boards can be shipped anywhere, mounted or un-mounted.
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So which should you ask for? Well that depends on what you’re going to be using it for. If you know that you’re going to use Sanction, Trial Director, etc. you will save some fees by ordering a mpeg1. If you are planning on playing back video clips on a TV you should ask for DVD. MPEG1 does not look good on televisions as the quality is pretty low.
