In our age of digital convergence, we have increasingly learned that all we need in the courtroom is our trusty laptop and a few choice exhibit boards to display almost any kind of evidence.  Our laptops can handle hundreds of thousands of documents, animations, PowerPoint slides, and other demonstratives.

One of the most powerful forms of evidence is digital video.  However, of all of the types of evidence, digital video is probably the most complicated from start to finish.  Because of this complexity you must study the very basic ideas in digital video if you want to use this powerful medium in the courtroom.

What are My Options for Displaying Video in the Courtroom?

You’ve finally decided to make that leap and bring your video to court.  There are numerous ways to display it, all of which contain unique strengths and weaknesses.

VHS

“Vertical Helical Scan” or “Video Home System” is the most basic way to bring video into the courtroom.  These are the everyday tapes that were most common during the 80s and 90s.  The problem with VHS is that it is linear, meaning that in order to get to a certain point on the tape, you have to fast-forward through everything that has come before.  If the tape is not cued up to the proper place when the play button is pressed, it could waste valuable time and annoy the judge and jury.  On top of all that, VHS tapes require a VCR, so that’s another piece of equipment to drag into court, and thus, another piece of equipment that could malfunction.

Another major problem with VHS is that it is analog.  Analog means that the tape stores the actual broadcast signal, rather than data.  Because of this, VHS tape signals degrade with each copy that is made.  This is called a generation.  For example, a copy of the master tape would be second generation, and have very little static on it.  The sixth copy down the line would be seventh generation, and would be almost impossible to watch.

DVD

“Digital Versatile Discs” or “Digital Video Discs” are an obvious step above VHS tapes for their ability to be copied without ever losing quality. The first video DVD looks exactly the same as the last DVD because the signal is stored as digital information. Because of this, the signal on the disc never degrades. The other wonderful thing about DVDs is their ability to skip chapters. This allows you to cover ground a lot faster in the courtroom, or even have your editor put chapter points in at key phrases in a deposition so that you could skip directly there.

The major downfall of DVD stems from the problem of changing discs.  If everything you have is recorded onto five different DVDs, you don’t want to have to change discs, wait for everything to load, then scan to the pertinent part of the disc.  DVDs also have to be compiled, which means that creating the first one can take anywhere from three to eight hours, depending on how complex it is.

Media Viewer

If you already have the video files on your computer and they’ve been organized so that you can navigate them easily, you might want to use a media viewer to show the files.  The most common viewers are Windows Media Player and Quicktime.  Media viewers are very effective because you don’t have to change discs and you also don’t have to change equipment.  That means no more disconnecting your computer so you can hook up a VCR or DVD player.

The only real problem with using a media viewer to watch the files is that you have to change programs to use it.  Let’s say that you’re in the middle of your PowerPoint presentation, and you want to show a movie.  You’re in a tight spot because you have to quit your presentation, thus losing your place, to show the movie out of Windows Media Player.  On top of that, you have to show your desktop and other file windows as you switch, which could result in you showing something you didn’t mean to show, such as work that you have done for other clients.

PowerPoint

Microsoft’s PowerPoint actually includes the ability to play audio and video from within your presentation.  This means that, when you want to play a video at a certain point, you simply insert a slide that contains the video into your presentation.  When the slide loads, the video plays from beginning to end.

The biggest problem with PowerPoint is its lack of compatibility with some types of video.  It was never created to play videos, so some videos may appear choppy or not at all.  Also, PowerPoint presentations all flow in a particular order.  That means that you have to go through other slides to get to your video- a perfectly good solution if everything is going according to plan, but what happens if the opposition moves to block parts of your presentation?  What about if the judge asks you to get to the point?

Databases

Databases are by far the most versatile solution in the courtroom for displaying any type of digital evidence.  Examples of trial management databases include TrialPro, Trial Director, Summation, and Concordance.  A database can display anything from deposition video to fetal monitor strips, and can highlight, underline, magnify and do many other types of demonstrative modifications on the fly.  On top of that, most database software can sync text to video, providing a valuable caption for jurors who might not catch the audio the first time.  Lastly, databases work with bar code guns, so you can print out catalogues of documents and scan the bar codes when you want to see something on the screen.

Databases are time consuming to create, and the software is more expensive than PowerPoint, but they are far more flexible in the courtroom than any other solution.  When using a database, you never have to switch equipment, you never have to change discs, and you never have to switch programs.  Your entire case is literally contained within one program.

How Does Video Get on to a Computer?

So you’ve just ordered a copy of your star witness’s deposition, and the person at the court reporter’s office hands you a DVD.  Wasn’t he just there with a camcorder?  You could have sworn that you saw him loading tapes into the machine.  The tapes have been compressed into data.

You may have noticed by now that there are no videotape drives on computers, so how does video make it from tape to data?  If the tapes are digital video tapes, then the data has already been encoded into a DV stream, and merely needs to be digitized by a DV tape deck into the computer hard drive.  The name of the connection between the computer and the deck is a Firewire or IEEE 1394 connection.

Remember: Video must be digitized before it can be used as data.

What is a Video Codec?

Maybe you’ve seen the ends of movie files, and have wondered, what does “.mpeg” even mean?  What about “.mov?”  The extension for a file is determined by how it was created, and that determines how you can play it back.  All digital video files are created and played back through video codecs.

A video codec is a device or software module that encodes and decodes video.  In fact, that’s where the word “codec” comes from: “encode/decode.”  Simply put, there are many different types of video formats, and each one has its own code.  These codes are used to make the file size for videos smaller.  In other words, it is like compressing a book to the size of a microfiche.  Just as you need a microfilm reader to look at those articles, you need a video codec to view encoded video.

There is a codec for each type of video.  Some examples are Quicktimemovies, MPEGs, AVIs, and video DVDs.  There are even codecs for different types of audio, including AIFF, mp3, and wav.

Remember: You need the exact same codec type that the video was made with to view the video.

Where Do I Get a Video Codec?

So you want to download and install a video codec.  Since the technology is changing all the time, a simple listing of sites won’t do the trick.  If you’re looking for a particular codec for a particular format, just search for the codec by “[format name] codec” (example “MPEG-1 codec”) in any major search engine.  You should get pretty good results that way.

An excellent site to start your search in is CNet’s Download.com.  The site contains some shareware and some demos, so some of the software will have to be purchased.  CNet has made a commitment to never host spyware on their site as well, so you’ll never have to worry about unwanted advertisements.

If you have a DVD drive and want a DVD codec, however, things can get a little trickier.  Most DVD codecs are purchased through software stores from major brands like Roxio or Sonic.  Also, check to see if they came with your computer.  It could just be that they were never installed!

Remember:  Always check to see that you are downloading from a reputable site.  It would be terrible to lose your computer to a virus right before going to court.

What is an MPEG, Anyway?

If you’ve ever gotten a digital video deposition, then odds are good that you’ve come across the term “MPEG.”  What is it?  The letters MPEG (pronounced “ehm-PEG”) stand for the Moving Pictures Experts Group and they are a part of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).  The MPEG video format was developed by that organization to become the standard of video compression throughout the world.

The MPEG format is an evolving standard that encompasses many different purpose-types of video and audio.  The most common type of MPEG for video depositions is the MPEG-1.  The most common type of MPEG overall is the MPEG-3, otherwise known as the “mp3.”

Remember:  Every MPEG is different.  Check to make sure that you have the correct codec and always test your video before you go to court.

A DVD is a DVD is a DVD, Right?

Wrong.  There are two basic types of DVDs- video DVDs and data DVDs.  A video DVD is a disc that contains only video and audio and was specifically encoded only to play on DVD players and computers with DVD decoders.  Video DVDs have menus, and are exactly like what you would rent at your local video store.  A data DVD can contain any type of file from a Word Document to an mp3 song.  Data DVDs play on computers only, although a few exceptions apply.

In order to play video DVDs on your computer, there are two requirements: you must have a DVD drive and a DVD video codec.  A DVD drive will always be clearly marked with the DVD logo on the front panel.  If you don’t have that logo or some variation thereof, you don’t have a DVD drive.  The other thing that you’ll need is a video codec, like the ones we discussed before.  Without that codec, the computer will not be able to decipher the video format.

Data DVDs are a far different story.  When you put a data DVD in your computer, it can be opened and explored like any diskette, hard drive, or CD.  It contains files that can be opened and copied for modification on your computer.  All that you need to use data DVDs is a DVD drive on your computer.  Also, some DVD players can play data DVDs or CD-Rs that contain only pictures, movie files, or music.  Check your DVD player’s owner’s manual for more details on this capability.

Remember:  You might have a DVD drive, but that doesn’t mean that you can play video DVDs.  Make sure that you have the proper video codecs before you go to trial!

What’s the Difference Between a CD and a DVD?

DVDs and CDs, while they look basically the same, are completely different formats.  CDs, the older format, hold less information, and DVDs, the newer system, hold about 6.5 times the amount of data stored on a CD.  What does that mean?  The ramifications are simple: it takes fewer DVDs to store information than it does CDs.

Well how do they do that?  Both discs are the exact same size (120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm high), and both formats are recorded in the same manner, so what’s the big secret?  The genius lies in the engineering of the disc itself.

DVDs are comprised of many smaller tracks than CDs.  The laser that reads a DVD is about twenty percent smaller than the laser that reads a CD, which means that the disc can store more information on a single layer.  On top of that, DVDs actually contain two layers of information.  Therefore, when you’re holding a single DVD, you’re actually holding two discs!

So given the DVD storage capacity superiority, why would a court reporter ever give you a CD for your data?  The answer is easy: most people nowadays have CD drives on their computers; it’s almost guaranteed.  Not everyone has a DVD drive.  This high level of compatibility is the reason that the court reporters give out half-sized videos with low audio quality on CD rather than full-sized video on DVD with crystal clear audio.