Low Bit Rate HDMI cables

If you're using a gaming laptop for a trial presentation, or simply tasked with setting up a monitor capable of 4K or 8K resolution (ultra high definition using 4,000 or 8,000 pixels) you want to keep in mind that an older or even 'high speed' HDMI cable may not be able to support the video at such an elevated resolution.

Standard HDMI cables are no longer widely available at Best Buy or other online stores where you're likely to go to pick one up, but there's no doubt that you may be handed one by a law firm's IT staff, or find one as the cable provided for a courtroom's a/v system. These cables have a bandwidth of 4.95 Gbps and won't be able to support 4K or higher. They are designed for 1080 pixel devices. They will be designated as version 1.0 or 1.2.

You might think that a 'high speed' cable [versions 1.3 to 1.4] would be what you need, but it also won't work with 4K video at higher frames per second. They support 10.2 Gbps but won't support 4K video higher than 30 frames per second.

A Premium High Speed version 2.0 HDMI cable has a bandwidth of 18 Gbps and will work with any 4K video, and some 8K videos at lower frame rates.

If you want to play it safe and be ready for any 8K video at all, secure an Ultra High Speed HDMI version 2.1 cable (48 Gbps).

The Ultra High Speed cable will work fine with lower res videos.

If you are using an HDMI cable that won't support the resolution of the video, you may simply get a lower res video, a video that flickers, or worse yet no signal at all.

download YouTube videos with Media Mister

If you search around, you'll find many suggestions online of how to download video from YouTube without purchasing a premium account for YouTube. Some of these work, and some don't. Some are some sketchy sites you should probably avoid. Media Mister is listed as a safe site in Norton Safe Search, and I've tested and confirmed it can be used to successfully download a complete video with audio.

Media Mister's primary function is to generate likes for social media content generators, but it also makes tools available to review social media data. Use the YouTube download tool here: https://www.mediamister.com/free-youtube-video-downloader

The site will give you the ability to download the video at different resolutions, or just the audio. For YouTube videos select the 360p option which includes the audio with the video. The video will open on new tab, and you just need to right click and download it. A video of an hour long can be downloaded in just a few moments.

What does in the p in '360p' mean? It does not stand for pixels - it indicates that progressive scanning has been used for the video - although a 360p video is 360 x 640 pixels.

360p videos are used on YouTube and other sites with streaming videos. A 240p video might appear on a mobile device.

Standard definition videos are 480p. High definition videos are those at 720p. 1080p is full high definition - the standard for Blu-ray.

You may also see a reference to 480i or 1080i. The 'i' refers to interlaced video - which was used for broadcast televisions. A video posted here on YouTube by Dans Tech describes the difference between the two types of video very well. An interlaced video shows video at a lower bandwidth by showing the even lines for a given frame in the first 1/60 of second and then the odd lines in the next 1/60 of a second. The image appears to be complete to the human eye.

In progressive scan, all of the lines are together. Progressive scan videos were used more widely after the emergence of modern computing because of the need for seamless motion on monitors.

Stopping audio feedback when sharing a video in Zoom

Working on a trial in federal court right now, and assisting with the courtroom electronic presentation. When doing the a/v setup, I learned a valuable lesson about how to prevent feedback. I had my laptop connected to speakers and monitors with a VGA cable fed through a HDMI converter to my laptop and separate audio cable - VGA will not transmit an audio signal.

I needed to confirm that I would be able to share a PowerPoint presentation in a Zoom session with a witness testifying remotely. Initially, when I tried to play a video clip in the PowerPoint I got very loud feedback - sort of like someone banging an industrial metal drum. The IT staff for the court helped me to discover a solution to the problem.

The first step was to mute both the mic and video on Zoom.

You can still play audio through the Share Screen function even if your mic for Zoom is muted.

The next step was to adjust the audio mixer for Windows so that only the feed for the 'headphones' - the port where the audio line was connected - and the sound for PowerPoint was enabled. System sounds, sound for Zoom itself, and sounds for all other applications were all muted.

. . . scroll back and forward in the Volume mixer to find other applications you may need to mute.

Finally when sharing the PowerPoint in the Zoom session be sure to click the option to share sound and optimize video.