Avoid a surprise start in VLC Media Player

The widely used, free to download video player, VLC Media Player has an odd quirk. Its default settings will flash the media title after the video is first opened.

This title will disappear after a few moments whether pause is pressed or not, but it can obscure closed captions or other text or images on the video. This will be an unpleasant surprise when video files are shown at a trial as evidence, or as a visual aid at client meetings.

Under Tools . . . Preferences, be sure to uncheck 'Show media title on video start'. Note that the media title will not necessarily be the same as the file name.

Proxy Settings in Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player's ability to play online content can be affected by the proxy settings in the application's Options. The proxy settings allow for a program to manage the connection between a web browser and another computer.

If you are having trouble playing online video with Media Player check the proxy settings under Organize . . . Options on the Network tab. You will see that both HTTP and RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) can be used. RTSP differs from HTTP in that it has to retain a session state from a prior request. It cannot understand each request by itself. While RTSP was designed for online video, not all systems can use it.

RTSP will connect to a server and stream video. HTTP will download the media over the internet, delivering the files over web servers. In the Configure setting you can set Media Player to autodetect proxy settings for online video, rather than using the proxy settings of the web browser.

ABCs of Reviewing Video Surveillance Footage

If you are tasked with reviewing hours of video files from surveillance cameras, keep in mind that most systems should have tools which will help you expedite the review.

1. As with a PDF of a document, the video should contain thumbnails which let you quickly scan the range of the video across multiple moments in time to see when there is relevant footage.

2. Some systems use motion histograms that will indicate where movement appears in a video image. These are similar to sound wave charts. The graphs are displayed above a timeline for the video, and will rise at the time ranges where motion is detected.

3. A system may allow you to designate a motion detection window in a specific area of the video, to detect when the pixels change in that window.

These windows can also be used to exclude areas of motion that you want a search to ignore.