K-Lite Codec Pack

As previously discussed in the Tip of the Night for December 7, 2019, a video may not play in an application or on an operating system, unless the necessary codecs are installed. A codec will uncompress a video file, so it can be played. Typically video files are compressed to save storage space at the loss of some of the original resolution. These are lossy video files.

The K-Lite codec pack, available here, https://codecguide.com/, will allow Windows to play a wide range of video and audio formats. It should allow Windows Media Player to recognize most video and audio files. The Ogg video format (with an .ogg, .ogm or .ogv extension) is actually a container file which must be uncompressed before it can be played. It is not supported by Windows Media Player. See the list of supported files posted here. If you attempt to play such a file in Windows Media Player, you'll get an error like this:

If you prompt the Windows Media Player to try it, you'll get this result:

After the K-Lite Codec Pack is installed, an OGG file should play in Windows Media Player. I tested this on my PC tonight and confirmed that installing the pack made the difference.

Another common format video format which doesn't work with Windows Media Player is are Adobe Flash videos with the .flv extension.

However, if you are presenting videos with IPRO's courtroom presentation software Trial Director ,be aware that the K-Lite codec pack can cause problems. Tech support for IPRO warned me last month that the K-Lite codec pack has been known to interfere with the performance of Trial Director. It's usually recomnended that Windows Media Player be set as the default application for video and audio files when using Trial Director.

Dual Monitor Mode in Zoom

Don't miss that you can work with two windows in Zoom, not just one. When performing the electronic presentation for a remote trial, it will be useful to have the participants' video feeds in one Zoom window, and the PowerPoint or electronic presentation in the second Zoom window.

To activate dual monitor mode in Zoom, click on the video settings next to the video camera icon . . .

. . . and then on the General tab check off ‘Use dual monitors’

You have to then restart Zoom in order for two Zoom windows to appear in a session. When you activate share screen, the application you select will pop up in the second window, while the Zoom gallery is shown in the first Zoom window.

You can also have some participants shown in the second Zoom window, and the main speaker shown in the first Zoom window.

Trial Director 360 Specs - 2 GB of Dedicated VRAM

One of the very earliest Tips of the Night from April 12, 2015, warned hot seat trial techs using Trial Director to confirm that the laptop they were using contains at least 1 GB of VRAM - video dedicated RAM.

For the current version of Trial 360, Ipro notes that at minimum the laptop should have a graphic card with 128 MB of dedicated video memory, but recommends using a device with a NVID or AMD graphics card with 2 GB of dedicated video memory.

Beware that a laptop with integrated memory will not give you as much power for editing and presenting video clips as you may need. Take for example the Acer Swift 3 with an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U octa-core processor and Radeon Graphics. This is widely lauded as a laptop with amazingly fast performance for a device priced well under $1000. However, it lacks a dedicated graphics processing unit, and it does not qualify as a true gaming laptop. Gaming laptops, like those put out by Alienware, set the standard for trial techs needing to present video clips without any lags in the courtroom. A laptop using an integrated graphics processing unit will draw on the system's overall memory.

A dedicated video card will be required for resource intensive tasks like graphic designing. Note that this will also cause the laptop to run very hot and use up more power. It may be wise to get a laptop cooling pad.

Trial Director also recommends a quad core processor, and 8 GB of system RAM. The 64-bit version of Windows 10 is required, and Trial Director 360 needs the 64-bit version of Microsoft Access.

Note Ipro's warning: "The minimum hardware requirements are suitable for trial preparation purposes.  The recommended hardware requirements are strongly suggested for courtroom presentation.” 

Believe me, you want to go with the recommended specs. It has been a while since it happened, but I have had the crushing experience of watching combined video segments play back incorrectly in court, after spending hours preparing them the night before.