LSVA.com

[Mark Lieb]

What formats should be require from the vendor?
Come to think of it, what kind of editing software do people use inhouse?
I need to put together a media kiosk of sorts.

[therealdaveyboy]

I've worked as a legal videographer for almost six years now in Los Angeles. Last year our company switched to digital from shooting on a Panasonic 3-Chip, S-VHS camera with a VHS backup deck for my B-copy. I now use a Sony DV-CAM and a record on a DVD deck for my B-copy. Invest in digital equipment. VHS and S-VHS are on the way out. Don't waste your money.

[LaraC]

I would also recommend staying with the times -- go digital.

Lara
Accurate Vision, Inc.

[Bpace]

Having spent a long time doing Legal video I would suggest at the very least doing your onsite backup in VHS format. Alot of times lawyers want to leave the deposition with the video in their hand.

When they go home they will want to be able to pop a tape in their VCR they can use.

[robneale]

Come on guys/ gals, if you're dishing out video to your customers on VHS or DVD you're behind the times.

Ultimately the video attorneys and lit support staff need is in MPEG format (preferably MPEG-1) and delivered on a CD or DVD media. DVD is not MPEG. If the video goes to trial, Sound is more important to a jury for "video depositions" and video quality is more important for "day in the life".

The files ultimately have to end up on a computer somewhere and in some sort of litigation software. NONE of the software programs will read VOB files (DVD). Any litigation presentation software will read MPEG-1 files and some will read MPEG-2 files. They'll also play in Windows Media player right off the disk very handy.

If you're going to deliver MPEG's on DVD media, limit your video recordings to an hour for each file so the files don't take forever to copy over to a server and they won't take forever to load either. An hours worth of MPEG-1 will fit nicely on a CD or a thumb drive and that is very useful/ manageable to those of us who have to work with it.

Do yourself AND your customers a favor, while you're recording the video on your DV camera, plug a feed into an MPEG recorder (real time). You'll save yourself a lot of time and work later down the road and you'll be giving your clients what they ultimately need.

These are the things your attorney never remembers to tell you, but they should.

Thanks guys!
Rob Neale

[koolthing]

I use a Sony DVCam, Can you tell me what software you use to download you video into? Is it somewhat fast? My software downloads at 10 min. intervals and it is to time consuming. Also, how do you feed your recording into a mpeg recorder? Thanks, I'm kinda new at this.

Come on guys/ gals, if you're dishing out video to your customers on VHS or DVD you're behind the times.

Ultimately the video attorneys and lit support staff need is in MPEG format (preferably MPEG-1) and delivered on a CD or DVD media. DVD is not MPEG. If the video goes to trial, Sound is more important to a jury for "video depositions" and video quality is more important for "day in the life".

The files ultimately have to end up on a computer somewhere and in some sort of litigation software. NONE of the software programs will read VOB files (DVD). Any litigation presentation software will read MPEG-1 files and some will read MPEG-2 files. They'll also play in Windows Media player right off the disk very handy.

If you're going to deliver MPEG's on DVD media, limit your video recordings to an hour for each file so the files don't take forever to copy over to a server and they won't take forever to load either. An hours worth of MPEG-1 will fit nicely on a CD or a thumb drive and that is very useful/ manageable to those of us who have to work with it.

Do yourself AND your customers a favor, while you're recording the video on your DV camera, plug a feed into an MPEG recorder (real time). You'll save yourself a lot of time and work later down the road and you'll be giving your clients what they ultimately need.

These are the things your attorney never remembers to tell you, but they should.

Thanks guys!
Rob Neale