Author Archives: Nelson Garcia

Guide: Creating Automatic Batch Video Snapshots

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By Nelson Garcia and Carl Adams

Have you ever had the need to automatically create multiple snapshots\still images of a video to later use in court or perhaps to analyze the image from that video? We know programs such as VLC can take single snapshots of a video while the video is playing but what if I want to take a snapshot every 10 or 30 frames or even every 10 or 30 seconds of a particular video? Here are three programs that you can use to automatically save multiple snapshots from a single video.

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Reduce Background Noise in Audio Files with Audacity

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By Nelson Garcia

Audacity is a free software program that can record and edit audio files. It supports all major audio formats. With it, you can convert files from format to format, such as from WAV to MP3. You can also use it to reduce background noise in audio files.

To reduce background noise in Audacity, first open your audio file in the program. As with all discovery, please make sure to always work with a copy of the discovery file and never the original.

Select a section of the audio containing only the noise that you want to reduce or remove. Try the beginning or the end of your recording or look for a good pause somewhere in your audio file.  The key is to select an area with minimal activity. On the file this looks like a flat line.  Select enough of the audio to get a good analysis of the noise. Figure 1 below shows what this minimal activity looks like:

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Exhibit Presenter: a user-friendly and budget alternative to Trial Director

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By Nelson Garcia

Exhibit Presenter is a PDF exhibit court presentation program like Trial Director but at a fraction of the cost. The Exhibit Presenter website[1] states “it was created for attorneys and paralegals to show PDF exbibits in court in an easy and powerful way”.  This is a very user-friendly program with a minimal learning curve. NOTE: You should have all the PDF exhibits prepared in one central location on the laptop to be used in court or on an external drive.

Once you open the  program, open the PDF exhibit you want to present. Then, select any of the presentation tools such as callout, highlight, circle, or underline, and click and drag accordingly with your mouse.

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Microsoft Clipchamp

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By Nelson Garcia

Microsoft Clipchamp is a user-friendly video editing tool that allows you to create and edit videos with ease. It’s designed for those who may not have advanced technical skills, offering simple features like trimming, adding text, and applying filters to enhance your videos. Clipchamp is available on Windows 10 and Windows 11 through the Microsoft Store, or you can also run it from https://clipchamp.com (Chrome or Microsoft Edge only). Note: You will need a Microsoft or Google email address to use Clipchamp.  However, for FDO users, your fd.org address will NOT work due to our enterprise license with Microsoft. You will have to use a personal Microsoft email address such as a @hotmail.com or @Outlook.com.  Both the app version and the online version look the same and offers the same features.

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