How to display 2K/4K for police/courts? Suggested players, etc

[vanadium]

I'm looking at buying a 2K camera today. I don't currently own a laptop/desktop monitor that can display its full 2K resolution, but I wouldn't mind getting one. Technology advances, so it will be fairly normal soon, and the abilty to have multiples "full windows" on a single screen would be helpful for my programming (vs my current multi-monitor set-up). I'm certainly not going to to be able to haul my home theater into court! I'd welcome monitor recommendations (gamers probably know, but Idon't game)

I've been wondering if a lot of the artifacts reported for various 2K/4K cameras aren't due more to the resolution conversions used while viewing the video vs the original encoding/compression by the camera. I was hoping tht some of you with 2K/4K screens, capable of viewing the full resolution recorded by the camera can weigh in on that, based on your own experiments/experience.

Also, I expect that different players (using different codec and feature implementations) could impact the level of viewed detail. Many don't allow pan/zoom within an image, and those that do likely offer varying results. I'd appreciate recommendations for various viewing software (players) that handle zooming/conversion well with true detail. Too many just do "well enough" and generate artifacts or use smoothing/interlacing/etc to give the IMPRESSION of higher quality to a human eye.

A final issue: when giving a copy (on DVD/USB/cloud) to the police/courts, it is generally necessary to downconvert to a resolution they can use [supplemented by full-res stills of key details] Any suggestions on how to do this best?

I used to be quite conversant with the technical details o video processing, but it's been a decade or so, and the landscape has changed. Please feel free to be as technical as you wish. I'm happy to find/do any necessary background reading to catch up with you.

 

[Rocketvapor]

I would copy ORIGINAL VIDEO to DVD.
There should be room to also put a 1080P scaled down version, and screen shots.
ID them as altered (post processed) and unaltered.
Don't use folders as some systems might not be able to navigate them.

 

[vanadium]

Good tips. I forgot about the file system limitation.

For clarity:

I wouldn't JUST copy the files to a DVD as data. Although that is by far the best method to preserve detail, and I'd personally include a DVD containing such files (direct from SD), theres no assurance that the police and courts can play them. In court, that's less of a problem, because you can bring your own computer for playback, but police are generally not allowed to install anything but the minimal department-mandated software on work computers, and I've read many reports where the police claimed they couldn't view "ordinary" video formats on their computers, due to department IT policy, age (WinXP or earlier) or monitors (may not even be 1080p). This is changing ... but not as fast as you might expect. The officer's personal laptop (or their kid's, or their supervisor's) may be able to view what their work desktop can't, but I don't know if that counts, or if they'll bother.

While all the DVD players I've bought over the years support other formats, such as MP3, WMA, SVCD, JPEG, PNG, SVG, KAR and MPEG-4 (DivX/Xvid), that's because I specifically looked for those capacities. I've had problems when a less-tech-savvy friend's fancy-name DVD player couldn't play a video that I could play on a $50 portable. If the police can't view it, it won't go in your favor. If necessary, I'd bring my own computer/monitor to the station so the officer/detective responsible saw the video in the most pristine condition possible, but that will only help them in their report/testimony. It's not "evidence" unless it can be presented drectly to the court -- and you don't want the matter to drag out that long.

You can "record" (transcode) it as a PLAYABLE DVD (DVD-Video), which can be played on consumer players and almost all modern computers, due to built-in OS support. However, this means you'll have to transcode your video (and audio, if desired) into (1980s) DVD standard at dramatically reduced quality -- not your dashcam's native codec. The video has to be uncompressed, downscaled and then recompressed in a primitive, less efficient, more lossy codec at reduced resolution/data rate. Don't freak out about the technical details, because there are free and commercial programs that will do this for you automatically. Many people do this at home with one-click, without any idea that their data is being massively dissected and massaged, but IIRC, the highest resolution available in US DVD-video is 720 × 480 pixels @29.97 fps in H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2.

I plan to give them a DVD-video AND a copy of the original files burned on a DVD AND print selected screencaps (even the cheapest printers have much higher res than the best monitors)

But I'm sure I can improve on that plan. I'm particulartly interested in software that zooms and plans ACCURATELY (vs smoothing/filtering for the "prettiest" picture at the cost of detail. I'd like a solution that let's me use my 1080p laptop to show the relevant parts of a 1440p (or better) video at the police station or in court. I know my dashcam's phone app can zoom/pan, but I question its precision, given the limits of processor/RAM/screensize.

 

[jokiin]

a relatively cheap tablet will outdo even a lot of mid priced PC solutions when it comes to handling higher res videos

 

[vanadium]

Thanks. Do you have any suggestions for the apps/software? That's going to be the critical determinant of display quality. I run Windows, Linux and Android, not Apple (was a certified Apple developer long ago)

 

[Wiz33]

it cost a bit more than DVD-R but you can get a 5-6 pack of 16GB USB 2.0 flash drive for under $20 and you can just copy the original to the USB drive if you need to give copies to police or insurance. Unless your Dash cam use some weird format (most of them use MP4), they should have no problem watching it. As to playback, pretty much any semi current laptop and android tablet would have no problem playing back 1080p files, even 4K files should not be a problem (but it would be at the native screen res of the laptop/tablet.