In this Amped Replay update, you’ll learn how the latest improvements can make your workflow simpler and quicker. From sharper Magnify and Spotlight tools to safer bookmark handling during redaction, this release also adds support for new formats and useful performance updates across Replay.
Hello everyone and welcome to our first release of the year for Amped Replay, the forensic video player of choice for law enforcement officers and investigators! This update brings you some significant improvements to the Annotate tab, including the ability to sharpen inside a Magnify or Spotlight region and automatically add a border to the selected area. We have also improved the behavior of the bookmarks & descriptions panel, with the Play and Enhance bookmarks now automatically removed when later redacting video.
Want to find out more? Grab a cup of coffee, get comfy and get reading!
Key Takeaways
- You can now sharpen directly inside Magnify and Spotlight, giving you more control when you need to improve edge detail and present a specific area of interest more clearly.
- When you adjust Brightness, Contrast, or Sharpen in a magnified region, Amped Replay now adds a border automatically, helping you clearly show where enhancement has been applied.
- Bookmark handling is now safer during video redaction: as soon as you start redacting, Play and Enhance bookmarks are automatically de-selected and Redact is selected instead, reducing the risk of un-redacted content appearing in your report.
- This release adds support for 8 new video formats
- You also get a range of performance, usability, and stability improvements, including updated decoding and filter libraries, more accurate file info via ExifTool, and fixes for crashes, seeking performance, audio issues, and installation errors.
See the New Features in Action!
Magnify and Spotlight
As you might be aware, there is a Sharpen filter within the Enhance tab. It can be quite useful to increase edge contrast in your digital media evidence, and to better present feature detail. Well, you can now also sharpen within the Magnify and Spotlight tools in the Annotate tab so that you can improve edge detail inside the region of interest. We already added the ability to adjust levels in the area of interest a little while ago. Now, you also have the Sharpen slider located underneath the Contrast and Brightness sliders.
The use of these can greatly improve the presentation of your area of interest. However, when adjusting contrast and brightness already, just make sure you do not overdo sharpening or you might start to saturate and lose detail of interest. If you change the Brightness, Contrast and Sharpen sliders from their default position, a border will now be automatically added to the magnified region. This ensures that the region of enhancement is clearly identified in the visual image. You can still, of course, later remove the border consciously or change its size and/or type as required. The border is a safety measure, automatically applied for you.
Bookmarks
And finally, we have made a logical improvement to the bookmarking feature in Replay. Play and Enhance bookmarks are now automatically removed when the evidence is later redacted. If this doesn’t sound clear enough, let me give you a practical example.
- You are being asked to create a viewing log of a CCTV camera showing an incident.
- You add some bookmarks to illustrate the chronology of significant events in the video.
- Then, you select the Play tick box in the Bookmarks & Descriptions panel and add a textual summary of what’s happening at those frames.
- You are later asked to redact the face of the victim.
- However, your previous bookmarks are still active and therefore illustrated in the report, when you later generate it.
- Unbeknownst to you, the face of the victim is still visible in the report!
But, with this update, as soon as you start redacting the video, the Play (and Enhance) tick boxes will now be automatically de-selected. The Redact tick box is selected instead. This helps prevent the inadvertent use of un-redacted bookmarks.
Formats
In this update, we have added support for 8 new formats!
Remember: if you find a video file we don’t fully support, then there is a good chance we have never seen it before! Hop over to the Amped Support Portal, upload it, and we will get on it. While doing that, make sure to provide as much information as possible about the DVR’s brand and model, and possibly provide the proprietary player if available.
Submitting new formats not only helps you out but the entire Amped community too. The best part? This is all included in an active Software and Maintenance Support plan. Learn here why it is important to keep your SMS up to date.
Other Improvements
We continue to improve performance and background functionality in every new release of Amped Replay. This is what we have also updated:
- Default option buttons in pop-up windows are now highlighted.
- When using the Enhance tab, the direction of rotation will match that of the Rotate slider in the filter parameters.
- ExifTool has been updated to the latest version to show more accurate information in the File Info panel.
- Filter libraries have been updated to the latest version.
- Video decoding libraries have now been updated and improved.
Bugs
In this release, we have fixed a number of minor issues reported by our trusted users.
- Fixed a bug causing a log-related error message to appear when exiting the program.
- Fixed a bug causing the program to crash when exporting clips featuring special characters within the file name.
- Fixed a bug that caused a deteriorated performance when seeking frames containing too many annotations.
- Fixed an issue with audio padding causing de-synchronization and crashes when using the motion detection tool.
- Fixed a compatibility issue between the Assisted Redaction executable and the CUDA Engine (for Nvidia GPU users only).
- Fixed an issue causing an error message to appear during the installation check of executables.
- Fixed a bug causing wrongly inserted silence when filling audio gaps.
- Fixed a bug preventing converted files deletion when clearing the cache.
The Final Word
Replay overcomes the challenges of a limited toolset often encountered by police officers and detectives worldwide. It protects them with the forensic rigor required in today’s legal environment and speeds up investigations.
Forensic video analysts and technicians have benefited from Amped FIVE for many years. It is now possible to perform the most basic enhancement tasks and annotate images and videos with Amped Replay, too. If you are lucky enough to have Replay on your desktop, then update today or email us.
Don’t Delay – Update Today
If you have an active support plan, you can update straight away by going into the menu About > Check for Updates within Amped Replay. If you need to renew your SMS plan, please contact us or one of our authorized distributors. And remember that you can always manage your license and requests from the Amped Support Portal.
FAQ – Amped Replay Update 40205
Yes. You can now use the Sharpen slider directly inside the Magnify and Spotlight tools in the Annotate tab, helping you improve edge detail within your region of interest.
If you move those sliders away from their default positions, Amped Replay now automatically adds a border to the magnified region. This makes the enhanced area clearly identifiable in the visual image, while still letting you remove or modify the border later if needed.
As soon as you start redacting, the Play and Enhance bookmark tick boxes are automatically de-selected and the Redact tick box is selected instead. This helps you avoid accidentally showing un-redacted bookmarked frames in the final report.
Yes. This release adds support for 8 new formats. If you come across a video file that is not fully supported, you can upload it through the Amped Support Portal and provide details such as the DVR brand, model, and proprietary player, if available.
This update also includes highlighted default buttons in pop-up windows, improved rotation behavior in the Enhance tab, more accurate file information through an ExifTool update, updated filter libraries, improved video decoding libraries, and several fixes for crashes, seeking performance, audio issues, CUDA compatibility, installation checks, and cache cleanup.