Netbooks vs. Court Reporting / Captioning

8/12/10

By Scott Friend

In the past 18 months or so, a compact version of a traditional laptop, termed "netbooks" have risen in popularity among all computer users.  The greatest appeal of these netbooks is, of course, their cheap price points, typically between $300 and $500.  While a sub $500 portable computer may seem appealing, there is a VERY good reason these netbooks are priced the way they are.  Simply put, netbooks operate at a fraction of the speed of a traditional laptop.  Along with a much slower processor, these netbook also typically have smaller hard drives, smaller screens, no expansion slots (PCMCIA/Express Card), less USB Slots and are built of lower quality components. 

Because of these reasons, we DO NOT recommend that these netbooks be used as a primary reporting/captioning system.  Beside the obvious reasons stated above, the screens and keyboards on these systems are both much smaller (and harder to read/type on) making editing jobs or even simple read backs more difficult.  So, while the price is VERY appealing, they are of little use to most court reporters and captioners. 

However, netbooks DO have their place in court reporting.  We have found these systems to be VERY useful as reporter provided realtime viewing systems.  We have setup a number of reporters & firms with multiple netbooks loaded with a serial adapter and realtime viewing software, which gives them the ability to gaurntee realtime to their clients.  So, instead of wasting time trying to get an attorney's laptop connected to realtime, you can just pull out one of these netbooks, plug it in and be confident that it will work correctly, EVERY time.

If, after reading this, you still want to roll the dice on using a netbook in the court room, try to follow these guidelines for best results:

• Make sure your CAT Software support is current so you have access to the latest version as netbooks now typically all come loaded with Windows 7
• Turn off any advanced translation assistance technology as they are always VERY processor intensive, which of course is what a netbook lacks
• Have another laptop (or desktop) at home to edit on, or use a scopist
  • Netbooks have small screens and small keyboards, neither of which are any good for editing your transcripts
    
• Make sure you are using a newer writer that can connect either wirelessly or by a direct USB connection
  • At eVerbatim we don't condone the use of USB to Serial Adapters by reporters as they fail too frequently, and netbooks don't normally has Express Card expansion slots to add serial ports to, so unless you have a newer writer that can connect by USB, I wouldn't recommend the netbook
• If you need to output your realtime to clients (attorneys, judges, etc.) a netbook might not be the best choice for you.  It puts additional stress on the already underpowered processor and could lock the system, not to mention that it's unlikely you will have enough USB ports or an expansion port to add a serial adapter
  
• Make sure you get a netbook with atleast 3 USB ports
  • One for your CAT Software Security Key
  • One for your Writer
  • One for a USB Sound Card
    • It's pretty much a given that the internal sound card will be horrible, however you can get around that with a USB Sound Card (Sound Professionals makes an affordable one) that allows for headphone monitoring as well.  Couple that USB Microphone with a nice, battery powered microphone (like the Martel High-Gain Mini Mic) and your audio should be fine when transferred to your second system
      
  • USB Hubs are not reliable enough to use, and most systems have problems when you connect say a USB Microphone to a USB Hub
• Try to avoid installing Antivirus Software on the netbook, which means try to avoid going on the internet with it
  • Netbooks are underpowered enough, and adding an antivirus program to it will only slow it down further.  Normally we would never recommend using a laptop without some sort of protection, but if you stay off the internet (except for necessary updates) it should be a non-issue
    

Category: Computer Configurations Recommendations

Tags: laptops netbooks