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Screenshots from DVDs?
#1

I'm thinking of a little project which involves taking screenshots from DVDs. Can anyone recommend some DVD player software which will take screenshots from a DVD movie and automatically save it to an image file with a unique filename? Adjustable parameters (e.g. screenshot size, folder saved to, filename convention) would be a plus.

I need to take quite a few, so something that would need as little intervention as possible would be great. Using a separate screen capture software, then putting it into photoshop and saving, would be too much trouble...
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#2

a program that can do this is bsplayer......however it is not made for playing dvd's, it is a divx and xvid movie player.

This means that you need to load the individual *.vob files into the program as it will not just play the dvd straight off like a program like windvd.

However it is free and not intended for dvd's so can't really complain......it will do the job

Since light travels faster than sound,
people appear bright until you hear them speak.
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#3

Spent the last hour looking... seems like it's not as straightforward that I first imagined! The only program which seems to play DVDs on my laptop is WinDVD, which came with it. There's supposed to be a screen capture function, but I can't, for the life of me, get it to work.

After some researching, apparently DVD playback usually goes straight to the graphics card, which is why if you use a normal screen capture utility, the video portion will be plain black. You need a player/capture program which is capable of intercepting the stream.

Grr... Big Grin
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#4

Hey ST,
I think most DVD playing software should allow you to switch off the "video overlay" type stuff and render the video the old-fashioned way, using software.

In this case, your normal screen grab utilities should work fine, but you'll probably find it makes the CPU work a lot harder to play the DVD (like playing a game using software rendering).

Check out the config settings for WinDVD..

Cheers
Adrian

Adrian Broughton
My Website: www.BroughtonPhoto.com.au
My Blog: blog.BroughtonPhoto.com.au
You can also visit me on Facebook!
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Einstein.
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#5

Thanks Kombi. I managed to get a hold of Ulead DVD Player (from my dvd writer that I installed on my desktop pc) and it works a treat. No need to switch off video overlay etc. - it just captures screenshots straight out.

It saves them as BMP files in a directory (sequential naming), and I just use Irfanview to batch convert to jpegs. Big Grin

Thanks everyone! Big Grin
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#6

also look at frameshots... that's what i use to get photos from our dance concerts... they allow u to download the software but it places a watermark on ur captured pix... but at least u get to see whether or not it'll suit ur needs
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#7

VLC can and its free and open source!
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
while playing the dvd right click on the video and click snapshot. It should be saved under my pictures.
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#8

I think the PowerDVD Pro player allows you to take screen shots.
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_1_ENU.html

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#9

I've tried most of the programs mentioned and have found DivX to be the best going. At least pro is anyway. When playing a movie it does allow to save a screen shot but the one feature I like most is "Seek to a time". Type a time where you want to go and viola. It will also pick up where you left off after you have closed out the program.

Sit, stay, ok, hold it! Awww, no drooling! :O
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#10

Hey Colin! So where is the screen shot of my poster from The 4400 that you promised me??
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#11

Toad Wrote:Hey Colin! So where is the screen shot of my poster from The 4400 that you promised me??
Oh man! I forgot about that. I now have an assignment to work on. I can't remember the episode.:/

Sit, stay, ok, hold it! Awww, no drooling! :O
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#12

Big Grin The episode is called "Suffer the Children".
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#13

Toad Wrote:Big Grin The episode is called "Suffer the Children".
Thanks Bud.Smile

Sit, stay, ok, hold it! Awww, no drooling! :O
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