Capturing stills

[Shard92]

I'm still very new to this type of stuff and I'm not sure where best to post this. I would like to take a "snapshot" if you will out of either an Mpeg, wmv or avi. I have the movie files that were sent to me but I'd like to get like a jpeg out of certain frames. How would I go about this or where would I look to find out how to do this? I just started experimenting with this stuff and as you know it can be very time comsuming and I dont' really have a lot of free time as of late. THank you for any/all advice.

[gcgreen]

What software DVD player are you using? I use Power DVD and it has the ability to capture stills as image files. Also checkout the tools section. BSPlayer is freeware and its website states that it has frame capture capabilities. I have not used this player so I cannot speak to its value.

Hope this helps.

[Shard92]

I haven't been using any. I have actually been using realplayer/mediaplayer. The files I recieved from a friend on a cd. NOT a VCD/SVCD just as data files. He is too lazy to find out how to make a VCD! He has plenty of time and processing power but no ambition. I on the other hand would love to start doing this stuff a lot and have both limited ( extremely ) time and processing power.

Thanks though and I will look into the programs you suggest. About power DVD though.... Can I use that with just a cd player? I realize I couldn't play DVD's, but could I use that to play VCD's/SVCD's?

[gcgreen]

I am not sure if PowerDVD can be used on a system without a DVD drive. Their website is www.gocyberlink.com. I got mine bundled with a drive that I installed on one of my systems.

BSPlayer may be your best bet since it is free.

[Shard92]

Thank you very much. I'll probably be back.... like I said this kind of stuff is very interesting if I can find the time..... right now I'm at work...shhhh!

[steveryan]

Virtualdub and Tmpgenc can output image sequences, if you're after certain frames this is probably easier. Then again maybe not.

[Shard92]

Virtualdub and Tmpgenc can output image sequences, if you're after certain frames this is probably easier. Then again maybe not.

Thanks didn't know that as I haven't really got to do much with any of this stuff yet.... So little time.... I'll give it a try though as soon as I can. ( hopefully this weekend...!!!)