Frame Capture Tool

[TheVore]

Hi

What's a good way of capturing a single frame from an mpg/avi file ? I tried using paint shop pro to do a window capture when the mpg was paused but the video seems to be on a different video layer and the window just comes out blank.

Any Ideas ?

Thanks!

BTW: This forum has helped a great deal and I've spent loads of time sifting through peoples questions and answers on different topics. I'd have been really stuck without everyone all trying to help each other and all the excellent "how to" guides onthis site.

[BJ_M]

a really good way to do this if you dont have a video editor is to use tmpgenc

load the file in tmpgenc

go to settings -> source range

select a min of 1 - 2 sec around the point you want to capture or more if you wish ...

file - > output to file -> file sequence (select bitmap or targa for best quality or jpeg if you are tight on space - use 100 as quality settings for jpeg)

[bunyip]

You should be able to capture using Paint Shop Pro if you use virtualdub to display the frame you want, always works for me, but all other players capture as a black screen.

[ya_jai]

If only one frame I would use PowerDVD to capture (recommend PowerDvd 4.0 xp any build). For mpeg file, there is no problems at all, you just move slide bar to see which shot you wanna capture, but with avi a little bit harder but still I believe you can manage to get the job done.

But if you wanna capture image frames in short length, let say 5 second, then I'd use TMPGEnc to do this job. Use "Add current project to batch list" and then choose to export to BMP/PGM/TGA..... TMPGEnc will capture every frames in 5 second (assume 29.97 fps = 29.97x5 = 150 images) into image files (depends on format you want). You can do single frame as well but PowerDvd is easier.
NOTE: If you decided to use TMPGEnc. Don't forget to set "Source Range" before you capture file or else TMPGEnc will capture the whole movie :P

[Digifreak]

PowerDVD requires a capture card to capture. The easiest way is to let Windows do your screen capture. Pause at the desired frame with the player window at the size you want it. Press <Alt><Print Scrn> to copy the active window to your clipboard. Go to your favorite graphics program (even MS Paint will work) and "paste" from clipboard. <Alt><Print Scrn> copies to clipboard the active window and <Print Scrn> copies to clipboard the entire screen.

[BJ_M]

PowerDVD requires a capture card to capture. The easiest way is to let Windows do your screen capture. Pause at the desired frame with the player window at the size you want it. Press <Alt><Print Scrn> to copy the active window to your clipboard. Go to your favorite graphics program (even MS Paint will work) and "paste" from clipboard. <Alt><Print Scrn> copies to clipboard the active window and <Print Scrn> copies to clipboard the entire screen.

this doesnt work for many of us who need or use overlay mode as the video is not captured ...

[ya_jai]

PowerDVD requires a capture card to capture.

No PowerDvd doesnt need any capture card. You can capture anything that can play with it. I think you mention about older version like 2.57 which has problem about capturing. Try newer version like 4.0 XP any builds.

[NightWing]

Let me see if I follow you on this...

You have a AVI/MPG file you want to capture a few frames from?

If so VirtualDub has a video to bmp extractor.

1) Mark from-to point on the time line.
2) Under "File" in the menu select "Save Image Sequence".

These are BMP and will take up some room.

Good Luck
Nightwing

[TheVore]

Thanks for the advice everyone - it's helped a lot
---------------------------------------------------------

I've tried the screencapture when using virtual dub (excellent program) and that worked a treat - It's not using hardware overlay so it works.

I've tried the export to jpgs from TMPGenc and that is excellent - and - thanks for the warning about setting the range - you can produce a lot of data very quickly!

I've also tried the virtual dub output which works a treat.

Sucess!

Cheers.........