Screencap Help

[MayorTommy]

Hi,

Can anybody tell me if there is software that will take a DVD in my drive and grab screencaps without me having to play the DVD in real time?

Also any tips on getting the best quality screencaps from mini-DV or a DVD would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dan

[Tommyknocker]

Well, Virtual Dub mod can load your VOBs from the DVD and copy any scene to your clipboard (Video-->Copy source/output frame to clipboard), where you can paste it to your favorite photo editor from there.

[MayorTommy]

Thanks for the quick response!

I was hoping that there was software that I could set to capture screencaps from a DVD at time intervals (ie. 1 per .5 seconds) and save them into a folder as JPEGs which i would at a later date crop in Photoshop the ones I want. Unattended I mean, it sounds to me like your suggestion requires me to be more hands on.

I'm a newb to this - not even sure what VOB stands for though i am assuming its the video file on a DVD in MPEG-2 format.

I need a really good overview for beginners - anybody have a link to an article? There is too much ground to cover - so many different things people are doing - for now I only have one thing I need to do well - rip DVDs and encode into several formats with the files chopped up into smaller files while keeping one full length version. I need high quality files and need to learn the tricks to getting the optimal quality at the smallest file size possible.

Well it's nice they have a Newbie forum here.

[rhegedus]

Power DVD

[Tommyknocker]

Thanks for the quick response!

I was hoping that there was software that I could set to capture screencaps from a DVD at time intervals (ie. 1 per .5 seconds) and save them into a folder as JPEGs which i would at a later date crop in Photoshop the ones I want. Unattended I mean, it sounds to me like your suggestion requires me to be more hands on.

I'm a newb to this - not even sure what VOB stands for though i am assuming its the video file on a DVD in MPEG-2 format.

I need a really good overview for beginners - anybody have a link to an article? There is too much ground to cover - so many different things people are doing - for now I only have one thing I need to do well - rip DVDs and encode into several formats with the files chopped up into smaller files while keeping one full length version. I need high quality files and need to learn the tricks to getting the optimal quality at the smallest file size possible.

Well it's nice they have a Newbie forum here.

Fair enough. I cannot think of a guide off hand, so you and I have to make our own. Anyway, taking your particulars, which is one frame every .5 seconds, we will have to know what the VOB file uses as frames per second. Virtual Dub mod can do this by loading the VOB, and selecting File-->File info:



Next, we take this info and convert it to a form TMPGEnc can use. So we take 23.980 (frames per second) and divide by 2 (the number of frames we want captured per second) and we get approximately 12. I will show you why we have to approximate shortly.

Now we open TMPGEnc Plus and load our video as Video Source. Since we do not need the entire video, we must let the program know which part of the video we need clips from. We select Settings-->Advanced tab-->Source Range (double click).



Use the cursor to move to the beginning of the clip we want, then select Set Start Frame. Move the cursor to the end of the clip we want, and select Set End frame. Select okay.



Then we select Settings-->Video-->Framerate (Settings button) and enter 23.976 in the leftmost box, and 12 in the center box, since it does not take decimals. You will see the last box value change to 1.998, which should be close enough for our project. Select Okay until the Settings box disappears.



Now we need to tell the program to render JPEGs rather than video. Select File-->Output to file-->Sequence BMP/PPM/TGA/JPG.



When the Save As box appears, we will select create a new folder, open it, so our JPEGs do not appear all over our root directory. Then we give a common file name to our JPEGs, and ensure JPEGs are selected as file type.

Now all we have to do is select Start, and let TMPGEnc do its thing. When it has finished, all your JPEG files will be in your new folder waiting for the time when you can get to them.

[Fomalhaut]

1. Load the vob/mpeg/avi video to VirtualDubMod. You might want to add the deinterlace filter if the source is interlaced.

2. Click Video > Frame Rate. In the Frame rate conversion box, click Convert to fps and enter the number of fps you want the image to output. For example, enter 2 if you want to output 2 images per second.

3. Click File > Save image sequences. Enter the directory you want the image to be saved, filename prefix, and select the output format (tga or bmp). Click ok.

[Tommyknocker]

1. Load the vob/mpeg/avi video to VirtualDubMod. You might want to add the deinterlace filter if the source is interlaced.

2. Click Video > Frame Rate. In the Frame rate conversion box, click Convert to fps and enter the number of fps you want the image to output. For example, enter 2 if you want to output 2 images per second.

3. Click File > Save image sequences. Enter the directory you want the image to be saved, filename prefix, and select the output format (tga or bmp). Click ok.

Short and sweet, FomalHaut, but remember this?:

I was hoping that there was software that I could set to capture screencaps from a DVD at time intervals (ie. 1 per .5 seconds) and save them into a folder as JPEGs which i would at a later date crop in Photoshop the ones I want. Unattended I mean, it sounds to me like your suggestion requires me to be more hands on.

[Fomalhaut]

Short and sweet, FomalHaut, but remember this?:

I was hoping that there was software that I could set to capture screencaps from a DVD at time intervals (ie. 1 per .5 seconds) and save them into a folder as JPEGs which i would at a later date crop in Photoshop the ones I want. Unattended I mean, it sounds to me like your suggestion requires me to be more hands on.

Ok, one more step:

4. Use a graphics program, such as PSP or IrfanView (free), to batch convert the image files to JPEGs.

[Tommyknocker]

Not quite, my esteemed colleague. If he is a beginner, you may want to show him how to batch process several images in a single step. Shoot, if you do that in a single step, I'm interested as well.

[Fomalhaut]

Not quite, my esteemed colleague. If he is a beginner, you may want to show him how to batch process several images in a single step. Shoot, if you do that in a single step, I'm interested as well.

Ok, it's not quite a single step, but it's pretty close if you are familiar with the program.

Here's how you do a batch conversion with PSP:

Click File > Batch Conversion. All you need to do is to fill in the necessary information in the box: select the folder that contains the files you want to convert, select the input file type, choose JPEG for the output settings, enter the name of output folder. Click Select All. Done.



Batch conversion with Irfanview:

Click File > Batch Conversion. Again, just fill in all the necessary information: select the folder that contains the files you want to convert, click Add all button to select all the files in the folder, enter the output directory, select Batch conversion, choose JPEG for the output format. Click Start. Done.

[MayorTommy]

Hey guys long time since I have been here. Thank you for all your help.

late as it is.