Capture JPEG Screen Caps From DVD

[philly33flyers]

Hello,

I am trying to capture some JPEG screen caps from a dvd that one of my friends created. Basically, the pictures in their camera didn't turn out from their vacation and all they have is the video. They know that the quality of the images will not be great, but they would rather have something than nothing. I have tried a program called Advanced X Video Converter but that did not work with DVD files. I also tried to rename the files on the dvd to mpeg after doing some searching, but that seemed to cause the program to freeze and crash. Also, I tried to play the renamed mpeg files in windows media player but it only showed that the file was like 9 seconds long (which maybe why the program crashed, because the length of the file is not correctly showing).

Anyway, does anyone know of any program that can do screen caps for me on an automated process like Advanced X Video Converter? Basically I want to capture a screen cap every few seconds or so and have it save to a folder. Thanks for the help in advance.

[guns1inger]

Media Player Classic (File -> Save Image)

[philly33flyers]

Thanks for the quick response. While your method would work, it would require a ton of user input. I don't want to sit and click file save every 5 seconds and sit through 5 dvds doing that. But thanks anyway.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[gadgetguy]

You could use Virtualdub-MPG2 and open the VOBs then Save Sequence to turn every frame into a picture. But in the end that would require a lot more user input to locate the acceptable pictures.

Edit: I haven't tried it but you may be able to first use the "Decimate by" option in Frame Rate Control to select fewer frames.

[philly33flyers]

Do you have any further details on this? As far as directions on what exactly I would do?

You could use Virtualdub-MPG2 and open the VOBs then Save Sequence to turn every frame into a picture. But in the end that would require a lot more user input to locate the acceptable pictures.

Edit: I haven't tried it but you may be able to first use the "Decimate by" option in Frame Rate Control to select fewer frames.

[jagabo]

VirtualDubMPEG2:

1) File -> Open Video File
2) Video -> Frame Rate...
3) Mark "Convert To FPS []" and enter a frame rate (for example 0.2 = 1 frame every 5 seconds)
4) File -> Save Image Sequence...
5) Pick settings and press OK

If you need to join several VOB files together use VOB2MPG.

[philly33flyers]

This method seems to work fine, but I guess I'm having some sort of interlacing problem. There are tons and tons of lines running through the video when I try this. I even tried to set the fps to 1 so that it would capture an image every second but still had the same problem. Any fix to that? And thanks again for the great suggestions

VirtualDubMPEG2:

1) File -> Open Video File
2) Video -> Frame Rate...
3) Mark "Convert To FPS []" and enter a frame rate (for example 0.2 = 1 frame every 5 seconds)
4) File -> Save Image Sequence...
5) Pick settings and press OK

If you need to join several VOB files together use VOB2MPG.

[guns1inger]

The video, and hence DVD is interlaced, and virtualdub doesn't deinterlace by default. You could add a deinterlacing filter, although it will also affect the quality of the image.

[jagabo]

Add the Deinterlace filter before step 4:

A) Video -> Filters...
B) Add Deinterlace filter select Duplicate Field 1 (or 2)

That will give slightly jagged edges. For better results add Deinterlace and Resize:

A) Video -> Filters...
B) Add Deinterlace filter select Discard Field 1 (or 2)
C) Add Resize filter, set size to 640x480 (4x3 video) or 854x480 (16:9 video),
filter mode to Lanczos3.

Edges will be smoother and you'll have a square pixel aspect ratio. If your video is wide screen resize to 854x480 instead.

Another possibility is do download and install Donald Graft's Smart Deinterlace filter. Then use that instead. It will give the best results in most circumstances.

[philly33flyers]

Ok, got everything working pretty decent using the Smart Deinterlace Filter. Only have 1 problem left. The video is shot in 720 x 480 (some kind od dvd camcorder). When I go through all the steps and then export image sequence, the pictures look like they are sqished. It's like it's not retaining the correct aspect ratio. How do I fix this? Also, is there any way to change the DPI for the output images from 96dpi to 300dpi? Thanks again for the help.

[jagabo]

Use the resize filter to size to the correct aspect ratio. If your video is 4:3 use a frame size like 720x540 or 640x480. If the DVD is 16:9 use a frame size like 720x404.

I don't think VirtualDubMod lets you include DPI settings in the images. You'll have to add that with some other program.