Trying to Capture a Bat

[Charles 22]

davejavu: Oh man, sorry, I got mixed up. Yes, we're thinking along the same lines. I start referring to anydvd hd as "slysoft" so when I don't hear slysoft, I think that's not what is being talked about. I note they specifically mention AACS encryption busting, so maybe that's my best bet. For now, I'll be patching up my VLC.

[davejavu]

It doesn't matter if the drive burns discs or not as far as being able to read discs for playback goes, but portable drives such as the one you have only read data from the disc and feed it to something else to play. These drives do not contain any software to play the discs, only read them (assuming the drive isn't faulty). The studios don't limit disc reading on burning devices as far as I know (there isn't any motive for them to do so).

My concern here is that you seem to be confused between what is a disc drive, which is what you have, and a disc player. An actual Blu-Ray player almost certainly won't be able to connect to your computer, at least not without some expensive adaptors, as they are designed to be plugged into a TV, and buying another portable drive similar to the one you have already won't get you any closer to your goal.

As far as the drive being faulty, it can happen that a drive can happily read some discs but not others. This can be due to a faulty drive or to a faulty disc. A fingerprint or other blemish on the shiny surface of the disc can confuse the drive and prevent proper loading of a disc. Unless you try to play these discs in another Blu-Ray capable drive or player to test that the disc itself works you won't be able to tell if the problem is the drive, the disc or the software you are currently using. I have had brand new Blu-Ray and DVD movies fail to play because there was a fault during manufacturing of the disc.

Do your have a friend/relative with an actual Blu-Ray player, or a PC with Blu-Ray player software known to work so you can try your portable drive on another PC to make sure the discs and/or drive are working normally?

[DB83]

Well it does seem that everything is conspiring to prevent you from playing these disks.

It might be worth mentioning that atleast one of the original batches of the Batman BD's was faulty. One would hope that since replacement disks were provided to customers who found these in their sets that working disks went in to the later boxsets.

As for that portable drive, to reiterate, it can not work direct to your tv even if that has a usb slot since no tv has player software for BDs (or dvds for that matter). Would also ask since you said the tv is quite old if it has atleast one hdmi slot since if it has not you would probably not get the benefit of Blu-ray even if you obtained a basic player which are quite in-expensive these days.

For playback on the PC, and still capture since that is your goal, it really does mean fairly up-to-date, commercial software. AFAIK PowerDVD is still available for a 30-day free trial so it might be worth getting that just to see if the disks and your portable drive are fine.

[Charles 22]

Here are the latest results. I uninstalled VLC along with the cache, etc. Then I reinstalled it and at present have the 32bit appdata file in the alleged 64bit appdate spot. Seems I recall in the old days, that the now ancient instructions are wrong, that the alleged 32bit one goes to the 64bit install. IOW, the files are labeled incorrectly. I went for the basic VLC install, which I saw was 32bit, but if you believe that appdata instructional page, I got the 64 bit version instead, since it was in the x86 folder. I think the truth of the matter is the one that goes to the x86 folder is the 32bit install, whereas the files are correctly labeled. Who knows?

Anyway, Devil Dog, as I said, works on powerdvd9, and I thought always worked on the VLC, but I tried running it both through disc and grabbing the largest file, with both the appdata files at a time in the x86 folder and neither worked. Really odd. Anyway, I went to my last resort, my other BD movie. I tried this at first with the 32bit file in the x86 folder path and ran it as a disc without menus and it worked like a champ, nice and speedy load too. Yes, I think I may be loading potplayer tomorrow and see if it fairs better with BD movies (would be neat to be able to frame reverse, even though I get on fine without it), although I still expect it to fail with Batman. Perhaps after that, or instead, I will then buy me some Slysoft AnyDVD HD. I'm not sure if I want to venture into buying a regular BD drive player just yet. Since then, I have seen that VLC acknowledges that it barely makes a dent into AACS and I believe they called it B+ encrypting, so I expect they never will. I am curious about the Devil Dog failing now, whereas it didn't before. It makes me think they withdrew the key to the AACS for that movie.

I'm not sure I'm going to jack with burner driver any more, as it's apparent that's not a problem with Batman anyway.

[Charles 22]

It doesn't matter if the drive burns discs or not as far as being able to read discs for playback goes, but portable drives such as the one you have only read data from the disc and feed it to something else to play. These drives do not contain any software to play the discs, only read them (assuming the drive isn't faulty). The studios don't limit disc reading on burning devices as far as I know (there isn't any motive for them to do so).

My concern here is that you seem to be confused between what is a disc drive, which is what you have, and a disc player. An actual Blu-Ray player almost certainly won't be able to connect to your computer, at least not without some expensive adaptors, as they are designed to be plugged into a TV, and buying another portable drive similar to the one you have already won't get you any closer to your goal.

As far as the drive being faulty, it can happen that a drive can happily read some discs but not others. This can be due to a faulty drive or to a faulty disc. A fingerprint or other blemish on the shiny surface of the disc can confuse the drive and prevent proper loading of a disc. Unless you try to play these discs in another Blu-Ray capable drive or player to test that the disc itself works you won't be able to tell if the problem is the drive, the disc or the software you are currently using. I have had brand new Blu-Ray and DVD movies fail to play because there was a fault during manufacturing of the disc.

Do your have a friend/relative with an actual Blu-Ray player, or a PC with Blu-Ray player software known to work so you can try your portable drive on another PC to make sure the discs and/or drive are working normally?

Umm, not sure why you would think studios have no motivation to stop burners in particular, since they are more to worry about. OTOH, maybe you think that there's so many ways to get around encrypting, that they'll see a device that can make copies of those same discs as no threat. But remember, logic doesn't exactly guide them, as often corporations want more to give off the appearance they're doing something, rather than deal with it.

Yes, I understand now what you're saying about the burner looking for a player, although I wouldn't rule out entirely that a burner wouldn't have a player as well, though this one has certainly never showed any signs of that. Maybe all they would have typically would be a burner program that popped up with it.

No sorry, I don't know anybody that even slightly into trying BD, and you can see how new I am to it. The closest I could come, was a neighbor across from my Mom's and this dude probably knew it all, but he moved away to the country about 300 miles away.

I also see what you mean between drive and player. I always thought the idea of a portable was the ability to sue that sucker anywhere. There may be no hype to support that way of thinking, but I had it nonetheless. I guess it is possible somebody could manufacture a drive to also work in the player capacity, but it would at least need it's own power supply and the proper cable ports, say HDMI, to attempt a home entertainment move as well. I guess manufacturers just think nobody would want to bother switching a drive between two distinctly different setups. I guess I had to try this thing on a USB port on the dvd/vhs player to find out I needed more. So yeah, maybe this burner is still gold, and if I want HDTV BD play, it will have to come through a player. It sounds so odd calling a player, a player, because it's so non-descript as to suggest that something which isn't strictly a player, can't play dvds or BDs. Seems there should be better terminology. As well, I don't really think of something external to the computer as being a drive, yet I would tell you my external hard discs are drives every bit as much as the internal one. I guess both are because I always think of all hard drives as being drives, but all thing dvd or BD as being players, since, they all play. Check me into the funny farm.

[Charles 22]

Well it does seem that everything is conspiring to prevent you from playing these disks.

It might be worth mentioning that atleast one of the original batches of the Batman BD's was faulty. One would hope that since replacement disks were provided to customers who found these in their sets that working disks went in to the later boxsets.

As for that portable drive, to reiterate, it can not work direct to your tv even if that has a usb slot since no tv has player software for BDs (or dvds for that matter). Would also ask since you said the tv is quite old if it has atleast one hdmi slot since if it has not you would probably not get the benefit of Blu-ray even if you obtained a basic player which are quite in-expensive these days.

For playback on the PC, and still capture since that is your goal, it really does mean fairly up-to-date, commercial software. AFAIK PowerDVD is still available for a 30-day free trial so it might be worth getting that just to see if the disks and your portable drive are fine.

Oh yes, I agree with you that I might have had a faulty first disc, but trying another Batman disc gave the same result. I too had heard about the replacement disc thing. I'm hoping I don't have to forsake BD forever, since it may prove a bit difficult returning it, seeing as how it was a foreign amazon which I don't speak the language. I'm pretty sure amazon USA would help me in some capacity. I might able to do it all on my own, assuming I went to the foreign site and used a translator.

Yes, I do have an HDMI on the HDTV. I get some way good digital OTA signals, but alas, yet to see my first BD on it. Generally sport (as you would say in the UK) runs in either 1080i or 1080p. It's an awfully nice non-3D Panny plasma.

[usually_quiet]

I have a Blu-Ray burner and use PowerDVD 12. I have had no problems playing any recent or older Blu-Ray movies that I have tried, but I upgraded from the OEM version of PowerDVD 9 Ultra provided with my burner to Power DVD 12 Ultra within a few months of installing my burner. All the discs I have tried are Region 1 DVD, Region A Blu-Ray or region-free/all region.

There is no movie industry conspiracy specific to computers which prevents playing Blu-Ray on Blu-Ray burners, if one is using appropriate licensed Blu-Ray player software such as PowerDVD. However, just like most hardware players, licensed Blu-Ray player software like PowerDVD doesn't receive updates/patches indefinitely to allow it to cope with new copy protection strategies. In both cases, the maker expects you to re-purchase a new version of their product every few years. OEM versions of PowerDVD are usually several years behind the current version, and it may be necessary to take Cyberlink up on their usual reduced-price upgrade offer not long after installing the OEM software provided with a new burner.

Yes, licensed Blu-Ray player software no longer allows making screenshots and the functionality is not likely to be restored. Yes, this was supposedly done to prevent copying a movie frame-by-frame. You have already been told that there are other ways to get snapshots.

There are not many Blu-Ray players which can be hacked by consumers for region-free DVD playback, and almost none which can be hacked by consumers for Region free Blu-Ray playback. If you plan to import discs, and use a hardware player, you will need to get a hardware Blu-Ray player that has been pre-modified (by the specialty retailer selling it) to be region-free for Blu-Ray and DVD, and has the ability to convert from "PAL" video resolutions and frame rates to "NTSC" video resolutions and frame rates so imported discs from former PAL countries will play on a Panasonic TV made for the North American market.

[Charles 22]

I have a Blu-Ray burner and use PowerDVD 12. I have had no problems playing any recent or older Blu-Ray movies that I have tried, but I upgraded from the OEM version of PowerDVD 9 Ultra provided with my burner to Power DVD 12 Ultra within a few months of installing my burner. All the discs I have tried are Region 1 DVD, Region A Blu-Ray or region-free/all region.

There is no movie industry conspiracy specific to computers which prevents playing Blu-Ray on Blu-Ray burners, if one is using appropriate licensed Blu-Ray player software such as PowerDVD. However, just like most hardware players, licensed Blu-Ray player software like PowerDVD doesn't receive updates/patches indefinitely to allow it to cope with new copy protection strategies. In both cases, the maker expects you to re-purchase a new version of their product every few years. OEM versions of PowerDVD are usually several years behind the current version, and it may be necessary to take Cyberlink up on their usual reduced-price upgrade offer not long after installing the OEM software provided with a new burner.

Yes, licensed Blu-Ray player software no longer allows making screenshots and the functionality is not likely to be restored. Yes, this was supposedly done to prevent copying a movie frame-by-frame. You have already been told that there are other ways to get snapshots.

There are not many Blu-Ray players which can be hacked by consumers for region-free DVD playback, and almost none which can be hacked by consumers for Region free Blu-Ray playback. If you plan to import discs, and use a hardware player, you will need to get a hardware Blu-Ray player that has been pre-modified (by the specialty retailer selling it) to be region-free for Blu-Ray and DVD, and has the ability to convert from "PAL" video resolutions and frame rates to "NTSC" video resolutions and frame rates so imported discs from former PAL countries will play on a Panasonic TV made for the North American market.

Wow, it's remarkable that our software player journey is so similar, other than I never took the powerdvd12 plunge. I found powerdvd9 wouldn't snapshot BD, and it was junk to me after that. Now IF powerdbd12, or later versions would snapshot BD, they might just become my player of choice, but I heavily doubt that. I think removing that capability was them getting pressured by outside forces to do that. Like I said it was NOT because snapping is a niche, because otherwise they wouldn't still carry it for their dvd would they (it functions on dvd it does not on BD). The same story with the windvdpro to the nth degree. Can you name one player that will play almost all BD, and yet still snapshot them? And I mean through real personal experience, because a company can claim it does snapshot, and claim it does Blu-ray, since snapshot works on dvd, and still be sort of accurate, the key is they need to sate that it does snapshot specifically on BD. Oh, I see you're in agreement about this absence of snapshot with BD. All I've heard is people saying this will do snapshot and that, potplayer for example. But I've yet to see anybody say it works on BD. I may try potplayer as my next move, but with that I probably still run into the problem of it not playing any of my BD tv series.

Okay, so maybe there's wasn't a movement not to allow BD to play on burners. I do have a limited sample here. As well, I'll have you know I "purchased" the then latest version of windvdpro, I think it was version 12. In my case, not only would it not snapshot BD, but it played BD's quite poorly. Even my previous version of windvdpro when it did snapshot on dvd, it would always be a frame off (that may had been because of my then internal dvd player I used on the computer), as it would always snap the frame after the one you were on (extremely annoying when you want to get that best frame, but then I did adjust to some degree, great hassle or not). Now PERHAPS, a snap toll like the windows snipping tool might work, but that 's a hell of a lot of hassle to work compared to hitting one key on the keyboard off a player. Also, I've yet to hear anybody claim that snipping software works off a BD player such as powerdvd. I probably have tried it with snipping toll and it failed (though it is a tremendous hassle even if it did work, that is, if you are having to snapshot as much as I might). The only reason this has come to a head this late, is I never had any reason to go BD, other than to experiment with it, because of too much expense and too little older tv shows going to BD (until Batman and LIS, for me anyway).

So again, these are my problems, though slysoft may pretty much solve them all (if their free version is a full version, then that may be all I need, then upgrade it for increased time). VLC WILL do BD snapshots BTW, but if it don't play most of them it's pretty worthless for BD. That's where slysoft may fix even that. The problems are inability to play BD on the computer, which , as you say, may be in some software's cases, a matter of time (I also wouldn't conclude that just because a product is new, that it is always throwing new encryption on it), and also not having a snapshot device that will work on BD.

I understand snapshot software, on it's own, may not be able to snap what amounts to a BD screenshot off, say VLC, and that for those who have snapshots as part of the dvd/BD player, free or licensed, that it may not work as well. I wish you would tell me where somebody said definitely that they had a snapshot device that would work on BD, be that as part of the player, or as a separate program. Surely I have missed that, yes? Because you say somebody has. Either I missed it or you're making assumptions. Saying potplayer "makes snapshots" while it MAY do them in BD is insufficient, because as you know, it's quite another thing to snap BD, but for the licensed products reality if nothing else.

Thanks for your time, as much of a bore this must be. Truly I have never seen anybody state anywhere, any forum, or any of the licensed or unlicensed products, stated they will do snapshot on all media (meaning BD in my case). It may be out there somewhere, but I don't keep asking because I have seen this evidence and would rather ignore it. In a way, snipping tool don't count (if it will work on BD), because it is a major hassle to do hundreds of snapshots that way.

[usually_quiet]

Someone here suggested screen capture software to take snapshots early on in this thread. See post 15

Clearly you would rather bitch, moan, complain and argue than solve your problems. It isn't worth wading through all the crap in your rambling posts anymore in an attempt to help you. Good luck to you. You will need it. For some reason you just can't get past the idea that you should only need a single piece of software to do what you want.

[DB83]

^^ Yes. I did suggest a very simple program that works.

I have also checked the PowerDVD site and, yes, you can still get a 30 day trial of the software that will play back BDs

There is one thing with video that you soon learn. No one tool does EVERYTHING.

Now when the OP comes back and states he has tried these suggestions, I will be more inclined to help more, if necessary. Sometimes to get help you must help yourself.

POWW. ZAP!! BANG!!!

[davejavu]

I am beginning to suspect this gentleman frequents the underside of bridges.

[Charles 22]

Someone here suggested screen capture software to take snapshots early on in this thread. See post 15

Clearly you would rather bitch, moan, complain and argue than solve your problems. It isn't worth wading through all the crap in your rambling posts anymore in an attempt to help you. Good luck to you. You will need it. For some reason you just can't get past the idea that you should only need a single piece of software to do what you want.

Well thanks you, apparently I did miss the 'Automatic Screen Capture' mention. As for your insult -

[Charles 22]

^^ Yes. I did suggest a very simple program that works.

I have also checked the PowerDVD site and, yes, you can still get a 30 day trial of the software that will play back BDs

There is one thing with video that you soon learn. No one tool does EVERYTHING.

Now when the OP comes back and states he has tried these suggestions, I will be more inclined to help more, if necessary. Sometimes to get help you must help yourself.

POWW. ZAP!! BANG!!!

Friends (or is that feinds?), it's called weighing the options. I'm not so daft just to take any ol bit of info the net throws me. Some of you are ignoring, or can't follow my train of thought here, and I suppose that isn't too unexpected given my detail and desires for what I want not equaling your own. I have already done some things and reported them. For now, I'm going through an evaluation period of everything I've been told (and no, powerdvd is NOT the answer; not even close) plus I have a life outside of this thread, which has had to be tended to. Forgive me, but I didn't see the 'Automatic Screen Capture' mention, and it still says nothing about snapping BD, though with it updated recently, maybe there's some hope? Just from general appearance, it looks to work on a time basis, which if that's the only way it snaps, isn't what I want.

So are all you guys going to show your maturity and dogpile on me after usually_quiet got it started? Shame on you if do. I do see your point however, since I don't think there's a lot to add until I have gone a certain direction. Life gets in the way and you contemplate your options as it does. So far I'm shading towards the just seen 'Automatic Screen Capture' and the Anydvd HD product.

[Charles 22]

I am beginning to suspect this gentleman frequents the underside of bridges.

I own this house since 1991 thank you. Any more ludicrous cheap shots?

[usually_quiet]

I am beginning to suspect this gentleman frequents the underside of bridges.

No, he has bats in the belfry. Well, he asked for a ludicrous cheap shot. Happy to oblige.

[DB83]

Any DVD HD is NOT a solution for you. Your disks are already region-free.

That only works if you are prepared to rip your BDs to your HDD and reencode/remux from there.

And if you want to rip Region-free BDs there is free software available to do that.

Of course, VLC and most other players will play the ripped material then.

And I never said that PowerDVD will screen cap direct. Already stated that the facility was removed more years ago than I care to remember.

Use two programs and you get what you want. Perfect playback (assuming your drive is not caput) and screen-grabs.

[usually_quiet]

Any DVD HD is NOT a solution for you. Your disks are already region-free.

That only works if you are prepared to rip your BDs to your HDD and reencode/remux from there.

And if you want to rip Region-free BDs there is free software available to do that.

Of course, VLC and most other players will play the ripped material then.

And I never said that PowerDVD will screen cap direct. Already stated that the facility was removed more years ago than I care to remember.

Yes, he should only need to use 'Auto Screen Capture'/APS in conjunction with PowerDVD Ultra to have perfect playback and menu navigation, plus screenshots. You have tried it and it seems like a fine solution for someone who has no interest in ripping their movies.

Use two programs and you get what you want. Perfect playback (assuming your drive is not caput) and screen-grabs.

...and the Blu-Ray discs themselves are not faulty.

[usually_quiet]

I had to see for myself. I downloaded the PowerDVD 15 Ultra trial and Auto Screen Capture. Bad news. ASC may have worked at one time with older versions of PowerDVD or older versions of Windows, but is unable to capture PowerDVD 15 Ultra while it is playing a commercial Blu-Ray movie on a machine running Windows 7 Home 64-bit.

[Edit]ASC could capture PowerDVD 15 when it played a DVD. I tried both a commercial disc and a DVD I authored. I do not have a self-authored Blu-Ray disc to try.

My best guess is that playing a commercial Blu-Ray with PowerDVD requires the use of Protected Media Path DRM, so there is no opportunity for software to capture a window displaying the protected video on the desktop or to capture the video itself.

[DB83]

^^ Oh poop. My bad...

I confess that I only tested (basis of post #15) on a dvd. So naturally assumed that it would work for BD as well.

So, having read the above, I tested a pretty recent BD with PowerDVD Ultra v11 and, holy crap, it just captured a black screen.

Could this have something to do with the way a BD handles the video overlay ?. Certainly some screen-capture tended to fail with a green-screen when video acceleration was set high but I am not inclined to change that since it will probably affect overall video performance.

Apologies for the bad advice.

[Charles 22]

Unfortunately, it seems I know more about snapping than you guys do, and that isn't saying much. In order to get a BD screenshot, it sadly appears you're going to have to be razor sharp on the subject to pull it off. I must had looked at over a dozen various software captures and none of them even mention BD (or HD for that matter), which means if you were to try them, it's nothing more than a crapshoot that they would work, and you do that at the risk of having tons of stuff you don't want dumped on your computer. I'm so glad usually_quiet tried his experiment, because he had me convinced, and I would had been out over $90 for the effort, but not being in haste saved my skin (I wouldn't had trialed powerdvd, but bought it, because I was convinced it would play BD at least), though buying it may be a playing solution anyway, assuming playing was all I wanted to do. My quandrum is you see I may be wanting to spend that money to achieve my TOTAL goal, but I don't want to spend money like that and all I get is a player with no hope of snapshots overall. I would rather return Batman BD and cancel LIS, than do that.

About a decade ago when I was into wargaming, there was a utility we used for screenshots. I have no idea anymore what it was, and I'm sure it wouldn't work for BD purposes, but it had something to do with turning off some overlay beforehand, etc. Again, that's on a SD game and not BD tv series. I have seen a couple of guys that claim they have ways. One involved dumping like EVERY SINGLE I-frame, or whatever he called it, onto the HDD, and then going through them all, and then was silly enough to claim that was faster for him than the standard method of how it's done with dvds. Then another guy claimed he KNOWS it works on BD with Arcsoft Total Media Theatre, but he wrote this in 2008. The fact that Arcsoft doesn't claim it, and so many of you seem to get dvd and BD snapping mixed up (I tried my snipper tool yesterday, and of course you just get black screen on the snip) leads me to believe he's in fairytale land. Plus the distinct possibility that arcsoft took out the snap working on BD, if you can believe that guy, after one of the versions that did do it, is a logical conclusion. I notice he didn't say which version of the software could do it either. As well, if I could nail it down to 2007 Total Media Theatre, what good would it do me when that version is VERY unlikely to play Batman, etc? I have inquired by email to arcsoft and some other company, but will they be on the level with me?

Also, there is the ignorance factor. Take this snipping tool for example. If you couldn't give a hoot about snipping, and are trying to help somebody who does, you are fairly likely to claim that what I did yesterday worked. You see the file on the drive and conclude it worked. Sheesh, when you do the snip, the snipper has the image in the software itself, as though it worked, but it takes opening the file that was created, not just seeing a file was created, to see it's just plain garbage. For non-snappers, it's easy to be deceived in this, because of how other software treats this issue, such as powerdvd just refusing to make a file or for the option to even appear to work on BD.

Now you see why I bothered you all, because it would appear this is a monumental problem to try to achieve. I was hoping that a forum called capturing might have some keen insight I do not. You can't try every piece of software after all, and as far as I have seen, none of them even claim it any more than any other, which to me means NONE of them I've seen have it. This might not be an issue if I had a Mac, but I sure don't want a new system out of this

Weird isn't it? VLC will do it, but it's pretty useless for playing BD's, even some BD's going back as far as five years ago! That's why I thought buying the Anydvd HD might be the solution, to strip the encryption and therefore be able to VLC it. I know nothing about doing that sort of thing and somebody mentioned wuxing the encrypted data or something, and I have no idea what is involved with that. More hardware? More software? As long as Anydvd would instruct you how to do that, and was capable within the software itself, I don't see that as an issue. As well, I couldn't care less if something is region free or not, as my burner is that way already. From what I have seen, anydvd's main talk up may be making things region free, but that's not all it does.

If I'm in the mood, I might try potplayer today, or download some free player, or the free version of Anydvd HD, but it seems at this point that the last option may be the only choice and with my VLC being on some sort of fritz (even newly downloaded) I'm not sure even that won't fail me (at least it's still snapshotting dvds).

Anydvd does make this boast "Makes Blu-ray media playable with every player software." I have seen they say the trial is 'try-before-you-buy', which suggests a full version to me, since any trial software let's you try before you buy, even if it is limited. It may be a language thing too, since it is a Swiss site.

On a last note, according to one source, my se-406ab burner won't even burn BD's!!! Just burn dvds and Play BD. You wonder how I thought the things I thought about this drive, look on the description on amazon about how you just have to hook it to a HDTV, etc. Someone pretty ignorant of BD as I am, sees yellow brick road on reading that, but until now, the drive has been a real gem for me, though if I understand correctly, the only hope it EVER had was to move between pcs, or to hook to a HDTV that was prepared to have a drive hooked direct to it (software within it, etc), and mine not even having a USB certainly ruled that out, and passing through the DVR, which had a USB, would had worked basically only if it itself were a BD player. I can see why somebody making a dvd/vhs wouldn't make that USB capable of doing anything BD, but when you're ignorant of vague promises of what USB will do, and never having them fail you in the past for other tasks, what can somebody ignorant of it do but learn? I bought my burner on the conditions of having two lights, being portable, and it being "capable" of playing BD and it has done that, so I can't gripe there. Next time I won't think a device just having a USB connection is such a positive thing, since at least in this case, the portability I thought I had going to MY current HDTV, does not exist. Curious, another goal I had was to take it to my Mom's and she has a Smart HDTV, pretty durn recent too. I wonder if that unit might not have software and USB to accept this burner? Hmm. would be nice to show her some BD. It's probably worth the 10 cents of my effort. Maybe even Batman????? Bam, boom, pow, that would be a holy surprise.

[DB83]

No. You would not have been a cent out of pocket. Unless your idea of 'Free Trial' is different to the rest of us.

Yes. I have seen site with HiRes BD screen grabs. It way well be that the guys who do these actually feed the signal from a Blu-ray player in to the PC monitor via capture equipment and grab the screen from there.

Anyway I am out of here now. I did not bother to read the all of the latest 'lecture'. If you can not understand what was already written about AnyDVDHD or the connectivity of a Blu-ray drive to any HDTV then I really am sorry for you.

[Charles 22]

No. You would not have been a cent out of pocket. Unless your idea of 'Free Trial' is different to the rest of us.

Yes. I have seen site with HiRes BD screen grabs. It way well be that the guys who do these actually feed the signal from a Blu-ray player in to the PC monitor via capture equipment and grab the screen from there.

Anyway I am out of here now. I did not bother to read the all of the latest 'lecture'. If you can not understand what was already written about AnyDVDHD or the connectivity of a Blu-ray drive to any HDTV then I really am sorry for you.

just make sure and don't lecture me as you go - wait a minute, you did. Thanks for whatever help you managed, though you couldn't manage to not be rude as well. Cheerio ol' bean, Atkinson Bean that is.

[usually_quiet]

It is amazing to me that someone can type that many words and yet convey so little useful information. The more you ramble the fewer members will bother reading or replying

Screen software doesn't always list everything that it can capture. DB83 has been a member here for a long time and doesn't make many mistakes. Given his statement that Auto Screen Capture had worked I thought there was a possibility that the author of Auto Screen Capture had found a vulnerability to exploit. Things like that don't happen often, but once in a while somebody finds a way to "beat the system".

For the last time, your USB BD combo drive won't be of any use for playing discs unless its hooked up to a computer running appropriate player software. The processors used in smart TVs are not very powerful and I have never heard of one with a Blu-Ray Player app that would allow you to hook up a USB BD combo drive and play discs.

Potplayer won't decrypt Blu-Ray on its own. You need to run AnyDVD HD or DVDFab Passkey at the same time, which are not free,

Free solutions: Rip the Blu-Ray discs to your hard drive with MakeMKV. MakeMKV can rip as Blu-Ray files and folders or as MKVs. MKV will probably be more convenient. Use VLC or PotPlayer to make screenshots. PowerDVD might work as well, if Cinavia wasn't used on the audio.

Leawo Blu-ray Player, is another a possibility. It is unlicensed, so decryption and menu support are reversed engineered and only semi-reliable. I don't know if it has a snapshot feature, but it is adapted from XBMC which does make snapshots.

[Charles 22]

It is amazing to me that someone can type that many words and yet convey so little useful information. The more you ramble the fewer members will bother reading or replying

Screen software doesn't always list everything that it can capture. DB83 has been a member here for a long time and doesn't make many mistakes. Given his statement that Auto Screen Capture had worked I thought there was a possibility that the author of Auto Screen Capture had found a vulnerability to exploit. Things like that don't happen often, but once in a while somebody finds a way to "beat the system".

For the last time, your USB BD combo drive won't be of any use for playing discs unless its hooked up to a computer running appropriate player software. The processors used in smart TVs are not very powerful and I have never heard of one with a Blu-Ray Player app that would allow you to hook up a USB BD combo drive and play discs.

Potplayer won't decrypt Blu-Ray on its own. You need to run AnyDVD HD or DVDFab Passkey at the same time, which are not free,

Free solutions: Rip the Blu-Ray discs to your hard drive with MakeMKV. MakeMKV can rip as Blu-Ray files and folders or as MKVs. MKV will probably be more convenient. Use VLC or PotPlayer to make screenshots. PowerDVD might work as well, if Cinavia wasn't used on the audio.

Leawo Blu-ray Player, is another a possibility. It is unlicensed, so decryption and menu support are reversed engineered and only semi-reliable. I don't know if it has a snapshot feature, but it is adapted from XBMC which does make snapshots.

Okay u_q you don't think smart TV's a re powerful enough software to be geared for BD, even though it has a HDD, okay, but I'll still try it anyway. Like I said, 10 cents worth of effort. Thanks for you further help, despite that I can write extensively at times. It's too bad I don't know of any females who have a good deal of knowledge in this, they may appreciate a bit of chat, even though I haven't diverged from the topic of my own thread as far as I know.

[DB83]

Oh! You ARE in the 'capturing' forum.

Silly me for not realising that.

Doing screen-grabs has feck all to do with capturing.

Diverged ? That itself is quite open to debate.

[davejavu]

DB83 and usually_quiet, I wouldn't bother if I were you. This is either a poor attempt at a wind-up, or this gentleman should just send the discs back to Amazon and tell them he isn't qualifed to own them.

[Charles 22]

I saw video-capturing, and I am capturing video. But then I looked at the small print underneath, and it says "Everything about capturing analog TV, S/VHS or Cam using Video cards, TV-Cards, or MJPEG or MPEG1/2/4 hardware realtime capture cards." Until then, I didn't realize there was video capturing and -video capturing-. It was all in the same family as far as I was concerned, but then nobody told me till this last post, and me looking at the forum to see if he wasn't being a snothead (pun) I didn't know. You see? You didn't have to insult me to try to get me to leave, you just had to tell me the truth. Farewell.

[DB83]

Anyway, if he/she is still around, I checked the screen-capture facility of vlc.

Got over any encryption issues with DVDFab Passkey which is free (translate that as does not cost a cent) right now.

Played the .mts straight from the disk - not the best way to do this but this was a quick test - pressed the appropriate button (I changed the default).

Screen-grab done !

As Winston Churchill once said, never have so many words been written about such little.

[usually_quiet]

In other words, following the advice given by Baldrick in the first reply to this thread would have solved the screen capture issue three days ago.

[DB83]

Solved yes. If the disks will play. Did he/she actually say that was possible in vlc ? And no. I am not about to read thro endless drivel just to find out. But maybe they will if he/she spends $0 on that s/w. Better hurry tho since it will not be free for much longer.

And if he/she does come back expect another dose of verbal diarrhea.

Just seen the other topic he/she has contributed in. Even more bat-crap in that one. Someone methinks just likes the look of his own words which have little to do with the topic under discussion.