Which video player will scrub and has easy frame capture ?

[DBenz]

Hi,
falls into playback and other categories with the need for frame capture, so posting here. Please resite if inappropriate.

I used to use WinDVD4 as it will fill the screen with the video and a click of the camera icon ( also a key press I recall) captured the frame, one could do many captures (by that I dont mean 200 frames one after the other, but one per icon click) , one could then review captures and save those required. It would allow scrubbing or slow mo or frame by frame back and forth via a joggle wheel. brilliant. Then all this was removed.

Just what prog acts as a full screen player, with easy frame capture (no right click access a menu etc route each time) and scrubbing ability ?

I am with Media Player Classic but it doesnt scrub, it only reveals where the timeline cursor is when you stop moving it. Also whilst it will do frame capture , the captures are not the proportions of the viewed video but need resizing widthways in photoshop.

DBenz

[DBenz]

I am hoping someone will reply to this problem that I still have, posted 2 years ago !
surely there is a prog that will play a video and stills capture it, and allow slo mo to and fro ? WinDVD was excellent but Corel f^&^$$ it up.

MPC doesnt scrub and also hitting stills capture button DOESNT CAPTURE AT THAT MOMENT !!!! but a later part of the video when the save key is hit !...thats just useless.

Jaksta sees fine black lines around all edges when playing if picture moves horizontal and also has no timeline visible and no scrubbing either.

VLC has the same menus etc and also those same thin alternate pixel black lines of a mm or two along edges when video moves horiz,, as if its the same software engine.

I need the capture to be the same shape as the movie viewed, when opened into photoshop, goes without saying does that, but try telling MPC that, theirs is narrower , though the .mts file came out same size. Jaksta's is ok.

DBenz

[jagabo]

VLC has the same menus etc and also those same thin alternate pixel black lines of a mm or two along edges when video moves horiz,, as if its the same software engine.

I think you need to turn on the deinterlacer. I recommend Yadif 2x if your computer is fast enough.

[DBenz]

canon site says...Capture outstanding high bitrate AVCHD 1080p video with variable frame rates.

We had it set to AVCHD, Canon Legria G40
MediaInfo tells me for the file filmed...:-
24Mbps 25.0000fps

was this filmed on interlaced, I cant see mention of i or p anywhere. I WAS TOLD AVOID INTERLACED.

I seem to remember being told for normal dvd making and editing in Premiere Prom use 25fps progressive, or was that 50fps ??? as UK mains is 50Hz ?

seem to remember the G40 had no p option though, I may be wrong.

Guy setting it up in the test couldnt find the choices I thought it had.

spec says:-
1920x1080 50p 28Mbps
1920x1080 50i/25p 24Mbps 17Mbps
1440x1080 50i/25p 5Mbps
MP4¹²
1920x1080 50p 35Mbps
1920x1080 25p 24Mbps, 17Mbps
1280x720 25p 4Mbps
640x360 25p 3Mbps

25 and 50fps.

we never saw that much.

AS OF VLC....if I click on the timeline I get a grey screen with artefacts for a second or so, thats not what I normally get when watching video.
I am on automatic blend, I have run Yadif x2, still same, both remove those fine black comb dges, thanks for that advice.

This footage isnt the clarity and sharpness I expected at all, Canon G40 its jaded and lacking clarity, this is not HD, my MiniDv puts this to shame.

DBenz

[jagabo]

Switch MediaInfo to View -> Text. That will tell you if the video is interlaced or progressive.

Otherwise, I don't know what you mean by "thin alternate pixel black lines of a mm or two along edges when video moves horiz". Post a sample image showing the problem.

[DBenz]

two images uploaded, one is the mediaInfo text as mentioned and the other a crop of the footage showing the fine black comb like edges when panning horizontal.

I cant tell from that info if its i or p, which line gives that data ?

DBenz

[jagabo]

Your video is interlaced. Just turn on the deinterlacer in VLC.

[DBenz]

Hi,
thanks,

which line in that text gives that data ?

Cheers

DBenz

[TreeTops]

"Scan type" shows that info.

[jagabo]

Note that MediaInfo only tells you how the video is encoded. It doesn't tell you if the video actually contains interlaced frames. Sometimes progressive frames are encoded interlaced (meaning that the codec treats the frames as if they are interlaced, compressing the two fields separately). Your screen cap is the final arbiter, it shows comb artifacts so the video is definitely interlaced.

[DBenz]

Hi,
Nothing straightforward in life !
I have just run media Info on a video created on my Canon EOS 70D, setting used was 1920 25 ALL-I. it says progressive for scan type.
I have always assumed that it was interlaced as the next setting offered is 1920 25 IPB

I need to check what ALL-I and IPB stand for, maybe they are all Progressive.

DBenz

[jagabo]

ALL-I means all keyframes (I frames) -- meaning each frame can be reconstructed from just the information for that frame, much like a JPEG image. IPB means the video contains keyframes (I), forward predicted frames (P), and forward/backward predicted frames (B). Predicted frames require information from other frames in order to be reconstructed. This leads to much more/better compression.

This has nothing to do with whether the frames are interlaced or progressive.

[DBenz]

Hi and many thanks,
My Canon EOS70D only has those ALL-I and IPB offerings:-
1920 25 ALL-I
1920 25 IPB
1920 24 ALL-I
1920 24 IPB
1280 50 ALL-I
1280 50 IPB
640 25 IPB

for the best quality video UK PC editing etc, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, which one would be best ?

Still trying to find a prog that will do :-
1. frame frame forwards and backwards .
2. take stills by hitting a key or clicking an icon, and not having to go into a menu. Does anyone know of one ?

DBenz

[DBenz]

Hi,
I am now desperate to find this...I have still not found a video player that can do scrubbing and frame by frame forward and backward, I find vlc and jaksta that go frame by frame fwd, though jaksta seizes up afetra while, if I see something when playing and need to pause and go back to it I cant, I try and slide slider but no visual on where I am, and its always too far, jaksta short jump backward fails or is too much.

There surely in this day and age is a video player that can do:-
frame by frame fwd and backward.
take frame caprure and the result is same proportion as the original video (MPC_HC makes it narrower widthways)
scrubbing , maybe not as perfect as a video editor but you get a fait idea of what the cursor is over.
frame capture with single keystroke and no pesky menu to have to ok each time.
capture same quality as original frame. (Power Director failed on that but was ok all else)
variable speed play.

DBenz

[Ant_G]

old thread

i don't know what scrub mean anyway but if frame forward and backward you can try to use MPC-BE
you can customize the shortcut key for "framestep" "framestep back" and "alt+i" then "enter" to screen capture that frame.

[johnmeyer]

It seems to me that you are reopening this thread to ask essentially the same question you asked in the thread you started just over two months ago:

BANG BANG BANG make stills as fast as that from video

Perhaps after other people skim that thread they can come up with some additional answers, but since the main sticking point then was the ability to scrub back and forth frame-by-frame, in a player rather than an NLE, that is exactly what you are now asking again, and therefore seems like a double post.

For the record, the forum members provided you with solutions that does exactly what you want, except that it could not scrub backwards one frame at a time. I have copied my reply from that thread that details how to do this. In addition, I spent over an hour back then creating a script for Vegas that will accomplish most of what you wanted, an effort that was apparently not useful for you, although I might find a use for it, so it wasn't entirely wasted time.

Here is the solution I posted in that thread:

I don't know why you didn't follow my other suggestion (in post #4): VLC. I just tested, and it will take stills while the video is playing, one of your requirements. Thus, you don't have to stop it in order to get a snapshot. It also can be sped up or slowed down, while maintaining pitch. Finally, if you press the "E" key it will stop, and then each press of the "E" key after that will move forward by one frame. You said that it doesn't do this, but didn't do enough research, because it does it just fine.

If you truly need to go backwards and fowards frame-by-frame, then for heaven's sake, use an NLE. That is what they are for. Media players are for watching the show.

[DBenz]

Hi,

I don't know why you didn't follow my other suggestion (in post #4): VLC

I had asked:-
Hi John,
Thanks, Yes I know it can do stills on the fly, I have used it before, however...
I am after backwards frame by frame as well as fwds.
I couldnt see such for VLC but will revisit it incase it can. Do you know how to get it to do that ?

I couldn’t see a reply from you as to how.

I spent over an hour back then creating a script for Vegas that will accomplish most of what you wanted, an effort that was apparently not useful for you,

I replied:-
Do I need Pro to use the script though, as £500 is totally beyond my pocket just now and for some time to come.
Is the free one incapable of stills capture or being coded for ?

I didn’t get an answer.

The script appends a number to your base file name that is simply the current time in hours, minutes and seconds, e.g.,

MyPic183929.png

which is the snap I took at 6:39:29 p.m. today.

I wrote:-
4) if possible coding that would apply filename Holiday19aug2018.mpg and position on time line to still file..e.g. Holiday19aug2018_01-28-17.jpg as having two dates is confusing, else I would use a renamer prog (Den4b renamer is great) and add in the name.

I didn’t get a reply.

Why am I back to trying to find a player, well my 30 days trial of Vegas standard expired with some issues unanswered by Magix, so that was the end of Vegas for me. The actual Vegas forum server had been dead the entire time so no forum support, I was using Magix and awaiting replies. So having given up for the moment on finding an NLE, with 3 trialled and failed on frame capture and video editing needs, I am back to trying to find a player, hence this thread. I need to find a period of time I know I can make the most out of an NLE 30 day trial, at the moment I wouldn’t see anything of 30days if I installed another. I wish they made it 30 launches ! As soon as I install a 30day trial prog things happen to stop me trialling it as wished. My gremlins are like that !

I had wanted to find Vegas Standard fitted the bill, but as an editor it failed me. I needed to edit out unwanted objects in the background such as 2019 era T shirt humans existing seen through foliage in a period drama shoot. Fonts that would not display yet would in DaVinci. The internet fix that others tried didn’t work for me. Unable to scrub with sound. I am running DaVinci but now discover it wont edit or play .mpg so more NLE trials needed.

As such with no answers from you or Magix I cant use Vegas Standard to do the frame capture, I need to find another NLE that can., or I buy it just for frame capture, but being short of money I wanted to buy ONE NLE for editing and stills capture.
Power Director failed me as it did allow BANG BANG BANG but the captures were not same quality, unlike Vegas and DaVinci. Also it worked upside down layer wise.

So whilst I am back at trying to find an NLE and hoping to trial Hit Film Express I need meanwhile to get stills from video using a player.

It seemed wrong to use an NLE thread to ask about players. I would no doubt get flamed for doing so.

If magix can fix the text issue and if I can use it to edit out humans behind foliage anmd if your script works in vegas Standard I could go with Standard, trouble is now I cant install and trial it to test as 30 days is up. Unless they allow me to or a new version is out and a new trial available.

If Players cant go backwards then yes NLE is the only way and a lot of folk plead VLC allow us to go backwards, not just me. Players make an easy job of frame capture so for the ability of going backward they do the job. Folk dont want a massive outlay of £500 to go backwards.

So to avoid such would that script work in Standard, ?...and could it apply just suffix timeline hhmmssff to the capture name (ff being my name for the partial seconds I see get applied in some players)

DBenz