Alternatives to extract frames from videos into image files?

[naoto89]

For a long time I used FFDshow "grab" function to extract frames from videos into image files while watching videos in MPC-HC but due FFDShow limitations and be a project abandoned 10 years ago, extracting frames from videos in formats like H265 became an impediment to still using FFDShow and when for some reason I'm forced to reinstall K-lite Codec Pack to a newer version, I encounter unpleasant surprises and always try to restore config backups from previous versions (I only did it for MPC-HC. FFDShow and its config had its own installation outside KLCP). Since LAVF does not have grab function and is the default decoder in MPC-HC and KLCP, I looked for different alternatives (VLC Player, FFmpeg, VirtualDub) but I'm not satisfied with any. Is there any method similar to what I use?

[Ennio]

Don't know if this is something you'll find suitable for your needs. I usually take video snapshots in PotPlayer or VirtualDub2 by means of keyboards "Ctrl+C" (PotPlayer) or "Ctrl+1" (VirtualDub2). Both actions copy the current source-frame to clipboard, which I then paste in an image editor for further processing.

[Alwyn]

or "Ctrl+1" (VirtualDub2)

To save an image file from the video, it's "/". The snaps are sequentially numbered so you can't overwrite previous saves.

[Ennio]

To save an image file from the video, it's "/". The snaps are sequentially numbered so you can't overwrite previous saves.

Thanks for this. Can you please tell me where the images are saved? Having difficulty to locate them.

[Alwyn]

When you hit /, the Save Image dialogue pops up. You can set the Save folder then.

[naoto89]

I found a way to still use FFDshow to extract frames while watching videos with MPC-HC no matter the source format.

As I said before, the problem is that previously when having FFDshow as a parallel installation to KLCP, FFDshow was configured to use decoders supported formats, that's why FFDshow couldn't do it with videos in unavailable formats like H265. Rather than have FFDshow installed separately and try to config MPC-HC so that it does not use LAVF decoder, I have to use the FFDshow included in KLCP and add "ffdshow raw video filter" as external filter in MPC-HC. That way, both tools can coexist without having to make many changes and not have to use other software unless it was strictly necessary.

By the way, the extracting multiple frames function it's something that a player like MPC-HC is long overdue. VLC Player has that function, but you have to follow several steps every time you need to extract frames. Also, one of the things I don't like about VLC is the name format in which it saves image files.