how can i capture an image from an avi, wmv or mpg file

[vampirefan]

hi... does anyone know what i should use to get a screen cap of a particular image from an avi, wmv or mpg file?

i can't seem to find any info as "capture" seems to be universally understood here as something like "recording".

i already have a video file and i like the way an actor looks in a particular scene and i want to capture that still image.

help!

thanks
laura

[Treebeard]

you can capture using PowerDVD software. there is a demo in the toos section. and it will play avi , mpg , etc....

[vampirefan]

damn! i don't have a dvd rom drive (i'm assuming i need one to use dvd software)... only a cd-rw drive...

... any other ideas anyone?

[Treebeard]

no dvd rom is required. this is just software and you can select to play file from your HardDrive or cd drive.

[vampirefan]

i'll give it a try and let y'all know how it went...

thanks!!

[rsuave5]

if youd list your specs id tell you if you can or not. in windows xp moviemaker it has a real easy "capture" button on the preview screen. many other video software titles have this feature

[vampirefan]

hmmm... well i was trying to do this at work on a computer with Windows 2000.

but now that i think about it, my sister has a computer with Windows XP and it came with power dvd... i'm gonna try capturing a still image with power dvd when i get to my sister's house.

i'll have to see what other stuff she may have on that computer too...

shiny!

laura

[DigiToast]

If you don't want to download any software, then you all you have to do is disable all video acceleration for your graphics card, play your movie any any program you want, and then hit printscreen to take a screenshot. Now open up any graphics editor and edit->paste. (Where you disabled acceleration varies from OS to OS, but if you're in WinXP, all you do is open up your display properties, click advanced, click on the troubleshoot tab, and then set acceleration to None.)

Or.. a download virtualdub (free), open your movie, scroll to the frame that you want, click on video->copy source frame to clipboard. Now open up your graphics program and edit->paste.

[narked]

Depends on the clip format. I use virtualdub and TMPGenc for encoding and both will output jpegs.

In virtualdub load your avi then go to the frame you want. go to video - copy source frame to clipboard. Then paste into picture editting program.

Or load your clip into TMPGenc (quicker for mpegs). Go to setting - advanced and double click on source range. Set a start frame and end frame around the frame you want and click on OK. Now in main TMPGenc window go to file - output to file - sequence BMP/PPM/TGA/JPG file. In next window select the format and save. JPG sequence will be saved in chosen directory

[vampirefan]

thanks everyone! i was pretty successful with powerdvd... my sister did have it, it came with her computer - there is even a capture button, which was nice.

powerdvd - there were a couple of things i didn't like about powerdvd... there really wasn't any way to scroll to a particular spot (at least, that i could find - i will continue to experiment). there was no handle to move in the timeline so i had to click on it until i got to a particular minute and then basically watch until i got to the scene i wanted to capture or continuously click the "next" button which only moves the video one frame at at time.

another thing was that when i clicked the capture button it paused the scene and there was a lag of at least 10 seconds in the video when i hit play, which meant that if i wanted a screen cap of the next frame, i had to back up (which meant clicking on an approximate spot on the timeline bar) and then clicking that "next" button again until i got back to the scene...

also the video image was extremely dark - especially night scenes - i couldn't make anyone out - but that could very well be the file i was watching...

tmpgenc - i'll by trying some more and i will also try tmpgenc both ways suggested... frozenQ gave me some instructions and narked gave us different instructions...so i'll try both ways.

virtualdub - i'll give it a try

photoshop's imageready - just for the hell of it, i tried opening an mpg in imageready, since it is an animation software (to make animated gifs and rollovers, etc.) and it was able to open the file! yay - in fact it has the ability to open all kinds of video files... avi, mov, mpg, etc. the only problem is that it will only work for a short time and then crashes... gotta find out why...

well, i will continue to experiment. thanks for all the suggestions and help.

if i find anything else of interest in this area, i will post to this thread.

thanks!!

[KingJohn]

Vdub > Video > Copy source frame to clipboard

Oops, already been said sorry..

[2qwerty]

you can capture using PowerDVD software. there is a demo in the toos section. and it will play avi , mpg , etc....

Where is the capture button in PowerDVD?? I have searched every menu I can think of and I can't find it. Help - I am using PowerDVD 4.0

[2qwerty]

I still can't find this camera button in PowerDVD. Can anyone provide further description of where it's located? Thanks

[Fomalhaut]

Not every version of PowerDVD has the camera button. The one I have doesn't.

I've done a lot of still captures and find VirtualDub to be the best. Even though the quality of your video is good, sometimes you still need to do a little processing to get a good quality still picture. For example, if your video is interlaced, you need to deinterlace it first. You might want to change the size of the image, crop out the tracking noise from the edges, adjust brightness and contrast of your video if it's too dark/bright. You can use VirtualDub to do all these, as well as adding various other filters before doing any still capture. To take a still capture, go to the frame you want and click video > copy output frame to clipboard (or simply Ctrl+2) and then paste the image to a graphics program. If you don't add any filters, you can also use video > copy source frame to clipboard (or simply Ctrl+1).

Like TMPGEnc, VirtualDub can also produce the images automatically. Just select the range of the video you want to cap, add all the filters you want, then click File > Save Image sequence. It will output all the frames in the selected video to either BMPs or TARGAs. You can then batch convert the output files to jpg, gif or other formats using IrfanView (free). If you don't want to cap every frame, use Video > Frame Rate and set the frame rate decimation before saving the images.

VirtualDub doesn't support wmv, though. You have to use TMPGEnc, BSPlayer (free) to cap those videos. You can also try Alt+Printsceen (after you disable all the video acceleration) as someone suggested.

[nerdboy69]

Actually, if you are ever strapped and are using a PC with no useful software on it, you can just pause it in your favourite player and use screen capture (ie. PrtScrn or Alt-PrtScrn).

"BS!", I hear everyone scream.

Well, actually it is not BS, IF (and only IF) you temporarily turn off all hardware acceleration on your graphics card.
(ie. Right-Click-on-Desktop->Display Settings->Advanced->TroubleShoot->HardwareAcceleration->None)

Once you have your image you can turn it all on again. I thought of it when I was on a work PC (which has no video software of any use on it), tried it, and it worked a treat.

[Fomalhaut]

What's wrong with BSPlayer? Just go to the frame and press p or Shift+p to take a screenshot. It works fine with me. I don't have to disable video acceleration. The thing I don't like about Printscreen or Alt+Printscreen is that I have to cut off the unwanted picture. It's a waste of time if you want to do a lot of still captures. But then again, you might be able do it automatically using IrfanView.

[2qwerty]

OK, I downloaded BSPlayer, but I can't figure out how to play a DVD! I can see the vob files, but which one do I play?

[hoomi]

Even though it is a very old thread I have a similar problem with asf and wmv files.
How do I make a quick snapshot in jpg format of asf and WMV files ?
Any idea if it will work with Vdub?

[hoomi]

Anyone?

[hoomi]

somebody please?

[hech54]

Beats the sh1t out of me....I'm still waiting for an answer I can understand.

[hoomi]

Well I manged to work with Irfan View and asf files.
Still it is not as easy to use as VCD cutter is.
Hopefully some power dvd fans can suggest useful tips to it painlessly.