Question about screencapping

[Nomad Soul]

Hey everyone. I guess this is the correct forum. I dunno oh well anyway I want to take screencaps from a couple movies and blow them up and have them printed\made into posters. Now I know how to take screens using Power DVD but the quality isnt the best. Im not that good at photoshop so I cant really resize them without them coming out all crappy. I was wondering is there anyway to get high quality screencaps? If not I guess I could fiddle around with Photoshop till I get something passable. Im not looking to make them really huge just like 11X14. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

[{OF}Blong]

you can use VLC. when you get to that image you want to take pause it and you can move frame by frame even till you get that exact picture. then take a screen shot. You can also use MPC to do that as well. I havent tried anything else but PDVD doesnt allow you to take screenshots of HD DVD movies nor of Blue ray movies which kinda suxors. I know quite a few people use MPC to take screens because of the higher bitrate you can achieve. Also taking a screenshot using .png will yield a better picture than jpg (if you didnt already know that). I will try to find the thread on another forum I "frequent" and post pertinent info here for you.

ok im quoting snipites from the thread and from what others have said dgindex is the best for taking high quality screens.

Section 1. How To Take Screenshots
unless you are using VLC to take screenshots, proceed to Section 2. after you take the screenshots to see how to convert .BMP images to .PNG (this is a necessary step)

DGIndex (MPEG2)
You can use any of the other apps below to do this, but the prefered app is DGIndex. This will create an image exactly how it is stored in the video.
Because of this, you will get squashed images if you've got an anamorphic video. It should also be avoided for pure interlaced video (generally live events) as all the images will be interlaced and look terrible.

1. Open the file

2.Set PIDs
You will probably get the following error once you've opened the file

You'll need to set your PIDs. Goto Stream->Detect PIDs: Raw.

Select the one that says video and press set video then done.

3.Take shot
Press b and save the file somewhere.
DGIndex creates bmps, so you'll need to convert this to a png. The easiest app to use for this is paint. Simply open it in paint, choose save as and select PNG.


Media Player Classic Download link


Open file with MPC and pause the video at a suiting point. Tip: Use the Right arrow key to search frame by frame, very usefull for capturing a good screenshot.
Click File -> Save image and save the .bmp to whatever destination you find fit.




VideoLAN Client (VLC) http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

1. Setup
First time you do this you'll have to set where you want the screenshots to be saved.
Go into settings-> preferences. Select Video.
Press the browse button on the right of video snapshot directory and choose somewhere you'll be able to find it.
Make sure PNG is selected under that.


2.Take a screenshot
Now taking a screenshot is simple, just right click on the video and press snapshot. You'll see a little picture appear in the top left of the video and a png will be deposited in the folder you selected.

note: if you have followed these instructions and saved the screenshots as .PNG, do not proceed to Section 2. instead, just upload the screenshot(s) to the image host of your choice.


MPlayer

Run MPlayer with command line option '-vf screenshot'.
At any point during playback, press 's' to take a screenshot.

Screenshots will be saved directly in PNG format, in the current directory, using filenames like 'shotNNNN.png', where NNNN is the first available number (i.e. existing shots will not be overwritten).

To enable the screenshot option permanently add a line 'vf=screenshot' to ~/.mplayer/config.

BSPlayer

just press P, or right-click anywhere in the player or in the movie window and...



you should have checked BMP as ur default saving format...




VirtualDubMod -> http://tinyurl.com/ysyknf


1. Make an AVS script like this: DirectShowSource("M:\example.mkv")
2. Open your .avs in VirtualDubMod and find a frame you want to take a screenshot of.
3. By pressing Shift+1 you're making screenshots and VDM can save them as PNG, BMP or TARGA (.tga)


================================================== ==============================


Section 2. How To Convert .BMP images to .PNG

using IrfanView Download link
Download and install IrfanView (freeware)
Open your screenshot in irfanview and click File -> Save as..



Copy these settings and save as .png.

using microsoft Paint or Paint.NET Download link for Paint.NET
Download and install Paint.NET (freeware) or open up Microsoft Paint by going to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories
Open your saved image
Click File -> Save as...
Type in the name you want to save it as, then in the drop-down box right below it, where it says "Save as Type", choose PNG (*.png)

then Save

[Nomad Soul]

Wow thanks for that info. I managed to actually get some good quality shots thanks to those programs there.