Software Help for an Idiot

[Tom Collins]

Can someone tell me how to capture a screen shot from a DVD?

 

[Aurora Black]

You're not an idiot. And that's all the tech know-how I have to offer.

 

[PickOne]

Can someone tell me how to capture a screen shot from a DVD?

NERO..search Google for info

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I have a couple of different DVD players for this computer. One has a screen capture function the other does not. I tried using Gadwin Print Screen with both the one that does not have a capture function and with Windows Media player. Niether one worked. All I got was a black picture.

This is probably a question for Weird Harold. He knows everything.

 

[NoJo]

Can someone tell me how to capture a screen shot from a DVD?

Assuming you're using Windows, when you stick a DVD movie in the drive, you should get a pop-up menu asking you which viewing program you want to use -- most DVD playing software that comes biundled with new PC's has capture facilities, so try one of those (not Windows Media Player). My PC came with Inervideo WinDVD and Nero, which both work.

The standard Window-capure combination (Alt-PrtSC) won't work, because all DVD software writes directly (via DirectX) to the graphics card, bypassing Windows.

 

[kendo1]

http://www.nonags.com/nonags/grcapt.html

Ken

 

[Weird Harold]

I have a couple of different DVD players for this computer. One has a screen capture function the other does not.

This is probably a question for Weird Harold. He knows everything.

No I don't.

However, I use PowerDVD to watch DVD's and it has a frame capture button that puts the selected frame on the clipboard so it can be pasted into an image editor.

The normal screen capture process built into windows and the screen capture utility built into programs like Paintshop Pro and Irfanview won't work with most DVD viewers because DVD viewers require more memory than many video cards have available -- so most just don't use the video card's memory which is what the capture functions copy; hence your black image when you tried it.

So, the answer to how to capture a frame from a DVD is to get PowerDVD (or another DVD viewer that has a frame capture function) and an image processing program that will permit you to paste the clipboard contents as a new image.

Pause the DVD and use frame advance to get exactly the frame you want to capture.

Press the Frame Capture button.

Goto your image eidtor and "Paste as a New Image."

 

[Carnevil9]

1. Play the DVD on your computer (or TV) with any software (or hardware) that you like.

2. When you get to the image you like, hit the PAUSE button to freeze it.

3. Get out your digital camera and take a picture of the screen.

4. Copy the image from your digital camera to your computer.

5. Email the image from your home computer to your computer at work.

6. When you get to work, forward the email back to your home computer. CC it to twenty or thirty other people just to be on the safe side.

7. When you get back home, download the attachment. There you go!

 

[kendo1]

I use powerDVD too.
Good program. Plays things that others don't- all regions and so on.

Ken

 

[kendo1]

You could try VLC. Freeware of course.
Look for the link under the cartoon.
http://www.atpm.com/11.12/frisky.shtml
Ken

 

[Lisa Denton]

If you can get it to play in your windows movie maker it has a screen capture under the preview screen, get all windows updates and update codecs for your movie maker first.

If it won't play there you need to rip it first, gets more confusing, but I find that olden tyme, funky movie maker which is slow, and in accesories and everbody says don't use, works for lots of things.

 

[NoJo]

The normal screen capture process built into windows and the screen capture utility built into programs like Paintshop Pro and Irfanview won't work with most DVD viewers because DVD viewers require more memory than many video cards have available -- so most just don't use the video card's memory which is what the capture functions copy; hence your black image when you tried it.

That's not quite right. As I posted, most Windows graphics functions, even with Windows XP, use an API that is bypassed by DVD players. The video memory required for a frame of DVD is actually tiny (< 100k bytes). It's the fact that for smooth playback of video, most programs use DirectX video, which is doesn't use standard Windows "device handles", and is therefore not automatically accessible to the system's Alt-Prsc hook.

 

[Tom Collins]

Thanks everyone. I think I've probably got enough suggestions here for me to find one that works for me.

Sorry I've not been back to that y'all until now, but I got caught up in the excitment of having a new story that I've coauthored with jushorny post yesterday and kind of forgot I'd asked this question until now...lol

Y'all are, as always, wonderful. Thanks again. *hugs*

 

[impressive]

I downloaded a cheap shareware program called DVDGo Pro just for this purpose. Works like a charm.

 

[Weird Harold]

That's not quite right. As I posted, most Windows graphics functions, even with Windows XP, use an API that is bypassed by DVD players. The video memory required for a frame of DVD is actually tiny (< 100k bytes).

We're both saying basically the same thing, I just dumbed it down a bit for the non-techies. It all boils down to the image isn't where normal capture functions expect it to be so they copy a block of empty memory instead of the image.