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I have a presentation to do for school and would like to have screenshots, but I don't know how to make them. I'm leaning towards Jacques Tati films now. If someone who can make them would ablige I'd really appreciate it. my topic may change but I'll be able to give film frames in complete time code. If anyone would help me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Do you have a Mac or PC? I can help if you have a Mac.

PowerDVD (any version of) takes screenshots by just pressing C. on macs, its a little harder, but it just requires downloading dvd capture. very simple.

I have a Mac but it isn't connected to the internet.

VLC: It'll play everything and taking a screen shot just means pressing ctrl+alt+s.

Firstly, play the file/DVD that you want to capture. Pause the picture and then ctrl+alt+s.

Go to the settings on the toolbar to decide where you want the screen grabs to be saved: settings -> preferences -> video

choose the directory and format (jpg or png) and away ya go.

Costas wrote:VLC

It should also be noted that VLC plays any region of dvd, regardless of your drives settings. you just have to open it using the Video_TS file.

Thanks guys, I got it now. You've been a great help.

Great info, guys! I've long wondered how to make screen shots.

Are there any copyright or other legal issues in regards to screen shots and using a free web picture host server (e.g. imageshack) to store them for message board avatars?

Does PowerDVD and/or VLC allow one to make animated gifs (I think that's the term for avatars w/ looped movement)?

there are probably legal issues. As long as you're not profiting from them, we're too small for the studios to care. Besides, its the internet, there isn't much they can do about it. Practically free advertising in most cases.
Unfortunately, making animated gifs is annoyingly meticulous. Of all the programs I've used, adobe imageready and ulead gif animator are the best, but neither can be explained easily.

SncDthMnky wrote:PowerDVD (any version of) takes screenshots by just pressing C. on macs, its a little harder, but it just requires downloading dvd capture. very simple.

...unless you have an Intel Mac, in which case DVDCapture doesn't work.

However, if you're running Tiger (and on an Intel Mac, I suspect that's a given), there's a widget called Capture that does the job - and I have to say I actually prefer it to DVDCapture: I find it more intuitive and responsive.

Costas wrote:VLC: It'll play everything

Not on the new iMacs it doesn't. For some reason it can't bypass the installed region coding of the machine on the new generation models - I'm hoping that on the next VLC upgrade they'll have sorted this issue.

This problem has nothing to do with VLC or Macs, it's the Matsashita drives Apple (or any other vendor) is using. The region code protection on PCs comes in two flavors: Hardware, i.e. built into the firmware of the drive, and the operating system software. VLC is able to bypass the 'soft' protection, but not the firmware. The only possibilities are: Hope that somebody (probably illegally) hacks the firmware, or buy a replacement drive that can be talked into playing region code free.

There is one way to bypass the region-coding on that Matsashita drive, but it's not very practical. You can copy the contents of the DVD to your drive with Mac the Ripper and then load the VIDEO_TS folder into Apple's DVD Player or VLC, then view it.

Wowzers, I could have swore that MacTheRipper also hit a snag on region coding, but it looks like I'm wrong (just tested with an R4 disc on a PowerBook with the finnicky new DVD drive). VLC still doesn't work out the bat, but the ripping to R0 and then VIDEO_TS filing does. I probably would still have bought the $150 OPPO set top multiregion player even if I knew this hack, but it wouldve been useful a year ago when I was trying to get screencaps...

SncDthMnky wrote:It should also be noted that VLC plays any region of dvd, regardless of your drives settings. you just have to open it using the Video_TS file.

OK, I know I'm bringing up a really old topic, but I just downloaded VLC, and I'm having trouble playing Region 2 discs (my drive is Region 1). I popped in one R2 disc and it played just fine. I popped in another and only the menu played, and it was severely pixelated and scrambled. I put in another one, and it did not play at all. All I got was a black screen. Does anyone know what the problem might be?

Also, is there any way to take larger screencaps than what I'm getting? I was able to capture the screencaps perfectly, but I would like them a little larger. Can I adjust the size on VLC?

Feego wrote:Also, is there any way to take larger screencaps than what I'm getting? I was able to capture the screencaps perfectly, but I would like them a little larger. Can I adjust the size on VLC?

What size are you getting? Bear in mind that you can't grab any higher than the native DVD resolution, which will be 720x480 or 768x576 depending on whether it's a PAL or NTSC source. Or rather, you can artificially enlarge from that size, but you won't get any extra detail.

MichaelB wrote:What size are you getting? Bear in mind that you can't grab any higher than the native DVD resolution, which will be 720x480 or 768x576 depending on whether it's a PAL or NTSC source. Or rather, you can artificially enlarge from that size, but you won't get any extra detail.

I guess the size is fine. I didn't realize that the NTSC and PAL sources would produce different sizes. Thanks for the information. I was just expecting something a little larger for the region 1's, comparable to the region 2's. Here are some samples:

REGION 1:





REGION 2:

Considering how much we all rely on screen grabs created elsewhere (such as Blu-ray.com and DVDBeaver) and specifically for this site, I think it is a good idea to set up a thread devoted to screen grab techniques. Post topics might include:

• Recommended software/hardware
  Software application settings
  Recommended image compresson settings
  Technical aspects of digital video that affect screen grab quality

I will be adding comments from older threads as as appropriate. Please feel to post your own comments and questions here as well.

On the Arrow Films thread, David Mackenzie pointed out the presence of jaggies in the DVD Beaver screen grabs for Black Swan. They are especially evident if you view the images at the full 1080 resolution. Interestingly, they are not present in the full resolutioni Blu-ray.com screen grabs of the same Blu-ray.

My question is this: how is it even possible to introduce jaggies into screen grabs when you're working from a 1080p source? This summer I'm going to make a number of DVD and possibly Blu-ray frame grabs for a book and I want to avoid anything that will inadvertently degrade the image quality from the original digital video frame.

jsteffe wrote:Considering how much we all rely on screen grabs created elsewhere (such as Blu-ray.com and DVDBeaver) and specifically for this site, I think it is a good idea to set up a thread devoted to screen grab techniques. Post topics might include:

• Recommended software/hardware
  Software application settings
  Recommended image compresson settings
  Technical aspects of digital video that affect screen grab quality

I will be adding comments from older threads as as appropriate. Please feel to post your own comments and questions here as well.

Edit: Thanks for merging my post with this older thread! I searched through old posts but didn't find it for some reason.