Single Images from Videos?

[John Thompson]

Can anyone explain how to get individual images (screen grabs?) from a video, using Windows Media Player? I was trying to save some individual images from the Il-2 and La-5 videos that were linked here recently. Parts of the original film prints are quite dark, and even with my monitor's brightness and contrast maxed, I still can't see the details I'm interested in. If I could save single images, I could adjust them with Microsoft's photo editing software to make them clearer. None of the dropdowns in Media Player offers this option, nor does right-clicking on the screen after stopping the video at the image I want to enhance. "Save as" just allows you to save the whole video, not a single image of what's on the screen. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

John

[Renato71]

Hi John,

You should try with some other video player app. I never use Media Player, just to clumsy and its not possible to customize controls. I use ViPlay, but there are numerous options (BSplayer, and Zoom player as my favorite). All of them offer great deal of video adjusting options. For instance, in ViPlay I can configure one shortcut for full screen capture, and another one for capture in actual size. I used this app to capture scrshots which are in my last post in thread "La-5FN of V.I. Popkov". I preformed no additional fixing on those pics.
I cannot give definite advice, as I learned that performance of some applications depends on how they agree with my video card. You have to find the one that works best for you and stick with it (like me with ViPlay).
Hope this helps.

Cheers!

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
you can try in this way: while the movie is playing, press the stamp button, then open Adobe Photoshop or another program for photo editing, open a new image and paste. It should appear the image of the movie.
Please, let me know if this works.
Massimo

[John Thompson]

Thanks, guys - I'll give those suggestions a try. After I posted my question, I found that the Nero CD-burning software on my computer has a "frame capture" function, so I'll see if I can fumble my way to success with that. Thanks again!

John

[John Thompson]

I managed to get what I wanted, using Nero. The trick was changing Nero's default destination folder to a new folder I created in "My Pictures". Now I've got my own La-5F walkaround! 

Thanks again for the suggestions; I'll experiment further based on what you've told me - the controls on the Nero ShowTime playback application are kind of crude, and I'm sure there's a better/easier way to do what I want.

John

[Dark Green Man]

is ViPlay compatible with Windows XP ?
if so where can I download it?

[Renato71]

is ViPlay compatible with Windows XP ?
if so where can I download it?

Hi DGM,
It should be, I've used it on XP SP1 (nor sure about SP2), and currently on Win 2003. This is download page:
http://www.urusoft.net/downloads.php?lang=1

It's quite old application. I prefer version 2.09. You will still have to install all of the necessary codecs on your own, but that's quite normal. The same guy created Subtitle Workshop which I use to fix timings of subtitles (or to translate). Give them a try.
Cheers!

EDIT: regarding codecs, there are various packages and I've noted that order in which you install them sometimes means a lot. If there are problems, install them in reverse order. Noted the same thing with video players, sometimes its better if you install it at the start of procedure, sometimes at the end. And, it all depends on you video card, in fact on its drivers (directx).

PS - ViPlay 3 has partial support for WinAmp skins.

[Dark Green Man]

Thank You Renato!
I will let you know how it works out later on after I've played with it a bit.

'I tot I taw a puddytat !'
(sorry, I just couldn't resist !? )

[Renato71]

I had one more suggestion, and I had intention to prepare useful advice. Sadly, I had no time to experiment, but as this could be helpful…

If you experience distorted picture, especially when video was recorded from TV, VHS or satellite, you may try using some video viewer for TV and/or satellite cards. As they have recording features, they are also capable to play those videos. Depending on the app, some can play all types of videos, some only those formats which they are capable to record.

Anyway, most of them come with various video filters, or they support third-party filters. For instance, DScaler supports huge amount of filters. Mostly I used those related to deinterlacing. DScaler is free and there are other free apps for viewing satellite program (DVBProg, AltDVB, DVBDream…). If I remember correctly, you can install most of them even if you do not have sat card. There may be some nagging when you start the app (if you don't have any sat card), but you may used it to watch video from your hdd, apply necessary filter and capture some pics. In DScaler all filters are accessible when you right click on the picture.
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/downloads.htm
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/digitaltv-dvb-hdtv
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/capture

'I tot I taw a puddytat !'
(sorry, I just couldn't resist !? )

Frrrrrrrr