Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
chiefneil

Capturing DVD images for printing

chiefneil
18 years ago

A friend of mine wants to print some images from a VCR tape (home movies). I can get it to DVD, but from there I'm not sure what to do. I tried some trial software to convert the DVD to mpeg and then captured an image from the mpeg, but the conversion "squashed" the image - it looked like it converted the video from 4:3 to 16:9.

I know this is more of a software question, but does anyone have any suggestions from here? I have the DVD and I know it can't be rocket science to capture a few still images (jpeg format) from it.

Comments (8)

  • cowboyind
    18 years ago

    Look for freeware or shareware online that will do a screen capture. For the Mac there is one called "Capture Me" where you just draw a box around whatever you want to capture and then click "save," and you can then pick any one of several formats you want to save it in. I'm sure there are numerous similar utilities for Windows.

    FYI, there may be copyright issues with capturing stills from DVDs, so don't do that and then post them online or do anything else which would expose you to being accused of copyright infringement.

  • cowboyind
    18 years ago

    Sorry, I re-read your post and was reminded that you want to do this with home movies. It's the commercial DVDs where you would get into copyright issues; obviously you can do what you want with your own home movies.

  • brianl703
    18 years ago

    Use Smartripper (or some other DVD extraction software) to extract the .VOB files from your DVD.

    Use DVD2AVI to open the .VOB files and save them as a project (a .d2v file).

    Then use TMPGenc to open the .d2v file as the video file to convert to an mpeg, and then go to "other settings", select the Advanced tab, then make sure that Video Arrange Method is set to "full screen (keep aspect ratio)", then click next a few time and start the conversion.

    The Video Arrange Method needs to be set that way so it'll keep the proper aspect ratio. If for some reason it still isn't doing the right thing you can try the other settings.

    Smartripper, DVD2AVI, and TMPGenc are all freeware that can be found by doing a Google search for them.

  • pilam99
    18 years ago

    How about pausing the movie on a PC and then hitting CTRL-Print Screen and pasting in Paint? You can edit out the widescreen bars in Photoshop if necessary and convert to JPG.

  • chiefneil
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Brian, thanks for the detailed info - that's exactly what I need!

    Pilam99 - for some reason ctrl-print-screen has never worked on any computers I've ever owned for the past 15 years. I actually tried it again before posting for help but it behaved as expected - nothing!

  • Pooh Bear
    18 years ago

    Print Screen doesn't work in programs that use video overlay.
    Only video program I have ever been able to use Print Screen
    with is Virtual Dub.
    If you have an avi file you can open it with virtual dub
    and export a frame to clipboard. Or print screen it.

    I'd like to know if there is a pc version of Capture Me.

    Pooh Bear

  • pilam99
    18 years ago

    Funny, it works on ALL of the computers I've tried and we use it frequently at work on ~500 workstations with various hardware/software. I guess I took it for granted. If overlay is the issue, try downloading Zoomplayer and running it in WMR9 Renderless. That's what I have running at home and I get captures from DVD fine with CTRL-PS.

  • melissa_C_swbell_net
    17 years ago

    I am looking to capture stills from a DVD. (VOB files)
    You say Smartripper is the tool to use, but I can't find a download anywhere because of the new laws. I'm not gonna distribute these screenshots.
    Can anyone share their Smartripper.exe with me?
    THANKS ALL

Sponsored
Style Savvy Designs
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars19 Reviews
Northern Virginia's Luxurious Interior Designer & Decorator