Copy image from DVD?

[David Collins]

Does anyone know if its possible to capture a still image from a DVD video running on the Windows Media Player? Perhaps from inside PhotoShop? I'm trying to collect backgrounds, bitmap textures and general information for a rendering project.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Yes. Various screen capture programs, such as SnagIt will do so. Or, load the video into a video editor and save frame from there...

Karl

[David Collins]

Thanks, Karl. A word to the wise is sufficient, even in my case.

[stefan]

Most DVD-player software have a screen-capture option.

Screendumps usually don't pick up the video itself, so I doubt if snaggit will work, but I could be wrong.

Opening the movie in video-editing software is often not possible, since DVD-video is encrypted. You need to "rip" the video first into something usable, like AVI or MPEG.

More info: www.videohelp.com

(edited out some spelling errors)

[Karl Ottenstein]

stefan wrote:
Most DVD-player software has a screen-capture option.

Screendumps usually don't pick up the video itself, so I doubt is snaggit will work, but I could be wrong.

I apologize for suggesting SnagIt without testing first! I reviewed so many screen capture utilities before buying SnagIt that I got confused over the feature set. No, SnagIt won't capture from Windows Media Player.

I did a little more research by way of apology, and found that some users have reported success by turning off acceleration inside WMP, and possibly also by turning if off for their video card (display settings)... they were then able to capture the image. In my case, WMP would not run with video acceleration turned down, and at the lowest settings at which it would run, I could not capture.

Yes, as Stefan said, various DVD player softwares have a capture frame feature. Certain versions of WinDVD for example. Probably PowerDVD, etc?

Also, it seems that there are some screen capture utilities that will capture the video. This is just the result of a search - I didn't try any:

Free for Mac OS X: Capture Me http://www.chimoosoft.com/captureme.html

$30 for PC: SnatchIt
http://theedgeofforever.com/

Also Hyperionics:
http://www.hyperionics.com/

Karl