WinDVD does do capture. although it’s not well documented. All you need to-do is press the "P" key during playback and a .bmp file would be been written to your WinDVD\Capture directory.

Ali

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Edited By Someone420 on 1073162976

Hi There IcePrincess!

You can get it from:

Cyberlink Homepage - Free Trial - Click Here!

Thanks ALI. I have PowerDVD now.



Edited By Kuttappan on 1078296713

I use WinDVD. When capturing shots (I just use the "P" key), I often notice aspect-ratio problems: 4:3 movies (e.g., "Trishul") seem stretched horizontally (i.e., things look "squashed"); 2.35:1 movies (i.e., "Khakee") seem stretched vertically (i.e., everyone looks "skinny"). (I haven't tried it with 1.85:1 movies.) Anyone have any way/s of resolving such issues with WinDVD? Please let me know; thanks guys.

OK, I got PowerDVD, and I have a few questions for you (Ali, or anyone else): Why is it that when (under "Advanced --> Snapshot") I select "original video source size," the image comes out either squeezed or stretched? The image seems to be "correct" when I use "current video window size," but, the size of the image (as makes sense) depends on the size of my player window. Also, what is the difference between the various "color profile"s? For some reason, the picture is always much darker/murkier with "original" than with, say, "bright." Any reason, and, any reason we should use "original"? Thanks.

*By the way, what's with the stuff I see when I select "show information"? What's the meaning of the "Mbps" and of "Kbps" numbers? Thanks again.

All DVD video is at 720x480 pixel resolution for NTSC DVDs (PAL DVDs are 720x576), so when you capture in ‘original video source size’, this is the resolution you get.

Because your TV/screen size ratio differs to that of the DVD video resolution there has to be some scaling to display the video correctly on the screen - widescreen TVs are 16:9 or 1.78:1 and normal TVs are 4:3 or 1.33:1, in comparison the ratio of the NTSC DVD video is 1.5:1 (720/480). When you capture in ‘current video window size’ powerDVD has scaled the video to correct aspect ratio, so the picture looks the way it’s intended to.

When ever you capture screen shots you should always capture at the original colour profile as this gives the best indication of how the quality of the DVD is. Vivid profile under powerDVD is a software enhancement to brighten the image colours and contrast and since most DVD players don’t have this feature its gives a distorted indication of the quality of the DVD. Case study to be studied Angoor DVD;

viewtopic.php?t=3954

..ooo the good old days

Ali

Having not been a member of zulm in the good-ol-days , i think i am going to enjoy reading that thread - Thanks Ali

Thanks a lot Ali: you've really cleared things up. Any idea what "progressive" is all about? Is it always better? How should I check to see whether a DVD is progressive or not? Thanks a lot, guy.

Oooooo hmmmmmm I have an idea what's it’s about, but explaining it more difficult. I suggest you do search for a few threads as some other members are better as explaining the concept than me.



No.



Easiest way would be to switch to force weave move in powerDVD options and see if you get combing effects (once you see them you know what they are) - if you see them its a improperly sourced or encoded DVD ie not true progressive.

Ali

I see; OK, I'll look into what "progressive" is. I do have PowerDVD, but, how do I do that "force weave" thing? I checked under "configuration," but I didn't see anything like that. Thanks.

There is some talk abt 'SMART DE-INTERLACING' im powerdvd 6.0
(Thanks Rana/Arsh for bringing this to my notice)...

There is nothing 'smart' going on there. In fact the method used in PDVD6.0 is useless. It will actually degrade the picture even more... If you really want to see how de-interlacing is done, you should use VLC ( http://www.videolan.org ) .. and yes it plays dvds also !

I notice that the edges became more jagged after I applied a 'smart' deinterlacing technique !