Help for Newbies

[alpha]

Where should upload our videos ?

rapidshare.com
depositfiles.com
megaupload.com
4shared.com


What are the Winrar files and how to unrar ?

WinRAR - Files ending with .rar must first be unzipped using WinRAR: http://codecpack.nl/wrar371.exe
If the file ends with .rar.part1, .rar.part2, etc., all parts must be downloaded before unzipping.

Which media player is better ?

Windows Media Player 9

If you are using Windows Media Player 9, pause the video at the scene you wish to capture.
Press Ctrl+i (that's control key plus letter 'i'). Think of the 'i' as "image."
The "Save Captured Image" dialogue will open up. Choose the folder you wish to save the image in -- choose the file type (either JPG or BMP) and give it a file name (default name is "capture.") Click on "Save."
If you plan on doing any further manipulation of the saved image it's best to save it as a BMP to retain the original quality. You can use Paint (or other app) to save it as a JPG later
You can't take a screenshot if the program is using overlays to display the picture.
In windows media player you can disable overlays and screenshots will work, I recommend you re-enable them afterwards.
Tools>Options>Performance Tab>Advanced -- uncheck "use overlays" if it is checked. If that doesn't work, turn video acceleration all the way down.

Windows Media Player 10

Guess what? It's exactly the same procedure as WMP 9.

Media Player Classic

This is NOT a Microsoft product -- it's open-source (free) and works very well even though it looks like the old MS Windows Media Player 6.4. It's easy enough for beginners yet has options and features for the more advanced user. Get MPC from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
On that page you will find it under the "Latest File Releases" with a "Download" link.
1. When you load the video in MPC pause it and go to [File], [Save Thumbnails].
2. A dialog should popup In the dropdown box where it says file name, choose whatever you want or use the default name
3. Set the file type to .jpg - .bmp images will not upload here
4. For the thumbnails options select however many rows and colums you want for the screenshots. The product of the columns and rows will tell you how many screenshots will be taken i.e. 4 rows x 4 columns = 16 screenshots
5. For image width, though the PreUpload page states 800 px should be the maximum width but you can go as high as 1024 px without causing too much trouble for users here
6. Referring to 4 and 5 - you should bear in mind the wider the image you make and (to a lesser extent) the more rows/colums you make, the larger the file size will be and remember you can't adjust quality. It's best to do no more than 8 rows by 8 columns for 800 px wide pictures and 6 rows by 6 columns for 1024 px wide pictures to keep under 256 KB . If you plan to use a different imagehost such as ********.com or jpghosting.com or hidebehind.com you can make the image wider and have more rows and columns.
7. Click [Save]
8. Depending on the length of the clip and your processor speed, it will take between a few seconds and 5 minutes to scan the video and produce the screenshots
NOTE 1 - you can't manually pick the frames you want, the only option is to adjust the number of rows OR columns to alter the number of images it shows and as a result your shots will differ
NOTE 2 - you get the "GetCurrentImage hr=8000ffff" error, you need to change the Playback Output. Go to [View], [Options], [Playback], [Output]. If the file type is .avi, .mpg or .wmv change the DirectShow Video button to "VMR7 (windowed)" or "VMR9 (windowed)". If the file type is .rm or .mov use the "DirectX 9" option. Now click [Apply] and screenshots now work.

BSPlayer

BSplayer is a free Windows player that plays back all kinds of media files
(avi /mpg /asf /wmv /wav /mp3 /ogm ) and specialises in video and divx playback.
Get it here: http://www.bsplayer.org/
By pressing Shift + P, BSplayer captures at the resolution you see the movie (what you see is what you get).
The button P captures at the movie's original resolution according to their Web site -- but I don't see the difference myself although I've only used it
infrequently. Whichever you choose, the image is saved in the same directory BSPlayer resides in and uses the filename format of 'bscap000.jpg' with each successive capture increasing the number by 1.

Capture instructions for free version of BSplayer:

To set a custom capture folder & adjust other capture settings open "Preferences" in BSplayer & highlight "General".
Lower right of this pane you can set the folder, image types & name. As the captures you are taking will be processed further with image joiner it is recommended you use the better quality .bmp file type.
To set up custom key/mouse settings for capture operations highlight "Key definitions & WinLIRC", then in the middle section highlight "Capture frame - original image size" to find options for assigning a hot key &/or mouse button.
Now you are ready to capture a frame every time you use your hot key or mouse button during play.
Easy as that.

VLC Media Player

[Ctrl+S] to bring up your preferences, click [Video] and under "Snapshot", choose a folder to save screenshots and save them as .jpg format. Now click [Save] then [OK]. Now when you play the video in VLC, just click [Video] in the menu then [Snapshot] and the screenshots will be saved in your snapshot folder and voila!

Other Screen Capture Utilities

IrfanView
Free for non-commercial use only.
Available at: http://www.irfanview.com/
Does a lot of stuff -- kind of like a Swiss Army Knife.

FrameShots (Formerly known as "SnatchIt")
Not free. Available at: http://www.frame-shots.com/

[alpha]

This post might be of a great help to loads of members here
(can be made sticky by mods here)

Tutorial includes the following :
1. Divx Player And Codec
2. Splitting Files with WinRAR
3. Downloading WinRAR Self-extracting
4. Download Winrar
5. Downloading and Joining WinRAR Files
6. Downloading and joining HJ Split files
7. Splitting a file with HJ Split
8. Uploading to Rapidshare
9. Free Rapidshare Downloads

note: Click on the tutorial pictures to enlarge them

read the tutorial here:

http://suztuts.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_suztuts_archive.html

[alpha]

I use Media Player Classic for generating screencaps. If you want to try it have a go as follows:

1. Download Media Player Classic. You can find it here

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...ckage_id=84358

2. Run Media Player Classic.

3. Click File, then Open File...

4. Select the video for which you want to generate screencaps.

5. When Media Player Classics opens the video click File, then Save Thumbnails.

6. Select the folder where you want to save the screencaps, enter a file name that you like, adjust the number of Thumbnails and Image width options to suit, select format for thumbnail image - .jpg or .bmp, and then click Save. Media Player Classic will then generate the thumbnails and save them as an image in the folder you specified.

To post the thumnails you can use a service such as Imagevenue.com.

1. Go to www.imagevenue.com

2. Click on one of the Browse buttons.

3. Select the image previously generated by Media Player Classic.

4. In the Select Image Content drop down list select whether the file is Safe for Work or Not Safe For Work.

5. Click Send Files and then wait for a minute or so. When the screen changes it will indicate the image has been saved to the Imagevenue server and will provide a list of links towards the bottom of the page.

6. Copy one of the links and paste it into the thread that you will be posting at forum.

Complete and submit your thread and click on Submit. You should have a post with a link to the thumnail image.

[alpha]

How to use Image Grabber II

Image Grabber II is a tool that can grab screenshots from any video file (avi, mpg, dat, asf, wmv, qt, mov, rm, rmvb, vob) and save the screenshot as customized thumbnails to a single file or multiple files.

Its free for downloading (and spyware-free also) at http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ImageGrabber or http://rapidshare.com/files/81290591/ImGrII.zip.

if it doesn't work, you might also need this:

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0




1. Open Imagegrabber II. Click FILE (1) OPEN FILE (2)
2. Browse to the movie you wants screencaps from, and select it.
3. To Automatically cap the movie, click on the button on the left in (3)
To cap by hand, Click the button on the right in (3)
4. When You Autocap, an option box will pop up asking "Number of Frames to Extract". I usually choose between 24 & 48. Click OK.
5. Imagegrabber will autocap the movie for you.
6. Choose (4) FILE-->SAVE FILE (Saves all caps as 1 image) or
FILE-->SAVE AS MULTIPLE (Saves as individual pics in folder of your choice)

If you decide to use a single file, you may need to play around with the settings to make the caps display as you like.

Here are my settings for comparison -



Once you have the screen cap, load it either to: www.imagenvenue.com or www.pimpandhost.com (simple registration required).

[papadoc]

Windows Media Player 9

If you are using Windows Media Player 9, pause the video at the scene you wish to capture.
Press Ctrl+i (that's control key plus letter 'i'). Think of the 'i' as "image."
The "Save Captured Image" dialogue will open up. Choose the folder you wish to save the image in -- choose the file type (either JPG or BMP) and give it a file name (default name is "capture.") Click on "Save."
If you plan on doing any further manipulation of the saved image it's best to save it as a BMP to retain the original quality. You can use Paint (or other app) to save it as a JPG later
You can't take a screenshot if the program is using overlays to display the picture.
In windows media player you can disable overlays and screenshots will work, I recommend you re-enable them afterwards.
Tools>Options>Performance Tab>Advanced -- uncheck "use overlays" if it is checked. If that doesn't work, turn video acceleration all the way down.

Windows Media Player 10

Guess what? It's exactly the same procedure as WMP 9.



VLC Media Player

[Ctrl+S] to bring up your preferences, click [Video] and under "Snapshot", choose a folder to save screenshots and save them as .jpg format. Now click [Save] then [OK]. Now when you play the video in VLC, just click [Video] in the menu then [Snapshot] and the screenshots will be saved in your snapshot folder and voila!


Alpha; I've got Windows Media Player 11 and cannot get Pictures. I proceed as you say (Ctr+i) but it doesn't work. I look for in the WMP "help" and nothing is said about capturing images.
With VLC is OK.

Any help please??

[papadoc]

Alpha; I've got Windows Media Player 11 and cannot get Pictures. I proceed as you say (Ctr+i) but it doesn't work. I look for in the WMP "help" and nothing is said about capturing images.
With VLC is OK.

Any help please??

[alpha]

Originally Posted by papadoc

Alpha; I've got Windows Media Player 11 and cannot get Pictures. I proceed as you say (Ctr+i) but it doesn't work. I look for in the WMP "help" and nothing is said about capturing images.
With VLC is OK.

Any help please??

Not sure why, but it doesn't work on some versions, use VLC it's better

[papadoc]

Originally Posted by alpha

Not sure why, but it doesn't work on some versions, use VLC it's better

Good advise Alpha; although I like WMV as preffered tool, I will open files with VLC just to capture images.
This could be incorporated in your General Procedure. Thanks

[alpha]

Yup, hope to see your vids + screen shots on the board

[Cfoo]

can i post the ziddu link in the forum????

[rodzillahotrod]

whats ziddu?