Software to extract JPEG's from DVD?

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

What is a good software to extract JPEG's from a DVD? Will it give decent jpegs? At least 400kb or more?

 

Thanks

[Samuel Berger]

VLC. It will create PNG files that you can then easily convert to JPG in Windows or Mac.

[David Mullen ASC]

I use MacGo blu-ray player software for Macs, with an external blu-ray drive -- it saves frame grabs as PNG's. Compression means that the data rate varies, but looking at some grabs from 480P DVD's, they are in the 600kb range, and the 1080P blu-ray grabs are over 2mb.

 

Usually I take the PNG frame into Photoshop Elements to make adjustments and save as a jpeg.

 

I've used other software for frame grabbing but some of them don't compensate for the fact that standard def video does not use square pixels, especially "anamorphic" DVD's, so your frame grab might look slightly squeezed. I don't have that problem with MacGo though.

 

Here is an old DVD frame grab using a software called Nero, which saved the frames as bitmap files. The bitmap file was about 1mb, but saved as a jpeg at maximum quality, it became 238kb.

I then corrected the squeeze in Photoshop Elements by resizing in one direction -- the frame grab was 720 x 480, but since the aspect ratio was supposed to be 1.77 : 1 (16x9 anamorphic standard def), I changed the dimensions to 720 x 407.

 

I don't recall if the frame grab function works on VLC when using a Mac, they tend to disable that sort of stuff.

[David Mullen ASC]

You see here when using MacGo to grab a standard def DVD frame as a PNG, it corrects for the non-square pixels so in this case, the frame grab was 853 x 480 pixels instead of 720 x 480 pixels.

[Mark Kenfield]

On Mac I tend to just use the 'Grab' app to capture a screencap from whatever software is playing the film.

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

Thanks for the replies and photos.

 

Oh, I should have said I got Windows.

 

Those sample photos are pretty low res. The one is 40kb.

 

http://www.cinematography.com/cine-uploads/monthly_01_2018/post-3-0-52693100-1516949232.jpg

 

Did you reduce the res or is 40kb about all it will produce?

 

Funny, the Nero sample was higher res but it suffered from posterization - although it was in color. Color files tend to eat up more mb for the same bang compared to black and white, but I don't know how much the difference is. I'm just going by flat bed photo scans and it may be different for video.

 

I'm just learning about video software. In the past I just shot the still from my TV screen. Here is one from Godzilla.

 

https://danieldteolijrarchivalcollection.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/godzilla-d-d-teoli-jr-24.jpg?w=660

 

You get good practice shooting fast action by shooting your TV screen...but I don't need the practice. I'd much rather rip the stills off the DVD if I can get easy and decent quality stills.

 

PS..Godzilla still was PP'd in Lightroom, they don't look that good straight out of the cam.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

[David Mullen ASC]

The problem isn’t the software, it’s the quality of a DVD, which is why using a blu-ray is better.

[David Mullen ASC]

That DVD frame from Red Beard is 86 Kbytes according to my computer, which is 688 Kbits -- so if it is only 40kb, then the "attach frame" software for the site is probably compressing them for web display.

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

I always save these in PNG format and preferably from a Blu-ray source using a variety of ways, most frequently the VLC one Samuel mentioned above. I also never use the attachment feature of the IP.Board, instead opting to upload an image to one of the many image-upload websites, usually Postimage.org. I don't think Postimage.org compresses files, but I haven't checked.

 

David, which portable Blu-ray player do you use?