# recommend some video capture software? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-video-capture-software/417456 "2007-08-30T02:44:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-video-capture-software/417456/1 "2007-08-30T02:44:06Z")
I have to “design” DVD covers for movies that have no covers; usually this is when a cheapo box set has some generic cover and no film-specific artwork in the packaging. Sometimes I can find images on the web–someone on eBay is usually selling the original poster, or something. But sometimes I come up dry. In those situations, I’d love to be able to take a capture from a frame of the film, but I’m unable to do so; standard PrtScrn doesn’t work on video images. As far as I know, my intended use is perfectly legal. So can anyone recommend some freeware that will allow me to do an image capture from a DVD? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@Mike\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Fun)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-video-capture-software/417456/2 "2007-08-30T14:14:16Z")
The DVD player software that came with my drive can do still captures. There’s probably thousands of freeware players that do the same thing. Have you tried googling this? ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-video-capture-software/417456/3 "2007-08-30T15:36:26Z")
You can do this with many DVD player programs, or if yours can’t, try Videolan’s VLC. You can play almost any audio/video format in it and set it to slow-motion and then take a snapshot. I don’t think you can go frame-by-frame, so it helps if you have a quick finger so that you can get it to stop at the frame you want. This is not too hard if you play it pretty slowly. > **[Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)** > > Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-video-capture-software/417456/4 "2007-08-30T22:52:26Z")
[QUOTE=Mike Fun] The DVD player software that came with my drive can do still captures. There’s probably thousands of freeware players that do the same thing. Have you tried googling this? [/QUOTE] Yes, I have, and I’ve tried a few. So far they all A) suck, or B) cost a lot of money. Videosnapshots Genius seems to work OK, but it’s $30. In this post-Netflix world, the video store I work for makes zero profit, so there’s no money for such luxuries; all new software must be free. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-video-capture-software/417456/5 "2007-08-31T09:22:36Z")
The resolution on a DVD image is extremely low quality, for anything much more than showing a frame as a video capture. Media Player Classic has a “save image” function, and can play back DVDs in a limited fashion.