WinDVD Image Capture

[athosia]

Hello everyone. I'm new to the PC-DVD world, and I need some help.

On one of my various Google-searches, I noticed the distinct dirth of sites about the original MASH movie. I thought I'd rectify that by making on of my own (aren't I industrious?). I have WinDVD 4 which came installed on my Dell notebook, and I used that to play the movie. But when I tried to capture some stills, nothing I tried worked. Eventually I found that WinDVD had the option built in but...

Under the Bookmark menu are the options for "Capture Browser" and "Capture Image", but both are grayed out. On the setup screen, the options "open the capture browser when capturing an image" and the option to pick the directory the captured images go to are also both grayed out.

I wrote to WinDVD's technical support almost a week ago, and have so far received no response. I'd appreciate any help you can give me on the matter, as I am getting very frustrated.

Thanks very much,
Athosia

[shiny#3]

It may be that you have a restricted version of windvd 4.0
in this case upgrade to full windvd 4.0

I may also be that your capturing device driver is not set up correctly or your capturing device is not set up correctly

in this case visit the manufaturer of you graphic card or the manufacturer of your mainboard...

[athosia]

Shiny-

Thank you for responding so promptly.

I cannot find anywhere where it indicates that my version of WinDVD is in any way restricted.

I went to ATI's website and downloaded a "catalyst" driver download that had an option for WDM capture. It appears to have installed, but the options for capture in WinDVD are still grayed out.

Can you explain any other solutions I might try?

Thanks,
Athosia

[setarip]

From the "Help" dropdown menu:

"Capture
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WinDVD now allows users to capture a static image during movie playback. Press the "P" key at any time to capture a BMP file of a moving or static image. Capture does not work on zoomed regions and on some hardware motion compensation graphics chips. If you are having a problem, try disabling hardware motion compensation and capturing again.

Captured bitmaps are stored in the Capture subdirectory of the WinDVD directory on your hard drive. Captured files are numbered sequentially: cap001.bmp, cap002.bmp, and so on."

[athosia]

Setarip-

I have read that Help file. When I press "P", nothing happens.

I'm not quite sure what they mean when they say "disable motion compensation". Can you explain that to me?

Thanks,
Athosia

[setarip]

Properties>>Display Uncheck "Hardware Motion Compensation"

[athosia]

Setarip-

Properties of what? In WinDVD, or for my video card?

Thanks,
Athosia

[setarip]

WinDVD...

[athosia]

Setarip-

I went to Setup>Video and un checked both "Use Hardware Decode Acceleration" and "Use Hardware Color Acceleration". However, the options for "Open Capture Browser" and "Capture Directory" were still grayed out.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Athosia

[setarip]

Now reboot your computer and run WinDVD...

By the way, you do realize that you can only use WinDVD's capture with a DVD, don't you? (It doesn't work with .AVIs, etc.)

[athosia]

Setarip-

The only reason I want to use the capture tool is to capture stills from a DVD.

Thanks for your help and patience with me.

Athosia