Getting Frames from Video – file type problem

JK
Posted By
Jo_Klenk
Aug 17, 2004
Views
513
Replies
8
Status
Closed
I want to get frames from a personal video for printing pictures. I’ve ripped the VOB files to my hard disk, but have been unsuccessful in converting VOB files into a file type acceptable to Photoshop Elements (.avi, .mpg, or .mpeg). I’ve tried using WinAVI and DVD2AVI unsuccessfully. Any suggestions? Thanks!
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file frame problem type video

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JK
Jo_Klenk
Aug 17, 2004
In my previous post, I neglected to say that I had the video made into a DVD to start with. So I ripped the VOB files from the DVD to my hard disk, but have been unsuccessful in converting the VOB files to .avi. Any suggestions?
JF
Jodi_Frye
Aug 17, 2004
Jo, if you can’t find an answer here there is a good possibility you’ll find one on the Adobe premiere forum…plenty of photoshop users there as well. You don’t need to be a premiere user to get some advice on DV files over there.
JH
Jim_Hess
Aug 17, 2004
You might be able to use VirtualDub which is available at <http://www.virtualdub.com/index> to convert your files to AVI. I do a little bit of video editing, and on one of the other forums that I follow this program is highly recommended for the sort of thing you are trying to do. You might also consider looking on <http://www.videohelp.com/> to see what you can find. There is a wealth of information there, but it may take some patience on your part to find what you need. Those are to ideas I can think of the start with. If you have problems with those, post back and I will see what else I can come up with.
JH
Jim_Hess
Aug 17, 2004
Here is an excerpt from a response in the video forum that I follow. It might shed some light another way you might approach this:

Must have tried a dozen different processes, using various shareware sw but always came up short until I tried DVD2AVI that you suggested in your very first response. I ripped my DVD movie to my hard drive using DVDDecrypter. I then input the VIDEO-TS VOB files into DVD2AVI and used it’s SAVE AVI function to generate separate AVI (video) and WAV (audio) files which are acceptable to STUDIO and can both be imported in the same project for re-editing. It’s a more round about way and I also can see where I may run into some video and audio synch problems but I guess I’ll have to live with that.
JH
Jim_Hess
Aug 17, 2004
And…. One other idea. There are a couple of programs that I’m aware of, and I’m sure there are more, that will allow you to play your DVD on your computer and will provide you with the capability to freeze frame your video and extract still images. One of them is called WinDVD and the other one is called PowerDVD. I have WinDVD on my computer and I have done exactly what you have described. I don’t know if the free version will allow you to do it, but if you register the program (about $25) you would have that capability. Don’t know if it would be worth spending money though if you didn’t have a lot of other uses for the program.
JK
Jo_Klenk
Aug 17, 2004
I’ve tried extracting frames using WinDVD and have been successful! Thanks very much, Jim! That solves the basic problem (though I wish the picture quality were better).

However, I’d still like to convert .VOB files into .AVI files so I can be more precise in stopping frames using Adobe Elements – if possible. I’ve used VirtualDub, but been unsuccessful. (More precisely, it’s a many step process using DGMPGDec – an update of DVD2AVI – which created a .d2v file, then Avisynth to create an input file for VirtualDub etc.) But VirtualDub gives an error message saying it "requires a Video For Windows (VFW) compatible codec to decompress video" and I’m in over my head. I’ve checked VirtualDub’s website and there doesn’t seem to be such a codec (but I’m still looking). I can’t find a "Save AVI" function in DVD2AVI. There’s a "Save BMP", but doesn’t seem to do anything. I hate to give up on this! Thanks for your helpful responses already.
JH
Jim_Hess
Aug 17, 2004
Here is one other idea that you might consider if you have the right equipment. If you have a digital video camera that will allow you to copy directly from your TV or VCR or DVD player it is possible to connect that camera directly to the DVD player and capture the video. Then, you could use Windows Movie Maker if you don’t have any other video capture/edit software to capture it back to your computer as an AVI file. But if you aren’t into video editing this is probably way over your head. I have been working with video for a few years and I’m still pretty confused about the whole process. Sorry that I cannot give you some better suggestions.

I have a video editing program that allows me to grab frames and save them. But I don’t think any program will give you a high quality still image like you would get from a typical digital still camera. The size of the image from a DVD is only 720×480 pixels, and with all the movement that you are dealing with when using a video camera, it’s difficult to get a real good still image.
JK
Jo_Klenk
Aug 18, 2004
I was able to get the proper codec, so then I was able to get Virtual Dub to make the .avi file – finally. Now I’m working on audio. Thanks for all the help. Jo

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