Can MM2 capture 720x576 bitmaps?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JoeDotCom
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J

JoeDotCom

Was wondering if someone can help me with this.

From what I can see MM2 will only let me capture JPEG stills from my
captured video at very pixel sizes (388x288). I've used programs that allow
me to capture bitmaps at 720x576 (which allows me to have them printed at a
photo shop later). Can MM2 capture stills at higher sizes and as bitmaps?

TIA for any replies.

JDC
 
JoeDotCom said:
Was wondering if someone can help me with this.

From what I can see MM2 will only let me capture JPEG stills from my
captured video at very pixel sizes (388x288). I've used programs that allow
me to capture bitmaps at 720x576 (which allows me to have them printed at a
photo shop later). Can MM2 capture stills at higher sizes and as bitmaps?
Click to expand...

Hello,

I have just captured a still image from a video file using MM2 and I get it
at 384 x 288 and that was from a DV-AVI at 720 x 576...very odd its not even
a half scale capture. I have now changed the aspect ration of the video to
16:9 and captured another still image and find that its 512 x 288. I assume
that these sizes are what MM2 considers "Ideal", but I don't understand why
the original size was not suitable. I can not at the moment see any options
for changing the capture size/resolution....looking at those numbers
again....288 is exactly half of 576 but the other numbers are not
half...therefore the aspect ratio is not being preserved, or, there is some
clipping taking place.

I wonder if this is in some way related to the two frames of data that make
up a TV picture.

All the best.....
 
No, I confirmed it - MM2 just doesn't let you capture at 720x576 and/or bmp.
It's a pain bc I have to use another program to capture bmp at full size
(Ulead Videostudio 7 lets you do it and deinterlaces the captured pic as
well.) I can't imagine how MS thinks someone can print a 388x288 jpg at a
decent size, bc even the ones i had printed from 720x576 had some pixelation
when they came back from the shop. I think they just have it so you can send
emails with the pics and nothing more.
Thanks anyway.
 
The 'Take Picture' feature of Movie Maker 2 makes the picture at a size that
aligns with the source file. I just tried it using a 720x480 DV-AVI file as
the source, and the pictures are JPG files at 640x480

PapaJohn
 
PapaJohn (MVP) said:
The 'Take Picture' feature of Movie Maker 2 makes the picture at a size that
aligns with the source file. I just tried it using a 720x480 DV-AVI file as
the source, and the pictures are JPG files at 640x480
Click to expand...

Well that's even more weird...see my earlier post on what happens with a
720x576 when you change aspect ration in MM2

All the best.....
 
PapaJohn - I was hoping you'd jump in here...

Ok, here's the thing. Since my last message, i discovered that when i click
on Take Picture but choose "all files" instead of jpeg from the drop down
menu and add a *.bmp extension, it saves as 720x576, but as a jpg (only the
filename is bmp in other words). The size is right, but the quality is much
lower than a bmp.

Now, i may be losing my marbles, but I've used MM2 in the past (before a
recent format), and I could swear that at some point it could snap one pic
after another as bmps, without even having to assign a file name (they would
be incrementally named). Now, I've posted another message in winxp.video
saying that before the recent format, and I had installed some "mystery"
video app that suddenly allowed MM2 to export stills as full res bmps
(discovered this accidentally - some sort of side effect). For the life of
me i cant remember what this program was, all i remember was that i could
just play the file in MM2, keep clicking on the take picture icon and I
would have a folder full of bmps from the frames i wanted. Is that crazy or
can it be done? I'm sure it was MM2!

Thanks again,

JDC
 
I've only known MM2 to make JPG files from the snapshots. It'll make them at
the resolution of the source video and increment the number so you don't
have to name each one. Keep clicking and you end up with a pack of
sequentially numbered JPG files.

Then use something like IrfanView to do a batch conversion of all the JPG
files to BMP.

And you're not losing it on the picture files. MM2 is very tolerant. It only
checks that the file is a valid picture file, and really doesn't care if you
change the last name.

PapaJohn
 
PapaJohn said:
I've only known MM2 to make JPG files from the snapshots. It'll make them at
the resolution of the source video and increment the number so you don't
have to name each one. Keep clicking and you end up with a pack of
sequentially numbered JPG files.

Then use something like IrfanView to do a batch conversion of all the JPG
files to BMP.

And you're not losing it on the picture files. MM2 is very tolerant. It only
checks that the file is a valid picture file, and really doesn't care if you
change the last name.
Click to expand...

Hi there,
I have discovered that if I click on a video in the collections list,
and let it play, then I can click on the snapshot option and get full sized
snaps, of quite a reasonable quality, just as you describe above.

However, if I play any of the video on the timeline and then click on
the snapshot I get snaps as per my message right near the beginning of this
thread.

Would you be good enough to either confirm this is right...or that there
must be an error on my system.

All the best.....
 
You're right - the size of the snapshot depends on where you take it.
There's no error on your system. Here's copy of a good post yesterday by Tom
G on another newsgroup. It's worth repeating here:

===================================

This is from the Help file in MM2 under
Tools>Options>Advanced>Video settings

Taking pictures
You might want to take a picture of a frame of captured
or imported video in Windows Movie Maker. This lets you
capture an individual frame from the video, and then use
the resulting picture in your movie. Taking a picture of
a video frame lets you utilize the existing captured or
imported video in other ways in your movie.

The display size of the captured picture depends on where
you took the picture of the video in Windows Movie Maker.
If you take a picture of a frame of video displayed in
the monitor from the Contents pane, the display size of
the picture matches the display size of the original
source video file. For example, if the original video
file displays at 640x480 pixels, the resulting picture
you take also displays at 640x480 pixels. However, if you
take a still picture of a frame of video from a video
clip on the storyboard/timeline, the dimensions of the
picture are 320x240 pixels. Pictures you capture in
Windows Movie Maker are saved as JPEG files, with a .jpg
file name extension.

Note

If you take a picture is from video in the Contents pane
that displays at a size larger than 800x600 pixels, the
picture is reduced to 800x600 pixels in Windows Movie
Maker. However, the original source picture file is
captured at the original display size of the video.

TG
 
Hi there,

Many Thanks for that...I was just wondering whether to get a backup
out...

All the best.....
 
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