Photoshop help needed

shellie · Post by **shellie** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:00 pm

Okay, I'm driving myself crazy with what I am sure is a simple thing....

I have some old VCDs that I'm trying to get a couple screen caps from. The VCDs wouldn't play on my regular DVD player that has the handy screencap feature, so I'm playing them on DivX, doing a print screen, and opening it in Photoshop.

Since I am a Photoshop newbie (at best) I'm getting the weirdest things goin' on with these screen shots.... When I open the file from clipboard, I see the shot I captured in the middle with lots of black border around it. I am TRYING to crop just the image in the middle to save, but all I am getting is black when I open my saved file. The weirdest thing is that the image stays glued to the place in Photoshop where it opens, and the black box (canvas area) moves around when I try to click and drag it over! I can actually move the box away so far that I leave the image behind entirely... can't see it anymore! Aaaaaarrrg. So frustrating! Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? (Besides buying VCDs in the first place !

)

Thank you!!!

soda · Post by **soda** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:12 pm

http://blog.rac.me.uk/archives/000263.html

Not really any help but it does provide some insight as to why you're having problems.

yoshito · Post by **yoshito** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:25 pm

I think (from what I read) is that you actually aren't getting an image capture. What you're getting is the "movie protection" thing that is in place. I can't for the life of me think of the proper notation for it right now... basically you aren't getting any image capture of your video.

One reason people use PowerDVD is that it lets you take screencaps of the movie.

There might be another workaround, but that is what I ended up doing.

lys · Post by **lys** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:43 pm

Turning off the hardware acceleration as soda stated does work even though it makes your computer run slower - but its relatively easy to set it back to full acceleration. Yoshito's way of using another app like Power DVD (which should be able to run vcds too) works too.

Computers run DVDs (mpeg2) and VCDs in overlay mode which is why the normal printscreen way doesn't work. DivX type movies aren't run this way (so printscreen does work).

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:43 pm

I think I need a deeper algorithm.

shellie · Post by **shellie** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:41 pm

Worked like a charm!!!

You guys are the best! Soda, how in the world did you find that link to the exact problem and the exact answer so fast?? Holy frijoles! I'm usually the Google Queen, but I didn't even know what to CALL my problem, so I couldn't even begin to find the answer.

Thanks, Yoshito and lys! For some reason, my PowerDVD will not open these vcds. Which is weird because they even play on my superpicky Onkyo home theater! (I'm still trying to find a brand of DVD that it will play on that picky system after I burn stuff from my Media Center pc.

My cheapy kitchen television/DVD will play almost anything, but that home theater still refuses to play anything I've burned myself.)

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out, guys! I really really appreciate it!!

kymaera · Post by **kymaera** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:11 pm

Use virtualdub to open up the files. It has a copy/picture dump feature plus
it's easier to get the exact frame you want when stepping through them.
Also, you can do a sequence dump (to make animated gifs, for example).

shellie · Post by **shellie** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:20 pm

Oooh, that looks interesting, ky! I just downloaded it. I'll play with it tomorrow a bit. Thanks!

soda · Post by **soda** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:48 am

shellie wrote:Soda, how in the world did you find that link to the exact problem and the exact answer so fast?? Holy frijoles! I'm usually the Google Queen, but I didn't even know what to CALL my problem, so I couldn't even begin to find the answer.

simple it's because: "I am the NIGHT RIDER....I am a fuel-injected SUICIDE MACHINE....I am a ROCKER...I am a ROLLER...I AM AN A OUT-OF-CONTROLLAAAH!!! "

shellie · Post by **shellie** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:57 am

You're such a goober. Must be why I like you.

soda · Post by **soda** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:11 am

goober!? goober!?

"The Nightrider. That is his name... the Nightrider.
Remember him when you look at the night sky!"

...and make sure you take your hat off when you do.

shellie · Post by **shellie** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:17 am

heee.

But as I recall, you are NOT the Nightrider... I've seen your picture... it is the picture of PURE EVIIIIIIIL!!

*snickersnicker* You and the pocket protector are so NOT "out of controllaaaahhh"!