Tuesday 6 May 2008

Geeks

  • How to capture and extract still images from video

Wish you could take a frame right out of your video and save it as a picture? I have a bunch of videos stored on my computer taken from my digital camera with scenes that I would want to extract to still images. If you're in the same boat, then read on!

For some reason, it's pretty hard to find an application that extracts images from videos and that is free! I've been looking for one for a long time and I finally found one. ImageGrab is a free program that you can use to extract images from all kind of videos including AVI, MPEG, WMV, live video streams, un-encrypted DVDs and many others formats.

It's pretty easy to use and works well! Also, the great thing about this program is that it requires no installation, just download and run the EXE file, so it won't slow down your computer or add keys to your registry! That's what I like to hear!

First you need to load a video into the program, so click the open folder icon at the far left.

extract image from video

You should now see your video in the window below along with the navigation keys at the bottom. You'll also see the size of the video and the size of the image still at the top left.

extract still from video

If for some strange reason your video is upside down, which the author of the program suggests it could be because of the decoder on your system, you'll need to press the Invert button, which looks like two arrows in opposite directions.

invert picture

Now it's time to actual grab a still image from your video! First set the folder where you want the pictures to be saved by clicking on the folder icon at the top right.

imagegrab

Finally, navigate the video until you reach the frame you want to grab. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard for precision. Now when you have the desired frame in view, use any of the buttons in the second group to extract the image:

    or F12: Grabs a picture and saves it to the indicated folder.

    or F5: Takes a snapshot without saving it to the disk.

    or F7: Saves the previous snapshot to the disk.

    or CTRL C: Copies the snapshot to the clipboard.

I don't really know why you would want to take a snapshot and not save it, but the option is there for those who enjoy that! ;) That's it! You have just captured a still image from a video! Now go post it somewhere so we can all see! Enjoy! [via Online Tech Tips]


    • Comodo Backup - Excellent, Free Backup Utility

    Have you done a file backup lately? Imagine the stress if you lose your resume, business spreadsheets, browser bookmarks, blog posts, nearly completed thesis, precious vacation photographs etc. There are a lot of things that can destroy your important data: hard disk crashes, accidental deletion, power failure are just some of them.

    Be aware that data loss can be costly in the form of time, money and stress levels. To avoid these catastrophic mistakes, backing up is the best solution that you can take. If you haven't already installed a backup utility on your computer yet, give Comodo Backup a try.

    Comodo Backup is a free backup utility from the creators of the well-praised Comodo Firewall; therefore you can be sure of its software quality. Comodo Backup allows you to quickly create a backup set in less than 3 minutes. How it works are pretty easy - give a name to your backup, choose a backup type, select the files / folders that you want to backup and choose the backup destination.

    Comodo Backup also translates as a set-and-forget application, you can set it once and it will work like a charm in the background. In case you lose any of your files in the future, a one click restore wizard will always be there to assist you.

    comodo-backup-interface-screenshot

    Comodo Backup Features:

      • Intuitive interface that will accommodate both beginners to backup as well as advanced users.
      • Supports full and incremental backup.
      • 2 backup types - Service Backup (triggered by Windows Services) and User Backup.
      • Choices of backup destinations - on a local disk, network drive, DVD-RW, CD-RW or FTP servers
      • Support for multisession DVD backup
      • Security password to prevent unauthorized users from changing your backup configurations
      • Quick recovery / backup restoration with easy to use wizard mode
      • Backup scheduler - you can schedule your backup to run automatically on any day of the week, any time, on Windows startup or on Windows shutdown
      • Email notifications support to let you know if your backup has successfully been completed or not
      • Compression support - to save disk space, you can opt to backup your files in compressed, .zip format.

      save-space-with-compressed-backup

        • Revision support for observing file changing histories
        • Test support - useful to check if your backup rules work as you have defined
        • Support file exclusions and filter support for processing backup based on certain type of files
        • Extensive logging support.

      extensive-logging-support

      • 5 backup modes to choose from:
        • Simple Copy - copies all files from source to the destination folder.

        • Simple Move - moves all files from source to the destination folder.

        • Copy and delete outdated files - copies all files from source to the destination folder. Then, compares new files with the previous. If there are any outdated files in the destination folder, delete them.

        • Move and delete outdated files - moves all files from source to the destination folder. Then, compares new files with the previous. If there are any outdated files in the destination folder, delete them. For experienced users only.

        • Synchronization Mode - Comodo Backup will scan the source directory in real time for any changes. It will copy them into the destination folder as soon as the changes took place.

          how-to-create-a-new-backup

        By default, Comodo Backup will start its backup service automatically on Windows startup to provide real time backup for service dependent backup sets. Therefore, you can leave this backup utility to work silently in the background once you have defined all your backup rules. This is a plus because no one loves to define a backup rule for over and over again. Overall, Comodo Backup is a painless, excellent free backup utility for any beginning or advanced backup users out there. Try it today! [via Online Tech Tips]


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