Q: Can I convert a DVD video to Quicktime, and edit the frames in .jpg files?

Not a practical idea.

DVD's are standard definition meaning the image size is about 640X480. A very small image in these days of mega-pixel cameras.

For which reason you might have better luck taking screen shots.

In order to print an image your need lots of "dots". Low quality prints use about 300 dots per inch and better quality is 4 times that. Your image from the DVD will be about 100 dots per inch making it 3 times smaller than its already tiny 640X480 size. A postage stamp sized picture.

Photoshop can't put "real dots" back into an image borrowed from a DVD. It can make the image larger in dimension but the resolution will drop and you're back to square one when printing.

I was just trying to save you some frustration.

If you were using a Mac, I'd say the best way to do that is to rip the DVD using Handbrake and have the image quality set to a high bitrate. Then you would open that converted file in QuickTime and make a screen grab..

DVD screengrabs on Mac show a green screen.

I would try and see if the Videolan forums (https://forum.videolan.org/) have more Windows-specific information on what programs there are that can do this for you. The Coffee Corner sub-forum may be a good place to start.

Yeah, getting the image into Photoshop at that point is a snap!

Good luck!

It's possible in terms of theory, but hard to operate. Firstly, you should rip the DVD to Quick Time with a tool for windows. Then you edit the frame and convert each frame to a image. That's really complicated.

<Edited By Host>

gotalmud wrote:

 

Unfortunately, one can not create a screen dump of a frame from a program like Windows' Snipping Tool. Rather, the frame appear blank (black).

 

Is there any program that can create an editable image file, like most screen dumps, from a movie frame?

Yes: iMovie

You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

which is free, but you must also have the  Apple mpeg2 plugin :

http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2187Z/A/quicktime-mpeg-2-playback-component-f or-mac-os-x

(unless you are running Lion in which case see below))

which is a mere $20.

Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:

http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm

which costs $25.

For the benefit of others who may read this thread:

Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.

And from the TOU of these forums:

Keep within the Law

1. No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
3. Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store.

If you are running Lion or later:

From the MPEG Streamclip homepage

The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion onwards, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it. See this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3381

To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.

The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. (The same applies to Mountain Lion even though that has it preinstalled.) You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

Thank you for your input. What you explain is of course very valid if one prints the picture at say CVS.

 

1. For some people a 72 dpi image attachment to an email is sufficient.

 

2. It is also possible to add or interpolate pixels into an image in Photoshop. It is not as pretty as "real" dots but one can fool the untrained.

 

3. Also, by creatively creating a collage of similar frames assempled together, even in a print the viewer can be "fooled" and like a low res. image.

 

The bottom line issue however is how to convert each frame in an image, not the quality of the image's resolution.

 

Btw, I am a professional graphic artist and aware of many different tricks to make a poor low res.image look good, to toot my horn.

Am not a Windows user. However, if the latest VLC app for Windows has the same features as the Mac version, have you considered using it to take "snapshots" of the specific frames you want? On a Mac you simply set the app preferences to save the snapshots to a specified location (default is the "Pictures" folder on a Mac) and specify the default format (PNG, JPG, or TIFF). You then just load your unencrypted/decrypted VOB ("muxed" MPEG2/AC3 or MPEG2/PCM) DVD file into the VLC player, find the specific frame(s) you want, and use either the "Snapshot" keyboard shortcut or menu option to take/save the snapshot frame to your hard drive.