Video2Photo Basics

Media Source

On start up you need to provide a source from where the selections will be taken.

There are three main kinds of Media Sources:

• Video Capture Devices or Frame Servers
  In this case the media source is a video stream from a digital camcorder (MiniDV, Digital8), a TV/SAT Tuner Card, a Capture Card or an USB Web Cam.
   
• Stored Video File or Picture Sequences
  A media source can be also a video file or a sequence of pictures stored locally or in the network neighborhood.
   
• Windows Streaming Media or Live Video
  Additionally, a media source can be a video stream from an internet web server or a file stored on a web server, identified by an URL. There is also possible that the software treats a local video file as a live video source making use of the features of Live Source (e.g. timed capture)

Live Media Source Mode

When the Media Source is streamed in real-time or doesn’t support seeking, the application will use a video buffer (by default set to 25 frames), where will store, like in a stack, all frames coming from the media source. This acts like a memory, where are remembered a few frames before and after the snapshot decision.

This mode is characteristic for the following Media Sources:

• Video Capture Devices or Frame Servers
• Windows Streaming Media or Live Video Files

When using Live Media Source the selected frames will be stored in the PC memory, therefore the application will require more memory.

Advantages

• The export procedure will be much faster.

• It is possible to improve the quality of the still video by using the frame averaging feature.

• It is possible to use the Onion Skin feature which gives the possibility of ghosting the current live frame over the previous taken snapshot. This feature is very useful for Stop Motion Animation.

• It is possible to use timed capture which give the possibility of making time lapsed movies (time-lapse animations or videos).
   

Disadvantages

• Requires more CPU time and much more memory resources. A Pentium III class system and 256 Mbytes of RAM are the minimum requirements for this mode. The number of selections is limited to the amount of free memory.
• The chosen selections can NOT be stored on disk for later usage
• It is not possible to seek to a specific frame of the source.

Indexed Media Source Mode

When working with asynchronous files (e.g. video files stored on disk or picture sequences) the application turns in the Indexed Media Source Mode.

This mode is characteristic for the following Media Source:

• Stored Video Files or Picture Sequences

In this mode you can seek the video wherever you want, to get the required frame. You can also mark the selection's In Point and Out Point to create selections of consecutive frames.

Advantages

• Requires less memory resources. Each selection is just an index to the specified frame of the video source. A Pentium II Class system with 128 Mbytes of RAM should be enough.

• It is possible to seek to a specific frame.

• Consecutive sequences can be selected.

• The chosen selections can be stored on disk for later usage.

Disadvantages

• The export procedure can become very slow, in the case of some media sources which requires more time for seeking.

• The seeking can be sometime not accurate. For example there will be problems with MPEG files using an improper MPEG de-multiplexer.

• Features like: onion skin, timed capture or improving still are not possible in this mode.

• The correct behavior of this mode is heavily influenced by the video codec in which the video file was encoded.

Selections

Selections can be sequences of consecutive pictures marked by an In Point and an Out Point. A particular case, mostly used, is when the selection has only one picture. This kind of particular selection will be called Snapshot. Selections will be extracted from the Media Source, processed and finally exported.

Selection List

The place where the selections are stored is called Selection List. When exporting, the application will scan this list and export each selection one by one. The selection is represented in the user interface as a tree view. Each main node in this tree represents a selection. Each sub node of a selection represents one of his properties (e.g. In Point, Out Point, Length, Fx). All Selections added to the selection list will be exported when the last step of the application is executed.

Filters

The Filters can be applied over selections for modifying the content of the included pictures. If applied, filters are stored together with other properties of the corresponding selection. Each filter can have one or more parameters which can be modified by user. Virtually every filter has his own property window. This window can be called before the filter was applied, thus parameters can be modified.

Export Settings

Export Settings are influencing the way as the selections will be exported.

Go Top · Go Home

Supported Input and Output Formats

The following table shows the supported Media Sources from where the snapshots can be taken:

The following table shows the supported formats of the Output:

Go Top · Go Home

Codecs and Video Files Formats

The application uses Microsoft Directshow technology to play the video files. The basic video file types as usual AVI files (Cinepak, Indeo^*, Video-1) and MPEG-1 files can be used as source with no problems if at least Microsoft DirectX is installed. For some file types you need specific codecs (e.g. MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XVid, etc) to be installed in the system before opening such file.

Please Note
In order to grab frames from MPEG-2 or DVD files is recommended that you use, beside the appropriate decoder, the Elecard MPEG-2 Demultiplexer which behaves better when seeking MPEG-2 encoded files. Various MPEG-2 decoders bundled with DVD Playback Software packages as Cyberlink or Intervideo may require such Demultiplexer. For download directions regarding Elecard MPEG-2 Demultiplexer visit the Downloads section.

* - Some file encoded with some versions of Indeo may not work correctly together with Video2Photo.

Additional information regarding the codecs required for a video file can be found by pressing Source Info button after the file was selected.

Please Note
Various decoders and other filters needed to playback some video files are not part of the Video2Photo software package. They need to be downloaded and installed separately. If you experience any problems regarding various codecs visit the codec vendor web site or the Video2Photo forums.

The following table shows valid video file types to be used with the application and required codec needed to be installed.

Go Top · Go Home

Video Codec Recommendations

For a better functionality of the software the following codec packages are recommended:

• Elecard MPEG-2 Decoder
  Web Site URL: http://www.moonlight.co.il
  The Moonlight’s Elecard MPEG-2 Player installs a MPEG-2 Decoder, a MPEG-2 Demultiplexer and other filters very useful for MPEG-2 and DVD Video Sources. This package is recommended if you are interested bringing MPEG-2 files in Video2Photo.
   

• K-Lite Codec Pack
  Web Site URL: http://www.codecpackguide.com
   

• Nimo’s Codec Pack
  Web Site URL: http://nimo.titanesk.com
  It is a pack containing lots of different audio and video codecs and DirectShow filters that are used to play various types of avi files including DivX.
   

• Cyberlink MPEG-2 Decoder
  Web Site URL: http://www.gocyberlink.com
  Usually shipped with MPEG-2 Playback Software from Cyberlink.
   
• Intervideo MPEG-2 Decoder
  Web Site URL: http://www.intervideo.com
  Usually shipped with MPEG-2 Playback Software from Intervideo. If a video codec is not listed in this manual you may try a search on Internet Search Engines using following keywords: decoder codec video.
  
  For additional information visit Video2Photo discussion forums.
   

Go Top · Go Home

Video2Photo Professional - Copyright ©2002-2004 pixelchain.com.
Video2Photo Professional captures individual frames from a video source and export them in various output formats.
All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner.
Disclaimer - Imprint