Hi Rez Scrn. Shot Software? (site search not working)

Has someone developed a commercial hi rez software?

[duncanrinaldo]

(site search isn't working so I couldn't browse old posts) I saw old posts from 2001 looking to make hi rez captures. Since then has any product been developed for purchase or download? I am looking to take hi rez captures from DVD good enough to print 5 x 7s sharply. I'm not a programmer, so I would be very grateful for a product and/or set of instructions for commercial product and photoshop editing tips.

[Beagle]

I waited for a day or so before responding, because I'm not a professional graphics person by any means. But I do a lot of captures from DVD. The best I've used (after a lot of recommendations from other people) is PowerDVD. I started with version 5 (after dumping WinDVD!), and now use 6. Have to say that whether it makes captures good enough to print sharply at 5x7 depends very much on the quality of the original DVD. If the DVD is of extremely high quality, then I'd say yes--after some editing. But if not, you're not going to get the results you're hoping for. The same company has a range of other DVD/video products, but I've never tried them so can't say if they'd fit your needs better.

I'm not sure what you want to know about editing. On even the best pictures, I need to sharpen, and usually lighten. If they need a really light touch of sharpening (so that "sharpen" is too much), I'll tweak the contrast instead.

On the pictures that aren't the best, I just do what I can--but you're probably not going to get them to printable quality with any program I know about. Sometimes they get better if you reduce the size, but, again, that really depends on the quality of the original.

I use a mix of editing software. Mostly Paint Shop Pro 8, but I've also "forced" my XP OS to grudgingly accept an old no-longer-available program that deals with underexposed pics better than anything else I've found. Sometimes even the little built-in editing programs for printers or photo software will have one or two features that are really useful, so it doesn't hurt to play around with whatever you have and see what they can do. I often use more than one program to edit the same picture.

[limbo]

Duncanrinaldo

Welcome to webmasterworld :)

Looking around some older posts I found this thread: [webmasterworld.com...]

This [webmasterworld.com] is an excellent way to search WebmasterWorld

[Beagle]

Thanks, limbo. That's an interesting thread (and tutorial) on preparing screenshots for an actual printing process--as opposed to just printing from the computer--which is something I've never had to do. I think the software's improved somewhat since 2001, so the results might be a bit better than what people were reporting there, but you'd still have the same basic limitations.

[monkeythumpa]

Since the images on the screenshot will be 72 dpi, realisticly that is as high the resolution will get. Since the text is scalable it can be whatever resolution you want, but you will be limited by the resolution of the images, it is not a question of software.

[ScratchDisk]

1. Make sure you are viewing the DVD at Full Screen (get the most amount of pixels you can).

2. Practice pausing the movie where you want the shot from then take your screen shot while paused (the less movement in the scene, the sharper the pic will be as this will reduce the blur).

3. Create a photoshop file at the size you want to output (final print size), and make sure it is at 300ppi.

4. Paste your image into the file and transform it (strech it) to your new size. Sharpen, adjust contrast and saturation, then convert to CMYK (if your printing at a commercial printer with seperations).

'Rezing Up' is not reccommended but in this case it is what you have to do for what you need.