How do I get DVD screenshots marked (or named) with the exact timestamp?

November 11, 2024 11:26 AM

I'm working on a film studies project and need to grab timestamps from a DVD, either marked onscreen or named with the exact timestamp of the screenshot. I am not looking for an output of all frames, or even frames at regular intervals, but rather frames I've selected manually based on what's happening onscreen. What software (for Windows 11) can I use to accomplish this?

Windows Media Player is being utterly uncooperative, refusing to even acknowledge that there's a DVD in the drive.

VLC Media Player is willing to try to help but either handles it stupidly or hangs up (so far the best I've managed is a file saved in the correct directory, but named literally "%T" [rather than swapping out the variable name for its value] and with no file extension. If I put the "%T" in the Prefix field, per these instructions, the program locks up for several minutes then fails to resolve the problem and produce the output, and I have to force it to quit.)

What software can I use instead? (Open source preferred, but cheap commercial software can also be an option.)

posted by johnofjack to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Response by poster: I should add, the default timestamp in the filename for VLC Media Player is the date and time you grabbed the screenshot/were watching the film, which is absolutely unhelpful for pinpointing an exact timestamp you're trying to point others to so they can verify your claims (and is not even internally helpful for determining the timestamp of the frame's source if, say, you're watching the film extremely slowly over several days).
posted by johnofjack at 11:29 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]

MPC-HC uses the playpoint timestamp in the filename, not the wall clock.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:37 AM on November 11

Best answer: I believe the expansion you want is $T rather than %T. I just tried it in VLC 3.0.20 on macOS and it named the file correctly using the timestamp from the spot in the video, and didn’t hang or show any sort of delay. It uses a kinda nonstandard time format; I was 4 minutes and 18 seconds into the file and it stamped it 00_04_18.
posted by bcwinters at 12:00 PM on November 11

Best answer: With VLC, you might be able to pause it with the timestamp showing and then use windows screenshot (shift+windows+S) to capture it. Then you can paste it into any image software or even Word or Google Docs.
posted by soelo at 12:00 PM on November 11

Response by poster: Ah, such a silly mistake! It's $T, not %T. Thanks! It's working now.

Shift+Windows+S with the timestamp showing in VLC Media Player would work, too, though it's less convenient than fixing my incorrect parameter naming.
posted by johnofjack at 12:24 PM on November 11

Sounds like you've got this covered, but just completeness, Losslesscut makes it really easy to snap screenshots and write the timecode to the filename. If you're working from DVDs, VLC is the ticket, for files, losslesscut is pretty great - has super-responsive jog/shuttle commands.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 1:02 PM on November 11 [2 favorites]