Shooter Grrl Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Topic title says it all... I have video's I want to put on a website, but I want thumbnails, not word links... is there a cheap and easy way to do this? A couple of caveats... I don't own a video camera and have no clue how to edit movies. BUT, I haven't met software yet that I couldn't figure out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 The cheapest-n-ugliest way on Windows XP is to stick it in a directory somewhere and hit 'view thumbnails', then do a print-screen and cut out the part you want in Paint and paste that. I've seen shareware someplace that would take a directory full of pictures and AVIs and churn out an HTML page of thumbnails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 MS Power Toys will do a good job IF you have XP Pro. Don't know if it will work with HP Home... Look for the resizer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 DUHHH! - slapping self on forehead - this works for photos - don't know bout video snapshots. It does work with XP Home... You can use ACDSee for this - trial downloads available from the ACDSee website. It is a very powerfull image management program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoNsTeR Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 Get this software -> www.virtualdub.org (it's free) You can scroll the the frame you want and save it out, then resize it as necessary. BTW the best software for handling still images, such as making thumbnails, is -> www.irfanview.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 QuickTime. Get it. Free download here http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ The Pro version upgrade is only $29, but the free player should do it fine. I just tested the process and it's about as easy as it gets (I have QT Pro, but remember this working when I had a machine with only the free player on it (the upgrade is actually just a key that unlocks the free player into Pro). You take anything video, open it in Quicktime, go to the export option in File menu. Choose Picture or Still Image as the export type. The rest is follow the prompts and pretty soon you have a .pct file on your desktop same pixel size as the movie file. Open it in PhotoShop or any bitmap editor that will load the format and save it out as a JPEG after editing the size as you see fit. QT Pro does offer more options for export. make sure that the video has a first frame that isn't black or scroll in first. Heck, PhotoShop will open a movie file if you have enough ram to handle all of the individual still frames it will create But seriously, QT Pro for $29 smackers is one of the better apps for making a movie into another format, or something else even. Of course, it won't handle .wmv and .rm files (Windows Media & Real Player), but who cares, the formats blow for quality reasons. QuickTime is the engine for HD quality editing on the Apple platform and QT is capable of full rez HD video (1920 and 2080). It's a great video codec platform. It is not an editing app though, just a player converter video utility if you will. QT is cross platform compatable so it's better tool than other's for video handling. I like the Mac for video work because of Apple's Final Cut Pro. Adobe's Premiere and Avid anything are very good on PC, but not as cheap to get into as Final Cut Express. If you are gonna do any real amount of video editing, handling and conversion work, QT Pro will come in handy anyway and even if you run Wintel you are gonna find QT is a much higher quality format, and web posting for viewing is within the grasp of the mere mortal as opposed to WMV and RM streaming. If you really need some video editing software and you don't want to be limited, try to get into Premiere when you need full power stuff. http://www.adobe.com/motion/dvmain_splash.html Even at $699 it's $300 cheaper than full Final Cut Pro and just as good in the long run (it's primarily what you learn in, or the feature set appeal that determine the "best" video editing app for anyone). QT Pro may be all you need. PM me if you need more info. I do video for a living, so this is right up my alley. Analog or Digital, MPEG or VHS it doesn't matter, it's all just TV. -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted May 7, 2004 Author Share Posted May 7, 2004 Thanks guys, I kinda like Shred's suggestion But will try Geoff's in QT (I do already have it!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted May 12, 2004 Author Share Posted May 12, 2004 UPDATE: Geoff, the version I had of QT would not work with the version I have of PaintShopPro - got code gibberish no matter what I tried! Shred's way worked perfectly and is what I'm using. Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Hi Kathy, Dang, that‘s the problem with the .pct file output that you get from QT, it won’t open in all bitmap editors, but would work fine in Photoshop (if you had it). Oh well. The way Shred suggested will also work in OS X, but I use the QT method because the image quality is better. Glad you have a workaround. -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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