Getting a still shot from DVD help please?

I am not tech savvy at all, unfortunately most of the shots from the boys Christening came out too dark and blurry. But the video filmed is fine, does anyone know if there is any way that once a video is put on dvd, that i can somehow on my PC, pause it and save a shot as a still? for instance where my boys are actually being Christened and where we had paused for photos (which didn't turn out)?? I have a basic laptop and no photo programs so i am not sure if or how i can do this.

TIA.

Just found your post! I worked out how to do this recently! Turns out it is super easy with the DVD program I use to watch DVD's on my computer.

I use PowerDVD. Pressing "C" will do a screen capture. Depending on how your settings are set, it will either save the picture to somewhere that has been specified, or it will place the picture on your clipboard and you can "paste" it somewhere (I paste them straight into photoshop so I can play with them). To change your settings you go to Configuration (Ctrl + C), click on "advanced" and go to the "snapshot" tab at the top. Then you can choose what you want the program to do when you press "C" and take a screen capture during your DVD :)

yep i use power dvd too! its great!

Hi MummaB
I have a good program that will let you take still shots from a video unfortunately this program is quite expensive. If you find PowerDVD does not do what you want I would be happy to get some stills from your video for you.

Thanks for that, i'm so glad its possible, as we pretty much have no photos of our boys christening just the dvd.

So i don't know what power dvd is, is it something you have to buy from a computer store or do i download it??

Alan i really appreciate your offer, thank you! i may have to take you up on that if i can not figure out how to use power dvd.

I actually only have a cd drive on my laptop so would that be ok?

Hi MummaB
If your video is stored on a CD then you should be able to use your laptop CD drive, but this would depend on what format the video is in. If the video was stored on a DVD then you would need a DVD drive to read it.

I'm pretty sure I got powerdvd free with my computer (they usually package it with a dvd drive), but you can download the trial version and use that. If you google "cyberlink powerdvd" you should be able to find somewhere to download the trial pretty easily. My version plays normal video files as well as dvd's, so it should be able to play your boys christening whether it's on a cd or dvd :)

hi, im trying to do the same thing...did you ever work it out?
i have power DVD, but i cant get the videos off my video camera to open in that program. i think they may be in a different format?
i have the same issue, got some great video the day we took bub home from hospital, but didnt get any still shots...its really upsetting me!