The Fiery Source » Computer Software

ImageGrab is an Powerful Video Screenshot Tool

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:43:21 +0000

Windows: Grabbing stills from your video utilizing a traditional screenshot tool is really a tedious trial-and error affair. ImageGrab is a feature-packed tool for snatching stills, a set at set intervals, or scripting your own personal variables for custom snap shots.

ImageGrab makes it simple specifically take a frame directly from the original source video alone. You can automate the procedure selecting ImageGrab to get frames at the user-specified interval and stamp the grabs with information such as the title of the file and wherein that original video catch came from.

If the default configurations and toggles aren’t versatile enough for you, ImageGrab facilitates user scripting. ImageGrab is a powerful yet friendly software that opens all kind of video files and enables you to choose an image to save on a a disk in format bmp or jpg. The jpeg-quality can be adjusted. You may also copy it in the clipboard, in order to use it in your favourite application.

ImageGrab is indeed mainly aimed at extracting images from videos. The operation is easy, precise and efficient. Generally, it works with three easy steps:

1) Load a video, from various types or files with extension avi, mpeg, mpg, wmv, mts, m2ts, ts, vob, m1v, mp2, mpe, asf, mkv, mov, mp4, 3g2, m4v and perhaps others.

2) ImageGrab includes a video player that can browse frame by frame to a given position in the video (depending on the video) . The player can display in full screen, and can thus be used as a good alternative mediaplayer.

3) When the desired video’s position is reached, a simple click (or the function key F5) captures a snapshot from the current picture. Although we were disappointed the beta wasn’t portable it was significantly more stable on our Windows 7 test machine than the older 4.2 version.

ImageGrab is freeware, Windows only. Have a favorite tool for snatching stills from video? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

ImageGrab

PC Essentials – Spyware Remover

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:52:42 +0000

Spyware is a potentially harmful kind of malware that can hide very well within a user’s system, making detection and removal difficult. Commonly installed without the user’s knowledge, spyware software can be hidden within desirable, and apparently legitimate free antivirus software, or disguise itself as useful utility to dupe unknowing users into downloading it.

Unlike computer viruses, spyware does not seek to spread from infected computers to others. Instead it stays within the PC to pry on sensitive personal information. A particularly harmful type of spyware software are ‘key-loggers’; small programs that monitor each keystroke typed by the user, including typos, backspacing and retyping. ‘Key-loggers’ are sophisticated, and are increasingly used by online criminals to log banking passwords and credit card information.

The corruption of a user’s system by spyware can have a number of recognizable symptoms. System performance may be reduced, with unprompted disk and memory usage. A PC may begin to display stability issues, with applications freezing, crashes, and system boot failures. Internet connection speeds can be slowed or interrupted, and home pages may be changed.

If you are sure your system is infected, and reduced performance is not due to other factors, the following information could help wipe out most forms of spyware. However, your machine’s infestation may resist these measures and you may still need professional PC repair.

Free tools are available online – in particular there is a free spyware remover from Bullguard. Some spyware applications prevent you visiting the websites that host these tools, or block the download, so you may have to download the programs to a clean PC and transfer them via a USB device.

These programs are designed to pick up the most serious and common spyware applications, but there are many that will slip through the net or cannot be removed. A full scan with an anti-virus software package should be performed next. These can be purchased or free versions can be found online – if you already have such a programme installed, make sure it is fully updated.

Scans by these three methods should detect and remove any spyware on your PC. In the unlikely event that you have picked up a new specimen that isn’t included in the anti-spyware databases, some further manual system changes will be necessary. This requires an amount of technical know-how, and may be the point at which you wish to seek professional help.

Manual removal involves examining every process running on your machine to determine whether any of them are spyware. Spyware software specifically hides itself from Window’s ‘Task Manager’, so you will have to seek an alternative application online. ‘Process Explorer’ and ‘Security Task Manager’ are good and are free to download. Either of these programs will show you everything that’s running on your PC, and will help you determine whether a particular application should be there.

Before stopping system processes and applications, it’s wise to back-up important documents and set a System Restore point. If when examining processes you come across a program and don’t know what it is, or does, you’ll have to do some research online – anti-virus forums can be very useful.

When it comes to removing identified spyware programs, it is likely the software will have changed your Registry to make itself difficult to eradicate. ‘HijackThis’ is a free program designed to revert registry entries and other settings that spyware makes to prevent its deletion. Take care though and proceed with caution, as ‘HijackThis’ can cause lasting damage if used incorrectly – if in doubt, seek professional help.

Our Pick for Best DVD-Ripping Tools

Bob — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:40:04 +0000

Photo by jonasj

You shell out some serious money for DVD’s, but the format they are in is not enough in this age of multimedia to satisfy all your needs. We created a list of 5 ripping tools that will not only make a back up copy, but also keep them safely on the internet and play them on any of your portable devices. Below is our pick for the best DVD Rippers on the planet.

AnyDVD (Platform- Windows, Price- $60 per year)

This is the 2nd commercial tool in this week’s list. It is pricey, and though you get discounts for having it for years, $60 per year is still high. However, it claims to be the best when it comes to removal of copy protection and coding schemes which implies you are never stuck in your job. It comes stacked with additional features such as allowing you to control the playback speed of the DVD, which means playing the DVD’s is more soothing in media centers, and also gives you power to remove subtitles and any other unwanted information from the disc.

DVD Decrypter (Platform-Windows, Price-Free)

It is very popular among the users for its ability to remove copy protection schemes such as CSS, and cuts across any other hurdles as well. This is despite the fact that the tool has not been updated for the last 5 years. It has a long list of loyal users as well as new ones.

Handbrake (Platform- Windows/Mac/Linux, Price-Free)

It is one powerful ripping tool that not only rips movies but also allows you to play them on computers, your mini devices as well as other systems that are not disc based. Conversion of DVD’s and MPEG videos into MKV and MP4 is possible with Handbrake. With Handbrake, you can even alter the settings of the media to your liking such as frame rate of the video or the audio codec. Handbrake also allows you to fill your portable media like iPod with a single click very easily. As Handbrake does not come with tools to remove copy protection, you may have to depend upon any other software to make the DVD ready for conversion.

DVD Fab (Platform- Windows, Price-$50)

It is not a freeware, and a ripping tool that can remove all copy protections that are prevalent these days. It has a wide variety of options of shredding and repacking the DVD’s, once you have removed the copy protections. It makes it possible for you to rip entire DVD, rip the movie alone or arrange it into sections. Just as is the case with DVD Shrink, you can shred the larger, DVD-9 to stack in DVD-5.

DVD Shrink (Platform-Windows, Price- Free)

It is a free to use, very efficient ripping tool that compresses DVD’s. As we all know, DVD’s come in two formats, DVD-5 and DVD-9 with storage capacities of 4.7 GB and 8.5 GB respectively. Using the Reauthor mode, you can shred the fat DVD’s and bring them to the standard size, which is DVD-5. DVD Shrink is exceptional software that does its job efficiently, but the problem is that there has been no update to remove latest schemes.

Easily Install Ubuntu on a Windows Netbook, No CD Needed

Bob — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:44:43 +0000

Here’s a nice and easy way to install Linux on your netbook just like you would any other application, no partitioning, no formating your hard drive, just install, and take Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix for a test drive. With Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix you can install and remove Ubuntu from Windows, just like any other software application.

Over at How-To Geek’s, Matthew details the simple process of installing Ubuntu. No need to burn a CD. Just launch the installer, select “Ubuntu Netbook” enter a password for the new account, and click “Install”, go grab some java and when you return, Ubuntu will be ready to rock. We have discussed several methods previously about installing Linux (10 easy ways to try Linux without leaving Windows).

Matthew is kind enough to spell out how to make your Windows files and folders easily reachable from the Ubuntu desktop, he also breaks down a more advanced Windows/Ubuntu boot option. Finally, he gives a helpful and basic tour of Ubuntu. This is no doubt an easy way to check out Ubuntu on a netbook.

Have to installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition? Want to talk about it? Tell us about it in the comments.

Install Ubuntu Netbook Edition with Wubi Installer [How-To Geek]

The Fiery Source » Computer Software

ImageGrab is an Powerful Video Screenshot Tool

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