[ubuntu-uk] jpeg from vcd

[LeeGroups]

Sean Miller wrote:
> On 12/31/07, *Sean Miller* <sean at seanmiller.net 
> <mailto:sean at seanmiller.net>> wrote:
>
>     Couldn't you just start the VCD playing and at the appropriate
>     moments press "Print Screen"?
>
>     Or is that too simple?
>
>
> Sorry, missed a couple of posts... so the issue isn't getting the jpgs 
> it's actually getting the VCD to play?
>
> As far as I was aware a VCD is only a collection of MPGs.... these 
> will presumably be the larger of the files on the CD... I think the 
> .dat files.
>
> If you were to copy on of the .dats to your hard drive, rename it to 
> .mpg will it then open in mplayer or whatever?
>
> Then, perhaps, just use <print screen> to create your jpgs or pngs.
>
> Sean
>
I think people are getting confused here...

A VCD is a  Video CD, it's physically a Compact Disk (storing up to 
700MB), but it  contains video files in MPEG1 format (i.e. they are OK 
but not as good quality as a DVD), with a specific (like DVD but 
different) directory structure. They were very popular across Asia 
before DVDs took off (though films were split across two discs due to 
the lower capacity of CD) but they never really took off in Europe 
(apart from the internet pirate types before the cost of blank DVDs 
dropped down to  a usable price point). A lot of set top DVD player can 
play VCDs quite happily.

A PhotoCD (which some people on here are thinking of) is a Kodak think 
that holds digitised photos normally from analogue file, which some DVD 
players can play.

The confusion is further enhanced because a while back a video editing 
software company came up with a neat idea that photo slideshows could be 
put onto cheap VCDs, to add more functionality to their software. This 
is basically a kludge, as the JPEG photos are actually converted to a 
few seconds off (still) MPEG1 video (there are no JPEGs on the disc) 
with nice fades in between.

More confusion is then added, because a lot of cheap DVD players now 
'understand' CDs that are packed with JPEGs and display them as slide 
shows... confusing a lot people (but we'll leave my parents out of 
this:)....

A lot of people don't get the difference between all these different 
formats... unsurprisingly...

Lee