Capture Images from HDMI?

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Scott Greczkowski

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Sep 7, 2003
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I am working on something and need to get images from a HDMI source. I have tried taking photos of the screen but they look like crap.

Anyone know a way I can capture images (not video) from HDMI?

I would like to do it on my Macbook Pro if possible.
 
Unless it's DRM-ed, PrintScreen should work to save to clipboard.
Ctrl-V will paste it into an application (Photoshop, Paint, even WordPad...)

If it's DRM-ed (e.g. commercial Blu-ray disc), this will be disabled.
But there are tools to rip BDs...

Don't know about Macs.

Diogen.

EDIT:
Did you mean it plays on an external device that is not a computer?
Then you need something like a BlackMagic card and a really fast machine
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/
 
Last edited:
Not sure of the O/S being used and also unsure if Scott meant image capture is from the machine or external, but just adding this if it helps.


Here's How:

To capture the entire desktop, press Command-Shift-3. The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

To copy the entire desktop, press Command-Control-Shift-3. The screen shot will be placed on your clipboard for you to paste into another program.

To capture a portion of the desktop, press Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (The file is saved as PDF in Mac OS 10.3 and earlier.)

To capture a specific application window, press Command-Shift-4, then press the Spacebar. The cursor will change to a camera, and you can move it around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. The entire window does not need to be visible for you to capture it. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and the screen shot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (The file is saved as PDF in Mac OS 10.3 and earlier.)

Add Control to the two shortcuts above to place the screen shot on the clipboard instead of saving it to the desktop.

Another method for capturing screen shots in Mac OS X is by using the bundled Apple utility, Grab, located in the Applications > Utilities folder. Grab is useful if you need to include a cursor or a menu in your screen shot, or if you want to save your screen shot to TIFF format. To include a cursor, first go to Grab Preferences and select the cursor icon you wish to have in your screen shot. To capture the screen with Grab, run Grab, then choose of the capture modes from the "Capture" menu: Selection, Window, Screen, Timed Screen.

When you choose the Selection mode in Grab, you can capture a specific region of the screen by dragging around it. Grab will display a tooltip showing the size of the region you have selected and the screen shot will open in a window when you release the mouse button. The cursor will not be included.

When you choose the Window mode in Grab, an instruction window will appear asking you to select the window you wish to capture, then click the "Choose Window" button. When you click the button, the instructions will disappear and the window you click ill be captured, including the mouse cursor at the position where you click (if a cursor was selected in Preferences).

When you choose the Screen mode in Grab, an instruction window will appear asking you to click the screen when you are ready to capture. The mouse cursor will be included in your screen shot at the position where you click (if a cursor was selected in Preferences).

When you choose the Timed Screen mode in Grab, an instruction window will appear, allowing you to prepare your screen for capture. When you are ready, press the "Start Timer" button and you will have ten seconds before the screen is captured. This allows you to open menus and sub-menus, if necessary. After ten seconds the entire screen will be captured. The mouse cursor will be included in your screen shot if a cursor was selected in Preferences.
 
Like diogen said, BlackMagic has a PCI-e card for Mac Pros and Windows workstations that will capture a non-DRM HDMI source. They also showed a new box at NAB that will do the same thing when connected to your Thunderbolt port on your Mac Book Pro. I don't know when that ships, though.

I know you have a decent DSLR, so you should be able to use a tripod in a darkened room to take a high-quality picture off of your HDTV. If you can't get the room totally dark, use some pieces of cardboard painted flat-black to fashion a hood that would fit from the edges of your TV screen to the opening where the lens of your camera goes through. A tripod is absolutely necessary to make it work.

Since your DSLR takes a squarer aspect ratio than your HDTV, you'll need to crop it, but eliminating glare from your screen and shake from holding the camera will work wonders on your screen captures. Assuming you have a decent HD screen, of course! ;)
 

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