VLC 2.2.1 does not apply aspect ratio to anamorphic DVD snapshots

[Paelorian]

Hello. I am not sure if this issue is a bug or a new feature, so I am posting here. I noticed today that after I upgraded to VLC 2.2.1 the screenshots (snapshots) I took of anamorphic DVDs were no longer stretched to the correct aspect ratio (i.e., from 720x480 to 853x480). This is a major change in VLC's screenshot behavior. For my use this makes VLC's screenshot (Take Snapshot) function less useful as I then have to manually resize images to the correct aspect ratio in order to make the screenshots represent the video as it is playing. Or I will have to continue using an older version of VLC for screenshot-taking convenience. Is this a bug or a feature? If this is a feature, I request that an option be added to VLC so that the user can choose whether they want the screenshots to be taken from the video before or after the aspect ratio image stretching is applied. I have taken screenshots from 2.2.1 and 2.1.5 to compare, and 2.1.5 applies the aspect ratio automatically. Just as the user can take screenshots with or without the subtitles, it is very useful for the user to be able to take a screenshot of the video as it is played. In fact, I am confident that for most purposes the screenshot stretched to the correct aspect ratio, as it plays in the player by default, is preferred or required by the user. Screenshots are usually intended to represent the video as it is seen. It is particularly so with VLC player. If I was really nit-picking pixels I'd use DGIndex, but almost always I use VLC to easily take screenshots that are perfectly adequate for almost all purposes to represent the video source and compare one video to another. VLC makes it easy to take screenshots, to show what a video looks like, to compare one video to another, and to share a frame from a video.

I have taken a snapshot of a file with two different versions of VLC. Default PNG snapshot settings, default directory.

2.1.5


2.2.1

[zoidanoid]

Same here. It's been doing that since V2.2.0, on DVD playback and also playing IPTV and DVB-T (which thankfully plays well again otherwise) television. For example, a regular SD widescreen 16:9 source used to result in snapshot dimensions of 1024x576, and 4:3 source in 768x576, now it's always 704x576 or 720x576 depending on the original broadcast source. (HD television is not affected here, i.e. a 720p broadcast snapshot is 1280x720 like it should.)

I thought this should be a feature more than a bug (so technically that's a good thing), because in Advanced Settings -> Video -> Snapshot there's a "width" and "height" setting to override the aspect ratio of the output snapshot. Both are set to "-1" here. But I've been playing with this setting, putting in "0" and such, and it seems to have no effect. I always just get the snapshot dimensions mentioned above.

Another snapshot issue that's new is VLC apparently doesn't handle the timestamp naming of snapshots correctly anymore. If I'd have to guess, I think this started with the daylight savings time switch - earlier in March, this worked fine, now it doesn't anymore. If it is related to DST, then it obviously may be system-specific, so: I'm on Win7 Pro /w SP1, 64bit.

For example for snapshots taken just seconds apart, I used to get correct names like this:

vlcsnap-2015-03-14-08h04m01s275.png
vlcsnap-2015-03-14-08h04m10s020.png
vlcsnap-2015-03-14-08h04m15s735.png

Now I'm getting snapshot names like this:

vlcsnap-3558-06-03-03h30m34s553.png
vlcsnap-5219-12-26-11h30m52s438.png
vlcsnap-6931-02-11-14h19m57s588.png

Which obviously doesn't make sense.

[martinu]

Yes I've noticed both of these bugs - the image size and the timestamp on the filename.

I took three files: 544x576, 704x576 4:3 and 704x576 16:9 and grabbed snapshots in 2.1.5 and 2.2.1.

2.1.5 gave 768x576, 768x576 and 1024x576

2.2.1 gave 544x576, 544x576 and 720x576

2.1.5 is scaling the snapshots to an appropriate aspect ratio for the display - the resulting still picture is either 4x3 or 16:9, even if the source video is not.

2.2.1 is scaling incorrectly in all cases. In the first and third cases it is probably using the resolution of the source file instead of rescaling, bearing in mind that normal SD video in PAL-land is sometimes 704x576 and sometimes 720x576 (in the latter case with black bands down either side). In the second case it is even more wrong because it has taken a 704 (rounded up to 720) video and actually downscaled it to 544 still picture.

A bit more regression testing is needed

Has anyone reported this as a bug? If not, I'll do it.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It is reported as ticket 13862

[Ra'Kaan]

Holy cow I thought I was going insane!!!!

The aspect ratio problem started when I changed from Stargate SG-1 to Atlantis DVD collections so I thought it was some difference in the DVD sets - but this makes much more sense!

Snapshots on 3-15-15 were 853x480 and on 3-21-15 snapshots were 720x480. (.jpg)

That's as close as my history can narrow it down to.

I also noticed this only seems to apply to DVD format snapshots. Sources from video files apply the correct aspect ratio to snapshots.

My 2 cents.

[zoidanoid]

Found another snapshot bug (I think), not sure if this is related or not.

When playing a widescreen 16:9 source, and then using the Video -> Crop function to limit the screen output to 4:3, the screen output is correctly cropped while centered (i.e. the sides are cropped off), but taking a snapshot results in an image that isn't centered but positioned to the left (i.e. hooked on the 0x0 top left coordinate of the original source). Not good.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

You should add that to the bugreport.

[Mediacult]

I just read through the ticket, and I have no clue what this means:

https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/13862

So what was the solution? For me, with the new update, all screenshots are the wrong aspect ratio. Makes no sense...

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It means it's fixed for next version.

[concord72]

It means it's fixed for next version.

So is this issue fixed in the latest version?

[Ludrax]

according to this breaking NEWS

[kdantas]

Wrong aspect ratio taking printscreen from DVD in VLC 2.2.4. Any solution?

VLC Codec Info File



MediaInfo of VLC PrintScreen File

[kdantas]

Hi, any solution for this problem with aspect ratio in DVD screenshots? In codec box show 720x480, but the screenshot show 853x480. How can solve this issue? Any way changing the vlc configuration for take screenshots with 720x480? My version of VLC is 2.2.4. Thanks.

[delbruck]

Hello from the future! This bug isn't solved in the current v 3.0.20 Flatpak under Debian 12.

I just tried to take snapshots from an anamorphic DVD (Aliens) and the snapshots aren't adjusted to the aspect ratio of the film.

TRIED:
- advanced settings / video / video snapshot width and height, set to 0 or -1, it won't make any difference
- tried deactivating the subtitles too, as I read here https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... ic#p507311

WORKAROUND:
- I took note of the actual resolution from Tools / Media information / Codec (720x576) and corrected the height to the aspect ratio (16:9)
- 720x9/16 = 405, so the snapshot should be 720x405
- Entered those numbers in the advanced settings previously mentioned: problem solved for this particular DVD

If anyone is interested in fixing this, I can provide whatever info is needed and tests with many other DVDs

(And if anyone can recommend another LInux player to screenshot DVDs and advance frame by frame, I could use the help, thank you)