The VideoLAN Forums

I would very much like to see VLC have more options for screenshots. Specifically I would like to...

1. Set the prefix of the file name to anything, instead of "vlcsnap-"
2. change the numbering convention. Right now it seems to use a time stamp that looks like "vlcsnap-336784.jpg."

I need it to number the screenshots like this, including the fixed length numbering:
MyFileName-0000001.jpg
MyFileName-0000002.jpg
MyFileName-0000003.jpg
MyFileName-0000004.jpg
MyFileName-0000005.jpg

If it could do this it would work perfectly with another piece of software I use to display recently taken pictures in order. The naming and numbering is critical. It's for Halloween. We have a setup that takes photos of people and displays the last couple images on headstones with monitors in them. It's similar to ride photos on rollercoasters.

Is there any chance VLC could be made to do this? It doesn't seem like something that would be terribly dificult to do. VLC already does all the overlay and de-interlacing stuff we needed but it's down to this tiny little naming detail that screws everything up.

Thanks for any help and advice!

-Dan

1. can already be done in the prefs (i'm not sure that it was available in the 0.8.5 release though)
in the prefs: snapshot video directory: if you put something like "/dir/dir/dir/" the snapshots will be named vlcsnap-......, if you put something like "/dir/dir/dir/prefix" (note the missing /), vlcsnap will be replaced by prefix.

2. that's not possible yet but it wouldn't be too hard to add i guess ... but then you could use the file's creation date to sort them and find which one should be shown on the preview screen.

1. Oh, I didn't realize that. Thanks.

2. Yes, I could use the creation date to sort the images, however the software that displays the images uses the file name to generate an image number overlay on the screen in the corner.

So a file called MyFileName-0000254.jpg would be shown on the headstone screen with a bold "254" in the corner. The timestamp names would produce seemingly random image numbers. Plus I like to be able to pull up known images by the number off the internet.

So is there any chance someone out there would have the time and be kind enough to add an option to have screenshots numbered (with fixed lengh) instead of time stamped?

Or maybe I should just find a friend that knows VB and have him make a program to rename and move the timestamped jpg's to a new folder of numbered jpg's as they are created. Though I have concerns about such a program causing too much delay.

Here's some pictures of the setup if that perks anybody's interests. Each Halloween it all becomes more and more elaborate and complicated. And this year I would like to be able to take high resolution deinterlaced images with better overlays. VLC can do all of this for me but not name the jpg files they way I need them.

Actual picture taken by the camera using ChillCam last year: http://ip.gliebetronics.com:800/hallowe ... _00129.jpg
Picture taking computer: http://ip.gliebetronics.com:801/gallery ... itemId=466
Headstone Monitors: http://ip.gliebetronics.com:801/gallery ... itemId=476
Hagitha: http://ip.gliebetronics.com:801/gallery ... itemId=496
Hag's Head: http://ip.gliebetronics.com:801/gallery ... itemId=640
Camera and "flash": http://ip.gliebetronics.com:801/gallery ... itemId=498

-Dan

I'll add an option to change the numbering scheme tomorrow (or tonight if i can't sleep).

i've added two options: These will be available in tonight's nightly build

Wow thanks! That should work great for me. It's not fixed length (i.e. x digits, 0001 0002 ... 0025) but I may be able to get around that on my end.

Thanks again. I really appreciate it.

P.S. If any of you remember this by Halloween, remember to check out our Halloween page at http://gliebetronics.com/halloween or visit my normal cam page at http://tigercam.gliebetronics.com where most of the cameras will be aimed at the trick or treaters as well as the preview monitors and Hagitha the cyber witch. I'll have the Halloween page much more up to date before then.

I can change it to do fixed width if you want ... i wasn't sure which one was better. (All cameras do fixed width right ?)

Oh ya, if you could change it or add an option to have the file name be a fixed user selectable width that would be really great. It would sure help things out on this end. If having the width be user selectable (i.e. a box where you can enter a number that indicates the number of digits in the number) is too hard, a fixed width of say 5 numbers would be good.
That's what many digital cameras do I think, yes.

Done

Thank you so much! That should work perfectly! I hope others find these changes as useful as I do.