The Ultimate Screencapping Guide for Mac Users
Program(s)+version: UnRar, HJSplit, VLC Player, Automator, NameMangler, EasyBatch, ViewIt
Involves: Learning about HD files' image quality and size, how to cap, batch conversion and renaming, sorting, uploading your caps to a server and adding those caps using Coppermine for sharing in a gallery as well as uploading zip files for sharing.
Translatable: No, Mac only.
Steps: A lot.
Difficulty: Moderate
There always seems to be fairly well done tutorials for various Windows programs and how to cap out there over the years, but when I switched over to Mac over a year ago it took me a while to find all the programs I use now because there was no guide like this to simply follow. I had to learn through trial and error and searching and searching for the program I wanted for each task. There was no step by step how-to. Now that I have a set method, I figured it would only seem reasonable to share.
So for anyone interested in switching to Mac, new to Macs, or for the occasional dual Mac-PC user, this is THE guide to all things screencapping. I'll try not to get too technical, I want this to be pretty easy to comprehend.
Table of Contents
Applications You'll Need
High Definition
High Definition image quality and file size
High Definition File Size Breakdown In Comparison to Standard Definition
How to Cap in VLC
Autocapping and manual
Autocapping
Manual Capping
Batch Conversion and Renaming
Batch Conversion
Batch Renaming
Batch Conversion and Rename Using EasyBatch
Sorting Your Caps
Using ViewIt
Uploading caps to a server and Coppermine
Uploading zip files
Megaupload
Mediafire
APPLICATIONS YOU'LL NEED
UnRarX | If you have rar'd files.
HJSplit | Java version for Macs, if you have them split into .001, etc files
VLC | The screencapping program, also a standard media playing program that can play anything.
Automator | Standard application on all Macs. Once you figure out how this works, you can have a LOT of fun with this app, it can do about anything.
NameMangler | A powerful and light renaming tool.
EasyBatch | A shareware alternative to Automator and NameMangler.
ViewIt | Image viewing and sorting program.
FireFTP | An FTP client integrated into Firefox, for uploading files to a webserver.
HIGH DEFINITION*
High Definition image quality and file size
Files sizes are key in relation to the image quality in high definition files. The key point being that high definition files (HD) are large. Depending on size and how they were ripped and encoded, they can be massive, other times they can be not so massive. But usually they will be pretty huge, especially in relation to SD (Standard Definition). Now I'm gonna lay out the basics in resolutions for you.
624x352 = Standard Definition, (File formats: .avi, .mp4, .mkv, etc) - [Example] These files are actually compressed HD files most of the time. Sometimes they are straight up SD from the source, which is even lower quality than a compressed HD file. The quality of these files are severely reduced in relation to the HD files. The image size can vary depending on how it is compressed, but for tv this is the most common size. Nothing to fret much since these aren't the files I'd recommend capping from.
1280x720 = High Definition , (File formats: .mkv) - [Example] These are the most common HD files out and you can find most popular shows and freshman shows in HD, or anything on a major network or a cable network. (Note: Any caps made at "1248x704" are not HD. Simple math will point out that 1248x704 divided by 2 is 624x352-the SD resolution, only doubled. Doing so does not give you HD caps. You will get blurry caps at a high resolution, yes, but worse quality. 720p files will always be 720 pixels. If you doubt that a cap is 720p cap is not truly 720p, then you are likely correct to assume it's not true HD, and rather more upscaled images. Which is annoying, frankly. And pointless.)
1920x1080 = High Definition, (File formats: .ts, .mkv) - [Example] Unlike SD files being scaled down from 720p files, 720p are not scaled down from 1080p. These are from a separate source. This is the best quality and can be found for the most popular types of shows like Lost, Heroes and Smallville as well as most popular movies.
* You will need a fairly fast computer to play and screencap 720p, and especially 1080p/i files. At least 2.4Ghz or higher processor and 2GB RAM. I can't fairly assess what a minimum requirement would be but this is what I have and it works splendidly.
High Definition File Size Breakdown In Comparison to Standard Definition
Just a reference point so you know you're getting the right file and what to look for. Sizes for the half hour shows (that range from 20-30 minutes) will vary slightly.
720p
| SD | HD |
|---|---|
| 175MB | 558MB |
| 233MB | 745MB |
| 350MB | 1.09GB |
| 550MB | 1.49GB |
| 700MB | 2.19GB |
Movies can generally be anywhere from 4.67GB to upwards of 24GB depending on how long the movie itself is, whether it is a 720p or a 1080p/i, how the video and audio was encoded and how fast the bitrate is, among other things. Any 1080i file of tv is varied from 2 to 5GBm depending, again, on the length and how it was processed. Now that you know the basics of HD files, let's get on with how to cap them.
HOW TO CAP IN VLC
Autocapping and manual
VLC is the only freeware on Macs that I like, or have found, to be a comprehensive and powerful media player that you can not only view a myriad of files formats with but it's also the perfect (in my eyes) screencapping program. I've never found a file it couldn't play. And as long as you have a fairly fast computer, things should run pretty smoothly from here on out. If you're not sure about how fast your computer is, click on the apple in the menu bar and hit 'About this Mac' and if you'd like to know more specifications, hit 'More Info'.
Autocapping
This is a feature I only generally use with DVDs or I'm really lazy (in which I will still set the capture function ridiculously high so that it grabs enough frames). Because VLC only lets you manually cap files at source size, but you can upscale resolution if you wish for them to be larger, or leave them be. I upscale them to my screen size (1440x900) although the caps themselves will need to be measured, or the aspect ratio will go wonky. Also, you will need a version BEFORE 1.0.0 release. The new version seems to have messed up the settings or names for what is needed to cap and I tried figuring it out with no luck. I'm running on 9.8.
DVD Source Sizes
The fixed source size for PAL is 720x576 for NTSC: 720x480 or 853x480 (older things in full screen can be 640x480). Widescreen is the norm these days but you will come across full screen on some shows, like Dark Angel, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (although as of S5 it is in widescreen, though I've never come across any HD files of this, sadly), and The Wire to name a few of the top of my head.
Open VLC, it should look like this:
Now hit ⌘+, which will open Preferences (I like shortcuts). You may still go to VLC>Preferences if you wish. And it will look like this:
Then hit 'Advanced':
Now go to the Video tab>Output Modules:
And choose from 'Default', which is what it needs to be for manual capping to 'Image Video Output':
Then go to Image File:
Choose PNG as the file format to save in (we'll convert them to jpg later--capping straight into jpg loses quality). Set the size you'd like the caps to have. If it's a DVD and you're trying to upscale it, play a video and put it on full screen and take a manual cap.
if you're not sure what hotkey it is, go to Interface>Hotkey Settings and scroll until you see 'Take a video snapshot'. Mine is 's.' but you can make yours whatever.
And if can't find that cap you took, go back to Video and see the destination folder (any manual caps, you can choose a destination, but autocaps will always save straight to the Macintosh HD folder).
Now this image is a reference point to how big you want it. Open the cap in Preview or Photoshop, whichever image editing software you have and set the image size to whatever you'd like. Make sure the aspect ratio is set on, so when you input this upscaled ratio into VLC, the caps come out correctly.
Now go back to Output Modules>Image file and insert the new size of the caps. Set it to png and have the recording ratio be whatever you like. It depends on how action oriented a show or movie is but the more caps I want, I lower the number. For me, if I want a cap for about every half a second (hey, some good moments can last a split second, I don't wanna miss 'em!) I would set it at 10, every second about 15, if I want it every other second 18 and then if I want it every few seconds, I'd set it between 18-23. But the norm for me can be around 19 for standard slow stuff, action-y, I can get it down to 10. You play around with it and see what you like. And you may put whatever filename you prefer. i like to put the show or movie title a dash and then my username so each file is shown as made by me.
Now to figure out what title you need to cap, drag the DVD disc that is on the desktop to VLC's yellow block. Now when you've got the DVD menu up, hit play on whatever you want to cap and go to Playback>Title and see what title it is at. You need to know this so it caps what you want.
When you know what title it is, make sure to check No DVD Menus and set the title to whichever it is you want and whatever chapter you want (I'm assuming starting at Chapter 1--the beginning of anything).
Once you hit start, lower the volume and let it do it's thing. These files will save to the Macintosh HD folder. Remember to change the output back to Default if you're going to be manually capping!
Manual Capping
Set the filename and directory where you want the caps to save. Set the files to save as png.
Drag the file to VLC (or open File>Open File>Browse) and start capping using your set hotkey. The images will save the directory of your choosing.
BATCH CONVERSION AND RENAMING
Now there are two different programs you can use to batch convert. I personally bought a license for EasyBatch because it's a bit more straightforward and you can convert to .jpg and rename at the same time (or do one of the other, as well as resize, add a watermark, etc) but for those with the need for freeware, Macs come with Automator.
Batch Conversion
You will choose these four selections from the list.
Find Finder Items
Get Selected Items
Copy Finder Items
Change Types of Images
Now choose the current destination of the .png caps you want to convert jpg, set the settings like in the image 'Whose extension is equal to png' in the 'Find Finder Items' section, then the 'Get Selected Items' will get them. 'Copy Finder Items' is there to make sure if something goes wrong, the original files are still there. 'Change Types of Images' is the conversion part. Choose the destination to save them to as well as changing the file format to .jpg.
Hit 'Run' at the top and the workflow will start, and you will have your converted files in the destination you chose. If all went well, you can delete the original png files.
Batch Renaming
If you accidentally forget to change a filename setting in VLC or if you want to just change the file names, add in your username, whatever.
Open NameMangler and drag the files you want to change the name of, how many digits you want (my standard is 4 because this has precedent when adding them in a Coppermine gallery). This is also handy if you cap a file and VLC crashes or you need to finish it later and VLC starts caps back at 1 again, you can start a number to continue sequentially. Like if the last one ended at 1147, you could start the next one at 1148. Very handy, eh? Keep the step value at 1, that keeps the files one digit after another (if you did 2 it would go 1, 3, 5---which is...useless to me). Hit the checkmark and the files will rename!
Batch Conversion and Rename Using EasyBatch
If you don't mind buying the license, I highly recommend this program because it cuts out the use of two programs and puts it in one if you need
You can just choose the images from the directory, set however you want to resize, rename and convert to and the directory to save them to. I always check 'Move original files to Trash' so when the conversion and/or renaming is done, the originals go to the trash. Hit Start and the process will run and your files are changed however you set the program up to change. So now that your files are successfully capped, converted and renamed, it's ready to sort through them.
SORTING YOUR CAPS
I'm a big stickler for sorting caps. Doesn't matter if things are autocapped or manually capped, I always, always, always sort through them and weed out the bad ones. I feel it isn't far to make an excess of caps and dump half the work on the people that want to use them and make them sort through ~4000+ caps~. Whenever I see someone showing off how many they made, and they make a superfluous amount I think it's rude. As an example, I get a little trigger happy with my hotkey on some shows, like Fringe (so much pretty) and White Collar (faaaaaaces!). Most times I end up with around 3000-4000 caps. But I always sort through them, and then it's scaled down to about 1,200 to 1,700. All the scenes are there but the excessive amount has been eliminated.
Using ViewIt
ViewIt is an optional shareware program but you don't need to buy a license. It will have a 30 second delay but I always just hit Later aka Never.
Hit File>Add and open the folder of images you need to sort. Make sure they're in sequential order by going to Images>Sort by>Name. Now just go through them with the arrow and delete key. Arrow over the ones you want to keep and delete the ones you want to get rid of. I sort out images that are near duplicates, anything blurry and other things I accidentally capped I didn't need. It's all up to you what to keep or get rid of.
When you're doing going through the files, go to Tools>Choose Folder to choose the destination you want to save this new set of sorted images to.
Now hit Tools>Finder Previews and Create. The newly set of sorted images will save to the directory you chose. When finished, you may delete the original unsorted folder.
Whew. Now we're about done.
UPLOADING CAPS TO A SERVER AND COPPERMINE
This isn't exclusively Mac related and
telltale covers it well here way better than I could.UPLOADING ZIP FILES
It's all personal preference, I suppose as to where you upload and why but these are the two sites I like. You can upload zips to your host at your website if you get one, but we've had problems and had to move to many times over this so we don't upload zips to the server anymore, so we just use free uploading sites. To make a zip, you will click on an folder in finder and hit Compress or it might be 'Make Alias' if it's an older Mac.
Megaupload
I love MU because it is the most popular, common uploading site. I upload single zips of things over 100MB here, mostly.
Mediafire
I love Mediafire because while it only goes up to 100MB per file for free users, you can have unlimited parallel downloads and the speeds are good. So if you'd like to split them into separate folders of 200MB or less if the folder is more than 200MB so they can be zipped and uploaded onto Mediafire, then that's just the same. Personal preference and all that.
And now you've got your caps made and sorted and uploaded so you can share with the masses!
Please do let me know if you find anything confusing, or if you have more questions or problems and hopefully I can answer them!
