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April 6, 2008

Free today: Software that makes hi-rez stills from video and DVDs

Topaz Moment: "Easily grab high-resolution still images from video and DVD." Free today.

Giveaway of the Day gives away licensed commercial programs, one every 24 hours, to all comers. The catch is that you must download and install the program within that period, and they don't come with tech support or upgrades. (Every downloader uses the same license.) Some are screensavers, but today's is unique.

It's called Topaz Moment:

Capture high-resolution still images from videos and DVDs with this quick, easy, and powerful video stills solution. Topaz Moment is specifically designed to easily and efficiently capture video frames, significantly increase their quality and resolution, and turn unclean video frames into quality mega-pixel prints in seconds. Topaz Moment is the only software of its kind to use advanced super-resolution video enhancement technology to make sure your frame grabs are the best they can possibly be.

A loyal corps of users download these, test them, and race back to vote programs up or down and write up their reviews, all within a few hours. Topaz Moment has a remarkable 91 percent approval now, more than 6 hours into the release, with some of the negatives from people having installation problems, especially on Windows Vista. This sort of buzz is why a company would participate in Giveaway.

Some informative reactions:

What for:

Superb program. I’ve been loooking for something like this. Many reasons - e.g. I produce online education software, and I want to use a graphic as an icon to launch a video clip - having a still from the video is the best way. Also, for personal stuff - I have videos from holidays, or other visits to foregin destinations, and want to just capture one or two shots. And if you’re (like me, not professional), and want to get a single shot of some action, but you’ll never get the timing right, then take a video clip, and snip out the perfect shot.

Thanks GAOTD!!!

I have to admit I’ve been bluffed. The result is awesome. At first, I tought that the software was only applying a filter to sharpen and denoise the picture captured. Well that’s what it does, but with the help of some previous and next frames, the result is very good.

I made a little test for you on the old movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in its DVD version :
The capture before (Windows captured) :
http://www.kalagan.net/images/sans_Topaz.jpg
The capture after (captured by Topaz Moment) :
http://www.kalagan.net/images/avec_Topaz.jpg

and the How-to:

Highly recommended based on what I have seen so far. About setup and registration: After extracting the download, you will see three Icons. Here is what I did: I read the “Read Me” file, copied the Registration Key and noted the name “Giveawayoftheday” which has to be used; Then I clicked on the “Setup” Icon and installed the program. After registration was complete, the program will tell you it has been successfully registered. I wondered what the third Icon was for, so I went back and clicked on it, and after reading the opening screen, I have the impression this is only needed if the program needs repair or to be uninstalled. If this is incorrect, I hope someone will comment on it.

More on the 5.45mb program at its own page.

This giveaway expires at 3 a.m. Monday.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 9:41 AM | Permalink