Yes. Sonic CinePlayer 2.3.1 provides a button right on the panel for capturing still images to hard disk.

Good question. A DirectShow DVD player uses the Microsoft DirectShow API for playing DVDs. A non-DirectShow DVD player does not use the DirectShow API. The reason you should care is that a non-DirectShow DVD player cannot take advantage of the new features that DirectX 9.0 and Windows XP have to offer. Some of the advantages of a DirectShow supported DVD player are:

• DXVA (DirectX VA) support for hardware video accelerations
• New VMR (Video Mixing Renderer) support in Windows XP
• Advanced DirectSound audio rendering modes
• Multiple instance decoding (decoding more than one set of streams at a time)
• The ability to render practically any media file (MP3, WAV, AVI, MPEG1, etc.)
• Third party DVD player support (i.e. Windows Media Player 8 and higher, and Internet Explorer)
• WHQL certification. Only DirectShow DVD players can receive Microsoft's WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certification.

Sonic CinePlayer 2.3.1 is currently the ONLY retail DVD player that uses DirectShow by default. Other DVD players may offer DirectShow support in their decoders, but do not use DirectShow as the default mode of operation of the DVD player itself.

One of the reasons that other DVD players may not natively support DirectShow is because it is difficult to do well. Sonic's expertise in DirectShow is surpassed by none and as it can be seen, CinePlayer 2.3.1 demonstrates that DirectShow makes for a great DVD player. CinePlayer 2.3.1 is designed to deliver smooth video and unshakable audio under the worst performance conditions.

If you are running on Windows ME, Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you can simply run the Microsoft DVD player that comes with your operating system.  You can go the Start menu and select "Run".  In the run box, type "dvdplay" and select the OK button.  If the Microsoft DVD player runs, your current DVD player provides support for DirectShow. If the MS player does not play, your current DVD player has absolutely no DirectShow support; it is time to upgrade to CinePlayer 2.3.1!

This is a little more difficult to find out, but it can be done if you are technically savvy. All DirectShow DVD players need to load and use QDVD.DLL and QUARTZ.DLL in order to operate. There are many Task Info applications available via shareware web sites that can report what modules are loaded and being used by any application (i.e. "taskInfo2000"). Just use one of these task info applications to see if both QUARTZ.DLL and QDVD.DLL are being loaded by your applications process.

DXVA (DirectX VA) is the new Microsoft standard API for accelerating video rendering under DirectShow. Some display adapters provide hardware that can accelerate MPEG2 video playback either through Motion Compensation or through advanced iDCT (inverse discrete cosine transforms) for better video playback performance. Prior to DXVA, each display adapter company had their own unique and proprietary interface for accessing these hardware capabilities to the decoder.

DXVA now eliminates the need for these proprietary interfaces. DXVA is the new API that connects the video decoder to the display driver and is only available under DirectShow. DVD players and video decoders that do not use DirectShow by default cannot take advantage of DXVA. DXVA debuted with DirectX version 8.0 and is required by WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) on Windows XP. The CinePlayer DS video decoder is completely 100% DXVA compliant and is certified by Microsoft's WHQL.

Check with your display card manufacturer to find out for sure but if your display adapter has one of the following graphics chips, you can use DXVA with updated display drivers:

• Nvidia DXVA capable hardware - All GeForce, GeForce 2, GeForce2GO, and GeForce3 level graphics chips support DXVA with HWMC (Hardware Motion Compensation) for video acceleration and hardware DVD sub-picture blending.
• ATI DXVA capable hardware - All Rage 128, Rage Mobility, Mobility 128, Radeon and Mobile Radeon level graphics chips support DXVA with IDCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transformation) for video acceleration and hardware DVD sub-picture blending.
• Intel DXVA capable hardware - All i810 and i815 level graphics chips support DXVA with HWMC for video acceleration and hardware DVD sub-picture blending.
• PowerVR DXVA capable hardware - KyroII level graphics chips support DXVA with HWMC but have no support for hardware DVD sub-picture blending.
• Other DXVA capable hardware - DXVA is also supported with certain chips from Trident and SIS. Check with your display card manufacturer to find out for sure if your specific hardware supports DXVA with updated drivers

CinePlayer 2.3.1 will automatically detect and use DXVA.  For convenience purposes, DXVA support can be disabled in Cineplayer on the Settings menu; video tab by checking the "Force Software Decoding Only". This will make Cineplayer use its internal software decoding engine without hardware acceleration support.

Cineplayer reports if DXVA is being used in the Settings->Information tab.

The VMR (Video Mixing Renderer) is a new DirectShow component that debuts in Windows XP and will be included in future operating systems from Microsoft.  The VMR now replaces the old "Overlay Mixer" as the new default video-rendering filter for DirectShow. Due to operating system specific dependencies, the VMR is not currently available for any previous operating systems. It is only available with Windows XP operating system.

The "Overlay Mixer" filter has traditionally been limited in the way it can display video, namely it is dependant on a physical hardware overlay in you display adapter. In fact, The Overlay Mixer filter can only render to a hardware overlay. The problem is that most display adapters only have one overlay device, and if that overlay is currently in use or unavailable, the Overlay Mixer will fail to operate.

The VMR eliminates this singular hardware dependency by allowing video to be rendered through your display adapter's 3D engine via Direct3D. The video is basically decoded into a streaming texture that your display adapter then presents in the form of a series of triangles that can be rendered anywhere in video memory. The VMR provides much needed flexibility for video rending in the PC. This ability of using the display adapter's 3D engine allows for new effects for alpha blending video streams together, or allowing the video to be alpha blended with still images and/or text. For DVD, the VMR under Windows XP provides a new alpha blending for Closed Caption text on the video window.