View Full Version : HELP: Capturing Hi-Res stills from 1920x1080 video


Brent Marks
October 13th, 2007, 11:43 PM
HELP: Capturing Hi-Res stills from 1920x1080 video


What is the best way to watch a video and capture HI-RES (1920x1080) sharp, vibrant stills as I watch the video??


VLC seems to be a decent option...but the quality of the stills/jpgs does not seem to be very high.


Any suggestions?

Brian Boyko
October 14th, 2007, 12:11 AM
HELP: Capturing Hi-Res stills from 1920x1080 video


What is the best way to watch a video and capture HI-RES (1920x1080) sharp, vibrant stills as I watch the video??


VLC seems to be a decent option...but the quality of the stills/jpgs does not seem to be very high.


Any suggestions?

Hmm... I've never done this, but I've always wondered how blurry frames end up producing such a sharp motion picture...

Dan Keaton
October 14th, 2007, 06:43 AM
Dear Brent,

What camera did you use to record the video?

If it was a Canon HD camera, HV10, HV20, XH A1, XH G1, XL H1, then you could put the tape into another camera with still capture capability, play the tape and press the Photo button at the frame you want.

I know the XH A1/G1 and XL H1 can do this very well. I have not researched as to whether the HV10/20 have this photo capture feature or not.

Tim Polster
October 14th, 2007, 07:16 AM
I would say shoot progressive, input into a NLE, then watch and grab frames.

I always think it is going to be quicker than it ends up being because stills are very unforgiving when it come to facial expressions ect...

You often need to go frame by frame to get what you want.

Damon Gaskin
October 14th, 2007, 09:34 AM
Hi Guys. I agree with Ken. It basically doesn't seem to be only the Canon cams that you can extract your stills from easily. I have a FX7 which holds memory stick media. If I wish to capture images from video on the camera, I simply play back my tape and hit the photo button while playing back. This camera also takes pretty good little photos to boot! Here is one that I did with the method I am saying... This was taken straight from the camera on some video that I had taken. No manipulation at all. It took maybe two minutes to load up the tape, and watch until I saw something that looked interesting and voila! I am not sure if you need it to be sharper than this, but it is an option if your camera does take memory stick(I know the FX7 does) or some other flash type of media..

Damon

Graham Hickling
October 14th, 2007, 11:44 PM
Brent - I read you post as asking for a way to do multiple framegrabs while the video keeps on playing. If so, I dont have an answer sorry.

However if you are willing to pause the video at each grab, then the framegrabbing option in Virtualdub (or Virtualdubmod if its mpeg rather than avi) would be a contender.

Jack Zhang
October 27th, 2007, 11:10 AM
The Virtualdub method might work with Avisynth.