Best way to extract single frames from an MPG movie file
Prof Wonmug
Last weekend, we had a birthday party for my grandson. There was a lot
of fairly fast action, which I tried to capture. Most of the photos
were blurry, but the movies were pretty good.
Each movie shot produced two files, a large MPG file and a small THM
file.
Is there a good way to extract a single frame from the movie and make
it into a still photo? I would appreciate any tutoring on how to do
this.
Thanks
tmo...@wildblue.net
Any video editing program will let you grab a frame. I use Corel Video
Studio, Adobe Premier Elements also will work. Not sure what is out on
the free world.
bugbear
Any video player with freeze frame + screen shot software would work!
BugBear
David J Taylor
Not if the video player talks directly to the video card.
The OP should also be aware that indivdual frames are likely to appear
much noiseier (grainier) than the video, and will have limited resolution,
of course.
I would use IrfanView or Virtual Dub, if no other software was available.
David
Prof Wonmug
The video looks good because my eye does some integration from frame
to frame?
It seems like the camera ought to be able to do a better job of the
stills, though. The movies came out quite good, but the stills were a
blurry smudge. Maybe I just don't know how to work it.
David J Taylor
[]
> The video looks good because my eye does some integration from frame
> to frame?
In essence, yes. Try looking at a still frame from a 35mm movie (and note
the low light levels where 35mm movies are typically viewed).
> It seems like the camera ought to be able to do a better job of the
> stills, though. The movies came out quite good, but the stills were a
> blurry smudge. Maybe I just don't know how to work it.
A single frame from a movie will, at best, be limited to the movie
resolution - perhaps 640 x 480 pixels. The still image may be 3000 x 2250
pixels or more. If the movie has been compressed, each frame will be
worse than a typical JPEG still.
Cheers,
David
james
> It seems like the camera ought to be able to do a better job of the
> stills, though. The movies came out quite good, but the stills were a
> blurry smudge. Maybe I just don't know how to work it.
Next time as soon as you see one blurry photo, set the ISO higher or turn on
the flash to prevent the other photos from becoming blurry. While many
cameras can detect hand tremor, not many cameras can detect motion blur and
correct for it.
Grimly Curmudgeon
drugs began to take hold. I remember Prof Wonmug <won...@e.mcc> saying
something like:
>Last weekend, we had a birthday party for my grandson. There was a lot
>of fairly fast action, which I tried to capture. Most of the photos
>were blurry, but the movies were pretty good.
You could use Virtual Dub [1], or Alshow. Both free, but VD takes a lot
of messing around with to get familiar. Alshow is actually a player, but
its frame capture is pretty good.
[1] I'm fairly sure VD does frame capture.
JoelH
I don't think you'll be happy with a picture extracted from a movie.
Even HD movies have lower resolution than the most basic P&S cameras.
Still, if you want to do it, this looks pretty helpful:
http://www.jakeludington.com/dv_hacks/20060128_extracting_and_printing_video_stills.html