Transfer still pics from a DV tape to PC

[kobus]

hi

apologies if this has been covered. I have borrowed a friend's Sony DCR HC21E mini Dv camcorder. I am trying, without success to transfer stills, captured onto the DV tape to my PC> I tried the help file/manual, but it only points me in the direction of transferring VIDEO to the PC, not what I have in mind. I do not want to capture the whole video, and then manually capture the still images, there must be another faster method?

I know (think) you have software that can search for, and "capture" these stills from the video tape. Unfortunately after some search, I havnt managed to find them.

Help urgently requested and much appreciated. (I do have extensive experience in capturing mini Dv and Digital 8 video to PC through Firewire)

regards

Kobus[/b]

[guns1inger]

Stills stored on tape are really just short video segments. You will probably have to transfer them as video, then take still screen captures. Stills stored to memory cards can have greater resolution and therefore quality than still stored to tape, which are restricted to standard video resolution.

[daamon]

guns1inger is right - I have a Sony miniDV that takes stills, and they're stored as the same frame (the "still") over a sis second period.

To get them to the PC, you have to treat them as video as, in effect, that's what they are - it's just that the same frame is repeated.

You can use WinDV to do this. You can then use VirtualDub on the resultant DV AVI to get a screen shot.

Problems:

1) I would imagine that the "still" would be an interlaced image - you'll need some photo editing software to work on the screen shot from VirtualDub to address the interlaced image.

2) The resolution is not going to be any bigger than 720 x 480 / 576 (NTSC / PAL).

You're better of buying a dedicated stills digital camera, or using a miniDV cam that takes stills to a card, not tape.

[kobus]

thnx guys, was hoping for a miracle piece of software I guess.

cheers

[thecoalman]

I can grab a single frame using the capture software from Ulead's MSP. I'd be suprised if there isn't something similar offered by the other capturing softwares.....

If your capture software uses a full size preview window you can use one of these techniques so you don't have to transfer the entire video: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=239865