How to make a still from a DV-file?

[HitTheRoad]

I know how to make screenshots. But, would it be possible to make stills from a DV-file that are of a better quality than screenshots? And if yes, how?

DV-files are interlaced. So I suppose one frame must be assembled from two successive frames.

[JVRaines]

One frame comprises two fields. The very highest quality will come from using an intensive deinterlacer like Avisynth's QTGMC, then grabbing your stills in an app that has snapshot capability, such as VLC or VirtualDub.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub:

Video -> Filters -> Add -> Deinterlace, Interpolate using Yadif, Double frame rate, bottom field first
Video -> Copy output frame to clipboard

Paste from clipboard in an image editor. This is won't be as good as QTGMC() but it's much easier if you aren't experienced with AviSynth.

[HitTheRoad]

@JVRaines, Now that you mention VLC, having snapshot capability... VLC deinterlaces. Wouldn't VLC be sufficient?

[jagabo]

The biggest drawback to using VLC is it doesn't have the ability to single step backward. So it's more difficult to find a particular frame.

[HitTheRoad]

It's a drawback, but I can live with it.
By the way, with VLC one can choose between jpeg, png and ttif snapshots. TTIF gives the largest files, but as far as I can see it doesn't give a better quality.

[jagabo]

PNG is compressed but losslessly. Uncompressed TIFF can only be bigger, not better quality.