grabbing stills

[Nosey249]

what is the best way to get stills off of a dv video, I have tried different ways and software and feel that I should be able to get a decent still off the video..

I have tried the following

raw dv
mpeg2
from dvd burnt

I have also grabbed a still with the video paused and not paused

I have been using dvd software to play back..

the quailty just doesn't seem to be there, the video looks great on tv when I burn it to dvd but the stills do not look anywhere close to the video, some came out pixlated, some fuzzy, etc..

any ideas out there.

[BJ_M]

well -- dv is only 240x720 resolution in a still really if you use one field ..

load the dv in virtualdub and save image ...

[racer-x]

Use your video editor to export frame as BMP. As BJ_M stated, if your DV is interlaced, your image won't be whole. You may have to use a de-interlace filter in your image editor to clean it up.

If your camcorder shoots in Frame Mode like mine, then you can get very good quality stills out of it. I usually extract the 720 x 480 frame, resize it to 720 x 540 to get it back to a 4:3 aspect ratio, then I use it in other projects like DVD covers and DVD background menus.

[Nosey249]

I have a sony 260 and it has a button right next to the zoom that is for photo's, you hit it and it takes a 7 second stills, I would assume that the quality would be the same if I had the camera do it or if I did it off the video...

guess I just have to do more playing

[flaninacupboard]

no, a still capture mode on a DV cam will be better than the video it records. it's simple numbers, the video is 720x480, that's equivalent to a 0.3 megapixel camera
The CCD is probably more like 1megapixel so a still would be better. more expensive cameras have bigger CCDs, but really a dedicated digital still camera is better.