Freeze Frame - Hard work - I must be missing something

[spurrymoses]

I must be something about this Freeze Frame dialog. It seems so difficult and awkward that it would take less time to use another program (say Virtual Dub) capture one frame, take a screenshot and insert it into the project as a JPG...?

So my question is, is it really as difficult and awkward as I think it is or am I missing something? Does anyone have another way or trick to doing this?

I have a small 30 second clip, which is cut from a larger one (15min in total, about 3GB file). After separating the Audio and invoking the Freeze Frame dialog, I am ready to go.

From here, I am presented with a tiny video window which starts, not at the beginning of my selected clip but it includes the entire video file from which the clip was taken. Too navigate to the desired spot then I have to navigate through 15 minutes of video to find the clip - with only back and forward frame buttons - with a slider that skips about 20 seconds of video each increment.
Suggestion 1: make the video window in the Freeze Frame dialog start at the beginning of the selected 'clip'. The source window does it - it's logical, it doesn't make sense to have anything else. After all, you've just specially de-linked the audio for 'this' clip to get here.

I did figure out later that I can open the Source window and then drag my clip into there. I can then navigate to the desired frame which will tell me the timecode. I have to remember to do this before opening the freeze frame dialog. A suggestion for the help files would be add this - and/or allow the user to search for the frame they want while the freeze frame dialog is open. It's currently non-modal so you can't.

Now I'm really interested how other video packages do this...
From a user perspective, the interface in any video software package, should allow me to select a frame and say "Freeze on current frame". That would be the useable way wouldn't it? And then the dialog comes up knowing what frame you want to freeze on and can deal with before and after details.

[Devil]

There are other ways to skin the cat. For example, you can scrub in preview to find the frame you want, open the Preview Window Menu and choose Save Image To>. If you had scissored at the place, you could then ripple or superimpose the image into place. Maybe you would find this method more convenient.

What I find inconvenient about Freeze frame is that, if you do it in the middle of a clip, it superimposes the frozen frame over the before or after video, rather than ripple it along, so, if you are taking a shot of the hurdler and you want to freeze him for a second or two at full stretch and then continue the movement, you have to scissor the clip, anyway.

[spurrymoses]

Thanks Devil (and for putting up with my complaining again). That's a nice suggestion - I like it.

you can scrub in preview to find the frame you want, open the Preview Window Menu and choose Save Image To>. If you had scissored at the place, you could then ripple or superimpose the image into place. Maybe you would find this method more convenient.