Still Captures From Vid's

[maximus01can]

Howdy,

Been looking through the posts and searching, but can only find info on capturing video, not stills. With that said. I have a sony HDR-HC9 camcorder that I've pulled quite a bit of video into VS11+ and wondering if I have the settings correct to get the best still pics off the video. The footage is all captured in HD (1080) so I've thought the captured stills should be quite impressive, but not always. It also seems as though the aspect ratio somehow changes as the captured stills seem stretched vertically somewhat to somehow fit a 4:3 type scenario. The footage is all shot in 16:9 as well so not sure. Any links or settings I should check to ensure I'm getting the best captured stills would be much appreciated. All I do is sift through the footage till I find a frame I like and use the "Capture Still" button. Is it that simple or is there some other tweaks I can do to get the highest quality pics from the vid.

Cheers and thanks in advance,
Max

[DVDDoug]

The footage is all captured in HD (1080) so I've thought the captured stills should be quite impressive, but not always.

This is just a guess, but if it's 1080i (interlaced) that might be part of the problem. It might not always be capturing the "matching" upper & lower fields.

It also seems as though the aspect ratio somehow changes as the captured stills seem stretched vertically somewhat to somehow fit a 4:3 type scenario. The footage is all shot in 16:9 as well so not sure.

I don't know how Video Studio handles this... You might have to fix it with your photo editor... Still image formats always (or almost always) use square pixels. So for still images, the pixel ratio is the same as the aspect ratio. This is not always true of video. For example, standard DVDs (both widescreeen and full-screen) also use rectangular pixels.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Max

If you capture the still image (save as still image) or via ¡¥ clip menu¡¦
Then you will capture an image the same size of the video frame.

Not all video frames are actually 4:3 or 16:9, most use Non Square Pixel rendering to achieve these.
As still images do not use non square pixel rendering the image may look distorted

If you switch to Project playback and Tools¡XSave current frame as image¡Xwill save an image as you see in the preview window.

Make sure your project properties reflect the video properties, especially the frame size.

[maximus01can]

Thanks All,

I'll try what you've mentioned. It does capture pretty good stills from the vids, but always trying to make it a little better. I'll keep you updated.

Cheers,
Max

[maximus01can]

I brought the video clip from a DVD VOB file created previously since I didn't have the origional captured mpeg2 file only the DVD files I created. I just changed the extension on the VOB file to .mpg since VS won't bring in a VOB file directly and then proceeded to capture stills from the video. The results were pretty good but (size or resolution??) topped out at 720 x 480 which makes sense since that's the best a DVD can do without being Blue Ray I believe. So when opening it in windows pic and fax viewer the pic displayed is much smaller dimensionally than if I am able to capture the still directly from the source captured mpeg2 video stream. Trevor, would this be where doing the procedure you explained below would give a little larger overall pic with basically the same quality?

If you switch to Project playback and Tools¡XSave current frame as image¡Xwill save an image as you see in the preview window.
Make sure your project properties reflect the video properties, especially the frame size.

Thanks much

Cheers,
Max

[mitchell65]

since VS won't bring in a VOB file directly

Oh but VS does import VOB files directly. Go to "File" "Insert media File to timeline/library" then choose "Insert Digital media". In the Select a title window click "Import from folder" Navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder that contains your VOB file. Click OK then click on the Title in the Import window and click import.
BTW When you create an SD DVD from whatever source files the frame size will be the standard DVD for the area in which you created the DVD either PAL (720 x 576px) or NTSC (720 x 480px) So obviously a still image taken for a VOB file will be as those dimensions. It will look small on your monitor. The higher the monitors resolution, the smaller the image will look.

[maximus01can]

Kewl, learn something new everyday

Thx M65

Cheers,
Max

[maximus01can]

Oh, one more thing while on the topic. When I've done a project and save the output files as DVD with a resoloution of 720 x 480 and I don't believe that's HD. In the spec's it says the camcorder does full HD at

Video Resolution : Full HD 1440x1080
Still Actual : 3040K Pixels (4:3), 2280K Pixels (16:9)
Still Picture Resolution : 6.1 megapixel

Can I ouput files that give a higher resoloution given this source? Then if I need to recapture stills in the future from that vid, they will be of better quality than what I'm outputting at now even though I don't have a player to run them on. Will VS 11+ give a higher resolution output files or is there a better way to go about outputting files to keep the best quality just in case the origional capture is lost.


Thanks and Cheers,
Max

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Max

First of all is your video widescreen at 16:9 or standard video at 4:3?
Each of these aspects use 720 x 480px.
The pixels are rectangular, stretched to fit the frame aspect.

HD uses 16:9 aspect ratio.

If you use Clip-Save as Still Image you will save the frame from the video file at 720 x 480 for ntsc.
Please note this is not 4:3, use a calculator to check the aspect ratio

If you use Tools ¡VSave Current Frame as Image, you will use the project size 4:3 or 16:9 and the project frame size for standard definition.

OK
Edit the project properties using Mpeg 2 compression will allow you to increase the project frame size using 1980 x 1280 which is hd standard

Now capture the image again from Tools and Clip
Compare both images and there sizes.

[Trevor Andrew]

hi

Strange i am sure your post changed, i must be seeing things.

If you are using HD, edit your project properties to match the video files sizes

[mitchell65]

Oh, one more thing while on the topic. When I've done a project and save the output files as DVD with a resoloution of 720 x 480 and I don't believe that's HD. In the spec's it says the camcorder does full HD at

Video Resolution : Full HD 1440x1080
Still Actual : 3040K Pixels (4:3), 2280K Pixels (16:9)
Still Picture Resolution : 6.1 megapixel

Can I ouput files that give a higher resoloution given this source? Then if I need to recapture stills in the future from that vid, they will be of better quality than what I'm outputting at now even though I don't have a player to run them on. Will VS 11+ give a higher resolution output files or is there a better way to go about outputting files to keep the best quality just in case the origional capture is lost.

Back up all original clips to a different media (Ext. Hard Drive or CD)

Can I ouput files that give a higher resoloution given this source?

Yes. Go to Share > Create Disc > Choose Blu-Ray . then uncheck create disk and check "Create Folders" Set a destination. Click "Burn" this will produce a BMDV folder. Open that folder and then open the "Stream" sub foder and there will be your M2TS file at your High Defeinition.

[maximus01can]

Hey M65,

I looked at the path you indicated below, but when I go to that path I don't have the "insert Digital Media" option.......only "Insert Video" and when I expand the filetypes there's no .VOB extension.....Something wrong with my install?

Oh but VS does import VOB files directly. Go to "File" "Insert media File to timeline/library" then choose "Insert Digital media". In the Select a title window click "Import from folder" Navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder that contains your VOB file. Click OK then click on the Title in the Import window and click import.

Cheers,
Max

[mitchell65]

Hi Max
I dont think you have a bad install! Remember we are looking to select a folder named VIDEO_TS not a file! Below is a sequence of screenshots that may help you.





In this part you can select the whole title (all the clip) or indivdual chapters that VS has split your clip into. Easier to start with select the Title

It will take a little while to import (depending on the length of the clip of course.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Max

Can you confirm what type of dvd you have.

Place the disc in the drive and explore its content
Do you see a VIDEO_TS folder (standard definition)
Or do you see a BDMV folder? (HD)

[mitchell65]

Hi Trevor
As Max had said earlier

I just changed the extension on the VOB file to .mpg since VS won't bring in a VOB file directly

I assumed it to be an SD VIDEO_TS folder that we were looking for. Whatever the choice to "Insert Digital Media" should be there!
But have just noticed that Max has VS 11+. Is the "Insert Digital Media" option available in that version. I only have VS 12.