Ask Alvey, or anyone, DV still capture?

[dubaidave]

Hi guys,

I am strugling to get good quality stills from DV tape. My camera can take stills from tape but the quality is not very good. Is there anyway I can get Hires pics from Dv once I have firewired it into my computer?

I have tried several vid edit programs but they only capture a small image.

any ideas?

[WillMontu]

Windows Movie Maker has a simple still frame image capture. The main problem is that video cameras are not designed to capture still frames,

Sample

[robbalvey]

I don't think you'll ever be able to get a DV capture that is higher than 720x480. Does anyone know a way to get higher resolution grabs? I didn't think it was possible to get higher than 720x480.

 

--Robb

[Meteornotes]

Well, poking around a bit I found this:

 

http://www.salientstills.com/product/product_intro.html

 

I have no idea how well it works, or how much it costs, but I'm sure it's very expensive. Getting a higher resolution image from a video grab is going to be a very complex process, and is not something that consumer-level or almost any lower level pro gear or software is going to accomplish. If you want stills, you're better off carrying a small digital camera with you, as the imagaes from even a cheap one are going to be of higher quality.

 

dt

[dubaidave]

Thanks guys.

If my next vid cam has, say a 3 mege pixel still feature, will that improve the grabs directly off tape?

[Jew]

^Probably (since I'm guessing the CCD's will be a bit better), but for best results you'll have to use save to whatever memory card format your camera uses. That's the only way to get higher than 720x480 from still images.

[darklingscribe]

Thanks guys.

If my next vid cam has, say a 3 mege pixel still feature, will that improve the grabs directly off tape?

 

Most Camcorders now that do have a still shot feature don't record the still shot to the DV tape. Instead they require a seperate memory card. So unless you do take 3 mega pixel still shots using the still camera function your grabs off of moving video you took won't really improve.