How can I capture a video image from my digital camera?

[yankfan]

I probably didn't phrase that right, but the question pertains to

being able to capture one or two frames from the mpg file I took with

my digital camera. Am I clear on this? Here's the deal:

I have an HP Photosmart 850, and used the video clip setting to

capture some action at a ball game. I want to be able to get one good

frame out of a sequence. Any help?

Thanks in advance

[beauh44]

Hi John, I'm afraid I don't have a direct answer to your question, although I think it can be done. I just wanted to point out that most digital cameras that support mpeg movie mode do so in extremely low resolution. So even if you can isolate a frame or two, your chances of getting a decent print I would think are unfortunately pretty small. Best wishes . . .

[steven_clark]

You'll be lucky to get a halfway decent 4x6 without pixelation or it looking like an impressionaist painting.

[paul -]

With the 850's video resolution (320x240), you could get a nice 1" print! ;-P<p>(Sorry, no help, I know...)

[link]

John,

 

If you can transfer the video file to your computer as .mpg file then you can try to

open it in quicktime (download from apple if you don't have it).

 

I'm not sure you will be able to open this file, but if you can, find the frame you like,

leave the quicktime player paused on that frame and select "copy" to copy it to the

clipboard. Then open photoshop and paste into your new photoshop file.

 

Try the software that camer with your camera to capture the video to your computer if

all else fails. Good luck.

[edward_h]

If you were using Linux you could extract pics out of the movie with very little trouble and at no cost at all, software wise.

 

Unfortunately, I'm guessing you're stuck on Windows where every single piece of software costs a fortune, so you're out of luck there.

[Karim Ghantous]

Linux is cool but there is a good amount of free software on Windows, too, which is quite powerful. You can do an inelegant solution which in the end will yield a result that is no worse than the more refined methods mentioned above: play your clip in, say, IrfanView or VirtualDub, both 100% free tools, pause it where you want, press the Print Screen button, and in say IrfanView just paste the image in (e.g. Ctrl-v), crop it and bang, there you go.

 

While I'm at it, here's cheers for free software, which hopefully will be the only way to fly (for consumers anyway).

[yankfan]

Thanks to all who answered. My digital darkroom has a movie maker installed, and you're right.......the image is pretty pixelated....

oh well, nothin' lost but my time.