Best 'Still-Frame' Quality - A Method:

When iMovie creates a still-frame, the quality is significantly worse than on the original clip. There is a work-around which only takes a few seconds, although it could become a bit tedious if many such operations were needed.
No claims to originality – I’m sure it’s been done many times before.
Method:
1. Drag the clip which has the desired frame to the Desktop.
2. Open it in QT Pro.
3. Scrub to the desired frame, and hit Edit>Trim to Selection.
4. Copy and Paste multiple times to achieve a suitable duration.
5. Save.
6. Drag and drop the resulting file back into iMovie.
The quality is as good as on the source clip.
This shouldn’t be necessary. Apple should be able to fix this ‘bug’ easily!

Hey, Catspaw!
Thanks for a work-around. Wish I had figured that out a couple of weeks ago when I needed it. I am sure I will be using it in the future. QT Pro really is quite useful, isn't it?
Regards,
Beverly

Similar Messages

Poor quality of still frames

Hello, I have mpeg4 films from which I hope to extract some good quality still photos. Although I am able to create still frames and save them as jpegs the stills are a poorer quality than the film. How can I make the still frame quality as good as the film? Grateful for any help.

Hi Karsten,
Many thanks for your reply. The resolution (dimension?) of one of the mp4 videos is 1280 x 720. I have done several tests and have another at 724 x 576.
You say "screen res is much higher than video res". I'm expecting to get a still photo which is as good in quality as the full screen version - is this not possible? Taking a closer look at the video I now see it's not great quality. With this in mind, if I single out an individual frame - pixelation shows. I suppose when playing the video this pixelation is blurred by movement and the fps. Also I should mention this video has been through a video converter before I could use it in iMovies and the resulting mp4s are nearly the same quality as the original. Thanks for helping a iMovie novice!

Poor quality still frames

Does anyone know why still frames are such poor quality?
I'm constructing a movie using stills, and if a Ken Burns effect is used, the picture changing to the next photo as soon as the effect finishes can be a little jarring on the eye.
To counteract this, I've been adding a still frame of 1-2 seconds either side of the main Ken Burns adjusted photo to act as a 'cushion' (like you can in Photo to Movie). You can see the difference in quaity in iMovie, so it does of course remain when you have exported to Quicktime.
Is there a better method of doing this than still frames? I notice that the overlap transition helps by hanging on to the end of the previous frame, but it's not ideal.
Any suggestions?
Quicksilver G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6) Programmes in regular use are Freehand, Photoshop, Freeway, Keynote, iMovie, iDV

Karl, I swear you live inside everyone's browser, with a manual the like of which the rest of us have never seen!
As usual, among the quickest to answer on these forums, and absolutely correct.
It worked like a dream - another major headache removed. Many thanks indeed.

HT1645 whether i use a DL DVD or just a DVD R, it tells me there was an error during multiplexing. I have tried changing every setting, best performance, professional quality, etc. and still get the same error message every time i try to burn to dvd.

whether i use a DL DVD or just a DVD R, it tells me there was an error during multiplexing. I have tried changing every setting, best performance, professional quality, etc. and still get the same error message every time i try to burn to dvd.

Welcome to the forums.
Looks like that error message does refer to encoding (see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1645) but a problem could be that your video has to be reloaded into iDVD if you started the encoding process and then switched settings. You could start a new iDVD project, or try deleting encoded assets.
Let's start from the beginning -- what length of video are you trying to fit on the DVD? (this will indicate what encoding options you have). Double layer DVDs can be finicky and are used for video more than 2 hrs long.
Use good quality media -- Verbatim is often recommended around here, and I've used Sony DVD-R with good results.
For a detailed treatise, see: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3926901?tstart=0
John

Best Resolution Still Frame Export

Greetings! So far, it seems based on my findings that the still frame export depends entirely on whatever the resolution/frame size of my composition initially is. I had created a motion graphics piece in After Effects with the dimensions of 864 x 480 because it was only ever going to be used for web based viewing and now someone else wants essentially letter sized 300 dpi images for print. From everything I can find, it basically renders all still frames (I tried tif and psd) at 72 dpi at whatever the video's dimensions are meaning I would need to make mine about 500% bigger. I know there are photoshop plug-ins such as Genuine Fractals but I would like to see there is a way to do it straight from AE.

Actually the video and web world doesn't have a dpi or more accurately ppi (pixels per inch because dots refer to line screens in the offset printing industry). There is no size tag in a gif file or in a video file that defines PPI so image editing apps assume 72, which used to be the resolution of the average computer monitor in pixels per inch. After effects does not add a PPI tag to the image headers so image editing apps (Photoshop for example) assume 72 PPI.
Modern displays have a much higher pixel density so the number 72 is basically meaningless. IOW if an image is 720 pxels wide and you're viewing it at 100% it is no longer 10 inches wide on the computer screen, but it will still be 10 inches wide when you send it to a printer. The only time PPI means anything is when you send the image to a device that will print it.
Now that your thoroughly confused let me throw another wrench into the gearbox. Resolution has nothing to do with PPI or DPI. High resolution images have a lot of information (pixels), low resolution images have a low number of pixels. You can set the PPI of a 100 pixel X 100 pixel jpg to 9999PPI, but it will still only contain 1000 pixels. You can set the "resolution" of a 30,000 X 30,000 pixel image to 1PPI and it will still be high resolution because it contains a bunch of pixels. Nine hundred million to be exact.
That said, if you originally have a composition that is small and you need to output something that is bigger then the first thing to do is figure out what is the minimum resolution required to print the image at the quality you desire. If you need a final image that is 11 inches wide to be printed by an offset press then you probably need 11 X 240 or a composition that is 2640 pixels wide. Providing the composition only contains vector objects (shapes, masks, type, or illustrator files) you can resize the composition using the Resize Comp script that comes with AE. You'll find it under File>Scripts>Sample Scripts.
You may also be able to nest your original composition in a larger composition, collapse transformations, then scale it up. If the original composition contains low resolution images or video you will not have as much success scaling things up.
One last thing, lots of folks think that 300 PPI is the minimum for printing. That's not so. The optimum resolution for printing is determined by the type of printer, the viewing distance, the material. Those great big full color banners you see at the mall are probably printed at 50 or 72 or maybe even 90 PPI,
40" posters typically look great at 150 PPI, while glossy waterless offset business cards may require 600ppi for the type to be clean.
I hope this helps.

Still Frames, Losing focus, PNG

I'm put some still frames into my timeline, however, when I playback the stills, it loses focus. When I pause the timeline on the stills, it becomes fine, perfect focus and everything. (These stills are being taken from a seperate digital camera.)
The stills I put in are jpg format...should they be in PNG format? How do I convert it to PNG format? Thanks in advance.
I have:
FInal Cut Pro 3.0
Mac OS X 10.4.10

Shane's Stock Answer #2: Blurry playback
ONLY JUDGE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MATERIAL ON AN EXTERNAL NTSC MONITOR, OR AT LEAST A TV.
1. Disable overlays on the canvas
2. Make sure you've rendered everything (no green bars at the top of the timeline
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24787
Video playback requires large amounts of data and many computations. In order to maintain frame rate and be viewable at a normal size, only about one-fourth of the DV data is used in displaying the movie to the screen. However, the DV footage is still at full quality, and is best viewed thru a TV or NTSC monitor routed thru your camera or deck.
Shane

Importing Still Frame .pict file comes in slightly squished...

...with thin vertical black bars on the sides.
I "save frame" as a pict file, edit the file in Photoshop without any resizing done to the file, save it into my iPhoto library as a pict file, import the file into iMovie with the Ken Burns effect TURNED OFF, and the frame appears to be slightly squished horizontally with a thin black vertical bar appearing on the right side of the frame.
This worked just fine in iMovie 3.0 as I ran several tests last year to see if this project of mine was going to work but now in iMovie HD 6.0........AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!
And also, somewhat unrelated, why can't iMovie save an exact clean frame when using "create still frame"?
Any thoughts and help is GREATLY appreciated!

I don't quite remember what your original goal was but anyway:
If you want to manipulate a video frame in Photoshop:
Export the clips as Full Quality DV from iMovie.
Open the .dv with QT Player and Edit/Copy the desired frame.
In Photoshop File/New... should propose 720x480 (NTSC). Then Edit/Paste... and manipulate the image. Then flatten the image and Save as TIF.
Open the .tif with QT Player. Do Edit/Copy. Then do Edit/Paste so many times that you reach the desired duration (2 seconds, for example).
Then choose File/Export.../Movie to DV stream/DV, NTSC, 16:9.
Import the .dv to iMovie.
The colors seemed to pefectly match the original video clip's colors. I didn't touch the default color profiles at all.
One great benefit of that method is that no scaling is needed so every (unedited) pixel stays the same with no distortion. Of course you can set Photoshop to display the rectangular pixels as sqaure pixel aspect ratio (for 4:3 it is 4320:4739 ~0.9116 and for 16:9 it is (4320:4739)*(4/3) ~1.215).
Oh, no I remember where I got 875: It is (4320:4739)(4/3)720.

Any way to capture a still frame as an image in Imovie HD? "Create Still Frame" just gives me short MOV files

I'm trying to export a still from a project I'm working on so I can add some things to it in photoshop before importing it back in to the imovie project.
It's from the end of a clip I have. I know I could just use grab and take a screen capture but the quality would be awful.
Imovie HD has this feature, "Create Still Frame" and when I google this problem all the answers tell me to use that.
HOWEVER: When I do use Create Still Frame, instead of giving me a JPG I can use or another image format, it creates a short 5 second .mov clip of the still. If I wanted it in movie format I'd just use the original clip, what I need is an image format!
There doesn't seem to be an option anywhere to change what type of still frame format it uses. There must be a way to do this however, all the answers I've found say it should be JPG and I should be able to locate it then in the project package - what am I doing wrong?

The shortest way to accomplish this is to download a copy of MPEG Streamclip as relayed by longtime iMovie Discussion Group participant AppleMan1958
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15808352#15808352
First, get an app called MPEG Streamclip, which is free. (google MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5)
Open MPEG Streamclip.
In iMovie, select the clip you need. Then, right-click/Reveal in Finder.
Drag this clip into MPEG Streamclip
In MPEG Streamclip, move the playhead to the frame you want.
In MPEG Streamclip, click FILE/EXPORT FRAME.
Choose JPEG, TIFF, or PNG and give it a name.

Still frames not staying still...

I've had this problem on a couple of projects and have manned up to make my first post ever in a forum to try and solve it. Any help would be appreciated.
In Final Cut I made some still frames using the Modify--Make Freeze Frame command, then used a cross dissolve between the two images in the sequence. These are the only still frames in the sequence, the rest is video.
I've exported to Quicktime movie, then brought that movie into DVD Studio Pro, created the project and burned the disc. When watching the DVD all video footage is fine except for--the still images, which flicker like crazy. It is a long dissolve, nearly a minute, but I've had this problem on other projects where the freeze frame lasts only a few seconds and there is no transition used at all.
Any idea why this flickering (ghosting?) would occur with freeze frames? Know how to fix it?
Thanks in advance for any help.

If you have very thin horizontal lines you will get flickering due to the interlacing that TVs do. You can try running your stills through the de-interlace filter or the flicker filter. See which works best for you.

OT: DVD Slide Show - How to do still-frames?

I want to make DVDs containing my photos, so that I can inflict them on
family members and other unfortunates. I have not yet been able to discern
if any of the commercial packages allow for the creation of still-frame
shows - if that is the correct term to describe what I want.
I have commercial DVDs which, as extra content, contain documentary
collections of still images. These groups of images appear to be
single-frame images, and do not automatically advance -- they require the
user to press the Skip button to see the next image.
THAT's what I want to do... have the slideshow require a manual advance, so
that each photo could be viewed for as long (or short!) as desired, before
moving on to the next.
Of course, I would also want to create traditional "moving" slideshows as
well, when desired.
Can anyone advise with regard to this quest?
TIA,
Byron

Byron,
To the best of my knowledge, Photoshop Elements will not allow you to create DVDs of any sort - let alone whether it is possible to manually advance your way through a collection of stills.
PSE's primary purpose is as an image editor and since version 3 as an image organiser. Sure it has a few bells and whistles that allow you to present your images in a vareity of ways, but it is not strong in this area. Maybe that is why there isn't a great response to your orginal post.
I do know that Adobe Premier Elements allows you to create DVDs and once installed, there is an option on the file menu in organiser that allows you to send images direclty to PrEl.
Once again however, I would advise caution. Premier Elements is a cut down video editing suite, so it might be overkill for your needs and have a steeep learning curve!
Many people have mentioned a product called Proshow Gold in here. I don't use it and so cannot comment personally, but plenty of people like it and if I recall correctly, you will be able to create DVDs.
Best of luck
Mark

Why can't I change the duration of a still frame?

I am running Final Cut Express 3.5.1
When I try to change the duration of a still frame it generally snaps back to the existing duration rather than changing. Occasionally it will change but never to the duration I select which is ususlly :20 to :50 of a second. It sticks on a variety of durations between 1:20 and :05. I have tried both altering and rewriting the duration.I have tried restarting as well as all of the following methods:
1 Changing the duration in the User Preferences > Editing, still duration field.
2 Ammending the browser duration column .
3 Double clicking on the still to open it in the viewer and changing the duration field.
4 Draging the still into the timeline, control clicking and changing the duration in the drop down menu.
5 I also clicked on the still in the browser > edit > item properties but there was no timing tab available to select (as suggested on another posting.)
1.25GHz Power PC G4 1MB L3 cache Mac OS X (10.4.9) 80GHz hard drive 1.5 GHz Ram plus Firewire 400 250 GHz la Cie external hard dri
1.25GHz Power PC G4 1MB L3 cache Mac OS X (10.4.9) 80GHz hard drive 1.5 GHz Ram plus Firewire 400 250 GHz la Cie external hard dri
1.25GHz Power PC G4 1MB L3 cache Mac OS X (10.4.9) 80GHz hard drive 1.5 GHz Ram plus Firewire 400 250 GHz la Cie external hard dri
1.25GHz Power PC G4 1MB L3 cache Mac OS X (10.4.9) 80GHz hard drive 1.5 GHz Ram plus Firewire 400 250 GHz la Cie external hard dri

This project is just a short animation so every time I import the stills they are of the wrong duration so I try changing the duration by the other methods described previously, fail to be able to do that, erase everything from the project, restart and start again, initially with the preferences. So there's nothing for the still frames to conflict with. It's not the fact that there is a batch of stills that is the problem either as I keep experimenting with with single or small groups of stills in that context. I've also tried importing a variety of still formats into other projects. This is fairly new software. Could this be an incurable fault?
1.25GHz Power PC G4 1MB L3 cache Mac OS X (10.4.9) 80GHz hard drive 1.5 GHz Ram plus Firewire 400 250 GHz la Cie external hard dri

Still Frames Disappear in Project Frame

Working with imovie 08, at work, I capture videos from hdv camera. I have to select short clips of work video and create projects from the clips. Then I use the "add still frame to project", and usually the still frames stay in the project frame while I'm doing this. I then use finder to locate them once I am finished. The stills are now disappearing from the project frame and are no where to be found. I had done this procedure many times (30+) with no problem, now I can't find them anywhere. help!

So what I am realizing is that all of my sequences have been created with incorrect settings, thus greatly downgrading the film quality. I wish I had picked up in this earlier rather than the last bit of my production. Because now the 25 minutes of sequences, and nested sequences are all basically incorrect. I figured that the poor display was related to Premieres program monitor, and that after rendering, it would display more clearly. But that is just impossible, when placing uncompressed progressive footage 1366X768, square pixels and 30fps into sequences that are 720X480, 29.97, and a non-square pixel aspect ratio...
So I'm wondering, is there any way to change the sequence settings or place all of the edited footage in new, matching sequences without essentially re-editing the whole film?
Any helpful words are appreciated.

Still Frame Quicktime Export with Interlace. what can I do?

hi.
do you know how to avoid the interlacing happening when making a still frame with quicktime conversion in fcp? I need some stills for promotional purposes but the interlacing is a problem obviously.
thanks for you help.
best rob

2 ways- make a freeze frame and export a still of that or de-interlace in photoshop.
The problem is you are throwing away half of the vertical resolution. If you're going to be printing these, they'll look like heck. I understand there's a niftyplug in called genuine fractals for photoshop that does a decent job of up-rezzing.

Still frame capture

In FCP10, when looking at a frame of video, I simply want a quick still frame captured. What is the most basic method to do this? Thanks.

Captured where, in FCP or exported? To export use Share save current frame. If it's not there add it to the share button in destination preferences. If you want it on the application use the freeze frame function.

Still frames

Can anyone suggest the best way to grab a frame from a video to then use it in an iDVD menu or print it for the cover of the DVD? There seem to be two ways but so far the only success I have had is to grab a frame as a still clip then remove .dv before copying it into the iPhoto library. Otherwise, iPhoto refuses to accept a still frame, either as a JPEG or as a PICT.
Peter

Hi Peter,
open project
choose frame in timeline.
press Apple-F //or, in menu, "save frame"
choose jpg or pict
give name
done
import later into iPhoto

Best 'Still-Frame' Quality - A Method:

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