Can I ''import'' a frame directly from a videoCam into Photoshop?

Question

I am used to ''capture'' video shots into Premiere, then I know how to stop on a still image and save it as an image..but : is there a way to ''import'' an image (while video cam is connected via Firewire, paused on a specific frame) without going through the laborious process ?
I use a Canon HV30 (miniDV). Yes I could have used the SD card and created pictures instead... But there are frames within video shots I would like to get as pictures.  What is the best (and/or easiest) way to do this ?
Thanks
Rob

Answer 1

There's a video layer ( overlay  different from your typical screen ) -  There's a chart somewhere that can show you the different "modes" of video used by monitors ...but basically the screen capture and utility used depends on what mode your capture utility puts the video "preview", and I have nothing to test that with here now..
This capture from prnt screen (same result from corel capture utility ) shows that once video gets placed into the video overlay space..you cant capture with those type programs...  there was a paused video in that box...and I could not capture it..
below is some tricks to use windows media player to capture frames from ALREADY saved videos...
The video overlay / space ---that the capture utility you use hopefully is NOT that video overlay space...so you can do screen capture.
Grabbing frames from a video with window media player
When you want to grab a single video frame Windows media  player can get the job done. Windows media player is Microsofts solution  to play videos on your PC computer and it is installed with all Windows  XP and Windows Vista PCs. Windows media player is probably the most  used media player program in the world.
If you try to grab a video frame with print screen in Windows media  player or any of the many screen capture utilities all you will get is  probably a black screen. The problem is that that almost, or I would say  all, video cards use a special layer for videos rendering. The video is  really displayed overlayed on top of the media player window. What you  get when you capture or print the screen is really what is displayed  behind the video, probably not what you want. The reason for things  working this way is performance. Dedicated video hardware is able to  play high resolution videos at a good framerate without slowing down  your computer or eating your laptop battery. The downside is that you  can not capture video frames from the overlay.
Changing options
In the Windows media player program we need to do some changes to the  default options. Open up the options dialog from the tools menu. Under  the performance tap you will see an advanced button that you need to  click. On the advanced dialog page uncheck the "use overlays" option.  Now restart Windows media player and see if you can grab video frames  with the print screen button. If this still does not work there is a  second thing you will need to try. Again open up the performance tab and  disable hardware acceleration all together. Again you need to restart  Windows media player for this to have an affect.
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ps...If, in fact, your capture utility puts the video into the overlay video space, you do a google search for "capture video frames" you can find programs made for it...
Good luck