capture photo from video

Hello, I need help on capturing a photo from a video. I have Windows XP Media
Center Edition. My video camera is a Sony DX7630 digital. I am currently
using Windows Media Play 9 to capture my photo but when printed out the photo
is horrible! Very distorted. Someone said because the video resolution is
not the same as a photo resolution there is nothing I can do! I can't believe
this is true. Can anyone offer any advice on how to produce a good 4 x 6 inch
picture from a video? I know nothing about pixels or changing picture size.
If you know what inch or dpi or resolution I should use...... or maybe
recommend a program I could use to produce a good picture I would be very
grateful. Maybe there's a program to correct picture after I capture it, then
print??? Thanks in advance.

travelerlinda wrote:
> Hello, I need help on capturing a photo from a video. I have Windows XP Media
> Center Edition. My video camera is a Sony DX7630 digital. I am currently
> using Windows Media Play 9 to capture my photo but when printed out the photo
> is horrible! Very distorted. Someone said because the video resolution is
> not the same as a photo resolution there is nothing I can do! I can't believe
> this is true. Can anyone offer any advice on how to produce a good 4 x 6 inch
> picture from a video? I know nothing about pixels or changing picture size.
> If you know what inch or dpi or resolution I should use...... or maybe
> recommend a program I could use to produce a good picture I would be very
> grateful. Maybe there's a program to correct picture after I capture it, then
> print??? Thanks in advance.

TV resolution is very poor compared to a snapshot. Any photo
printed from a standard TV frame capture will look bad if it
is bigger than wallet size.

Motion averages out noise and generally makes people think that
the TV picture is better than it is. Try still-framing your
video camera while playing back, and you'll see what you have
to work with.

If there is any "distortion" other than pixellation/blurring,
such as geometric distortion, then there may be a problem in
the way you are capturing stills.

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."

Thank you Michael for your information. I stop the film when I capture the
photo but when print picture out it's bad. Picture is fuzzy. Thanks, Linda

"Michael J. Mahon" wrote:

> travelerlinda wrote:
> > Hello, I need help on capturing a photo from a video. I have Windows XP Media
> > Center Edition. My video camera is a Sony DX7630 digital. I am currently
> > using Windows Media Play 9 to capture my photo but when printed out the photo
> > is horrible! Very distorted. Someone said because the video resolution is
> > not the same as a photo resolution there is nothing I can do! I can't believe
> > this is true. Can anyone offer any advice on how to produce a good 4 x 6 inch
> > picture from a video? I know nothing about pixels or changing picture size.
> > If you know what inch or dpi or resolution I should use...... or maybe
> > recommend a program I could use to produce a good picture I would be very
> > grateful. Maybe there's a program to correct picture after I capture it, then
> > print??? Thanks in advance.
>
> TV resolution is very poor compared to a snapshot. Any photo
> printed from a standard TV frame capture will look bad if it
> is bigger than wallet size.
>
> Motion averages out noise and generally makes people think that
> the TV picture is better than it is. Try still-framing your
> video camera while playing back, and you'll see what you have
> to work with.
>
> If there is any "distortion" other than pixellation/blurring,
> such as geometric distortion, then there may be a problem in
> the way you are capturing stills.
>
> -michael
>
> Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
> Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
>
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it is seriously underused."
>

travelerlinda wrote:
> Thank you Michael for your information. I stop the film when I capture the
> photo but when print picture out it's bad. Picture is fuzzy. Thanks, Linda

Well, that's the way that a TV frame looks when printed out 4" x 6".

A 4" x 6" print of good quality will have over 500K pixels (1200x800
for 200 pixels per printed inch). A frame from a DVD is 720x480, or
less than 350K pixels. And anything less than great DVD quality will
be even worse.

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."

Thank you Michael for the information. So I guess bottom line is there's
nothing I can do to improve picture quality. I guess I was hoping for a
program to improve picture quality after picture was captured and stored on
my hard drive. Well, so much for capturing photos from my video film. My
Sony Handycam has the capability to take pictures so I guess while filming
I'll have to take more. Thanks again. Linda

"Michael J. Mahon" wrote:

> travelerlinda wrote:
> > Thank you Michael for your information. I stop the film when I capture the
> > photo but when print picture out it's bad. Picture is fuzzy. Thanks, Linda
>
> Well, that's the way that a TV frame looks when printed out 4" x 6".
>
> A 4" x 6" print of good quality will have over 500K pixels (1200x800
> for 200 pixels per printed inch). A frame from a DVD is 720x480, or
> less than 350K pixels. And anything less than great DVD quality will
> be even worse.
>
> -michael
>
> Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
> Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
>
> "The wastebasket is our most important design
> tool--and it is seriously underused."
>

travelerlinda wrote:
> Thank you Michael for the information. So I guess bottom line is there's
> nothing I can do to improve picture quality. I guess I was hoping for a
> program to improve picture quality after picture was captured and stored on
> my hard drive. Well, so much for capturing photos from my video film. My
> Sony Handycam has the capability to take pictures so I guess while filming
> I'll have to take more. Thanks again. Linda

That will work if the still camera function has higher resolution than
the video recording--and it probably does.

There is an inescapeable tradeoff between building an image sensor for
video applications and building one for still photography. A good video
camera is often a pretty mediocre still camera. And a good still camera
often has disappointing video performance.

Good luck.

-michael


> "Michael J. Mahon" wrote:
>
>
>>travelerlinda wrote:
>>
>>>Thank you Michael for your information. I stop the film when I capture the
>>>photo but when print picture out it's bad. Picture is fuzzy. Thanks, Linda
>>
>>Well, that's the way that a TV frame looks when printed out 4" x 6".
>>
>>A 4" x 6" print of good quality will have over 500K pixels (1200x800
>>for 200 pixels per printed inch). A frame from a DVD is 720x480, or
>>less than 350K pixels. And anything less than great DVD quality will
>>be even worse.
>>
>>-michael
>>
>>Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
>>Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
>>
>>"The wastebasket is our most important design
>>tool--and it is seriously underused."