PapaJohn Productions

MVPLogo

Movie Maker Frame Snapshots

Windows Movie Maker at facebook

Sometimes you want to get snapshots from your video clips. All versions of Movie Maker since MM1 provide a snapshot feature... go to the frame you want and take a picture of it.

... many users don't know the snapshot might not be as large as a high quality video frame, and that some versions of Movie Maker are showing you every other frame during a preview, perhaps significantly limiting your choices.

Google
 
Web www.papajohn.org

Using a Windows 7 system with Windows Live Movie Maker and MM2.6 installed, here are the steps I take to get each frame at full 1920x1080 size:

  • open the AVCHD clip (.MTS extension) in Windows Live Movie Maker
  • use the speed change feature to make it play at half speed 0.5... that'll make each frame show twice
  • save the clip to an HD 1080 sized wmv file on your hard drive
  • open the HD 1080 wmv file in MM2.6
  • browse the file with it in the collection bin, not on the timeline.... previewing in MM2.6 shows you every other frame but with double frames now in the file, you can see each
  • take the frame snapshots using the 'Take Picture' icon under the preview monitor. The jpg file will be the same size as the source file (in my case 1920x1080 pixels) regardless of the resolution of the monitor.

PapaJohn's Products and Services

I'll illustrate it with a set of cannon shots from a July 16, 2011 Civil War Muster in Hastings, Michigan, using a Sony HDR-CX550 HD AVCHD camcorder to record the video.

The visual changes quickly from one frame to the next. The camcorder records 30 frames per second, which means each frame is 1/30 of second in duration.

As usual, you don't know what your missing until you see it. Here are 3 frames of each cannon shot, where I point out the 'missing' ones.

Thanks to Robinson's Battery for the photo op.

Cannon 1 - first 3 frames

Frame 2 wasn't seen in MM2.6 until the half speed clip was used.

Cannon 1

Cannon 2 - first 3 frames

Frame 2 wasn't seen in MM2.6 until the half speed clip was used... it would have been a significant miss.

Cannon 1

Cannon 3 - first 3 frames

Frame 1 wasn't seen in MM2.6 until the half speed clip was used.

Cannon 1

Cannon 4 - first 3 frames

Frame 1 wasn't seen in MM2.6 until the half speed clip was used... this was the most significant possible miss of the set.

Cannon 1