Snapshots from an 8mm video?

[WyoJim]

Can you get any sort of a print from a video? If so how do I go about doing it? How good would the results be? And if it can be done, could someone post me a sample?

 

[JHansen]

It can be done....

... but to be honest with you I'm not that thrilled with my captures... maybe I'm doing something wrong . I use a Pinnacle Studio 400 (which by the way isn't made any more-but they do have an equivalent product to it now)-it plugs into the parallel port on the back of your computer. It's actually supposed to plug in between your computer and your printer-but mine raises havoc on long graphics-intensive prints (you know the ones that usually can't be resumed mid-job and are important ) so I leave it unplugged until I need it.



I use a Sony Handicam to shoot the video-the Pinnacle cable plugs into the LAN-C jack for control and also plugs into the video port for the actual video capture. My main beef with it is that my captures always look fuzzy-I've tried capturing at a higher size figuring that it's the blowing-up of the pics that makes them fuzzy-didn't seem to matter-although I haven't tried the largest size yet. Maybe video itself isn't a fine-enough resolution... . hopefully someone smarter than me will jump in and tell me whether this is the case or not... . In Pinnacle's defense it's made for home-movie composition, not frame-grabbing. .



If you want to see the pics I've shot with it just click on the link below-it takes you to my Reader's Rigs gallery. Any more questions drop me a line and I'll be glad to answer them.



Jason



EDIT: Just opened up the Studio 400 software and took a look around-there is a Make File tab under Settings with a quality slider-I'll try sliding it to 100% and grabbing a few frames to see if they get any better

 

[Wayne M.]

WyoJim, I can do it on my machine. I have a Video card that has RCA inputs like a TV and I have Digital Video Producer (DVP4. 0) which also was bundled with the computer. The DVP has a seperate capture program and when used is basically a screen with a toolbar so you can capture one frame(a picture) or a clip and import it to a photo program (and save it as a JPEG or other format) or to the DVP.

I use this capture mode instead of a digi camera since I don't own one to get images. I would say the quality is similar to what a cheap camera will provide. I use it to post photos on Ebay. I will try to attach a sample. Basically what I do is I tape what I want, then I hook the cable up and replay through the 'puter and when I see what I want I freeze it and then I copy/paste it into my photosuite where it's formatted (JPEG) and saved. It's really more simple that it sounds!



BTW I use a 10 year old Hitachi 8MM camcorder



The real Mopar men of us will know what is in the picture!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bad340fish]

That would be a Max wedge cast iron header I would believe its worth some bucks

Clark

 

[Wayne M.]

Close, but... ... ... ... ... . WRONG!

 

[Bad340fish]

Hmmm its for a big block for sure... . I guess the factory max wedge headers came down under the car now that I think about it. Hell I don't know

Clark

 

[Wayne M.]

OK,OK,OK, It's just a pair of basic B body 383/440 HP manifolds. They are bolted together.

 

[Bad340fish]

Hell I didn't look close enough to see the other manifold LOL. I saw the two exit point and assumed one of them was the factory style "cutouts" like the max wedge cars had