Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Resolved Question

want hi-res photo from hd video

Jul 31, 2011 8:20AM PDT

I recorded an HD video on my Canon Vixia HG21 and want to create a high-quality still shot from one of the frames. I imported the AVCHD file to my Dell laptop (Win 7 64-bit, Intel T6400 2GHz duo core, 4GB RAM) and opened it in Windows Live Movie Maker. The video display on the laptop screen is not HD (also not as good as when i simply play a DVD or stream Netflix), and when Movie Maker takes a snapshot of a given frame, the image isn't photo-quality. Is there any cheap way to create a high-quality still shot from the HD video?

Discussion is locked

dansker44 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

- Collapse -
High definition video
Aug 1, 2011 5:37AM PDT

resolution is measured by counting the horizontal lines needed to create the high definition video image. In the case of the HG21, the best it can do is 1920 (columns) x 1080 (rows). Quick Math says that is about 2.07 megapixels. This is NTSC standard high definition video resolution. Video resolution and still resolution are *very* different.

- Collapse -
high-res still shots from hd video
Aug 1, 2011 6:22AM PDT

Thanks. I had the resolution set at maximum, so i would assume i'd get your ~2 megapixel still image. That would have been fine, but the image i got was way worse. i'm still a little confused re why the image looks so great on my 50" plasma, but appears so low-res on my laptop....

- Collapse -
The easy answer
Aug 1, 2011 1:00PM PDT

lies with the way the HDTV interprets the video signal compared to the way the laptop uses the still image. If you want more detail on why this is we star jumping into physics, codes, laptop display, DPI and all that.

- Collapse -
thanks
Aug 1, 2011 3:13PM PDT

Thanks for the clarifications - more issues involved than i'd thought. i'd thought of doing what you recommend at the end - displaying on the plasma and shooting a pic of the screen. i'll give it a try....

- Collapse -
Printing video
Aug 4, 2011 3:11AM PDT

Boya84,

Thanks or the good explanation. I've always been confused about print resolution of video vs. real print resolution, which is rated as dpi (dots per inch). For printing, a minimum of 300 dpi is needed. Back before HD video, video had a default dpi of 72 dpi, which didn't print well at all. Dpi has nothing to do with lines of resolution, but it may be related to the pixel count of an image. If HD video is still 72dpi, this explains why printing the video still looks lousy.

- Collapse -
Printing resolution
Aug 7, 2011 1:59AM PDT

Dan..not to take issue w/your basic point which is right on, but you can usually get good prints at 200 dpi. Not huge prints, but fine 8x10's. Depends on the type of image, paper and printer. We've often been limited to the lower range for various reasons and come up w/prize winning prints.

- Collapse -
Answer
Still from Vixia
Aug 6, 2011 1:52PM PDT

If you didn't get Canon's Pixela video software w/the camera, you may be able to download from their web site (look up your camera model and you'll find it under a drivers/saoftware tab). Not sure, but I think it gives you a still capture utility as well as edit and dvd burn capability.