What got my attention on this give away of the day was 2 things, that it was supposed to be SIMPLE and very basic program for video editing, and would save out still pics from videos. 2 things I am in dire need of figuring out how to do. I am a total newbie to this video stuff. I have a sony cybershot camara that takes short videos. I need to be able to take puppy pictures, and trust me, this is NOT an easy thing to to, the pups rarely sit still for more than a couple seconds at a time, and with the delay you get with a digital camara anyway, getting good puppy pictures is about impossible. I often take 20-30 pics to get one decent one. With the ability to capture a frame from video I could get just the right pose. Problem is, I can't get the camara files to show up to edit in the AVIToolbox. Is this program made for specific video's, and not the ones I can make?

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This is going off of AVI Toolbox topic, but you can use Windows Movie Maker (built-in with Windows XP and higher) to capture a "frame" from a movie.

Use the Time Line instead of Story Board, found at the lower left corner, and move your marker to the second (in time) you want to capture a shot. On the middle right (under the preview section of a Windows Movie Maker) you'll find "Take a picture" button. Click it and save. You now have a screen shot from a movie.

The picture size is the same as the original movie size. So when you capture or import from a camcorder import it in highest resolution. It's not perfect but it will do it fast and it's free

Tip: you don't have to capture the whole movie. Using your camcorder, fast forward to the general location of a video and then import it to Windows Movie Maker from there.

Note: there's a good chance that your Sony Cybershot might have been imported into your computer on some Sony proprietary format (Sony is really well known for doing this, especially if you don't pay attention). If your Cybershot features Firewire, aka 1394 or iLink, use it to connect to your PC (assuming you have a Firewire port for your PC) and let Windows Movie Maker import it for you. If you have used Sony's own software to import to your PC chances are you have to use a Sony format to an universal format (such as mpeg or avi) or use Sony's video editing tool(s).

Just as Firewire is preferred choice in video importing, you can use Cybershot's alternative connection method: USB

 

 

 

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