Exporting Single Frames Clearly

[beginwhereUR]

Hi Friends,

When I capture a single frame of my video and export it, the JPEG has all sorts of artifacts (smeared-looking diagonal lines) that aren't there in PE4's view screen beforehand. I'm able to take a screen shot ("Print Screen") of the video window that is free of these artifacts, but of course it's quite less detailed overall. I've already tried to use Clip/Deinterlace on all the active video clip layers of my single frame, but this didn't help. Is there anything else I can do to get the best image quality for a JPEG capture?

Thanks for any help!

Joe

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Joe,
What project preset are you working with, is it standard or HDV?
I always export TIFF rather than JPEG, then there are a few other settings if you click on the Advanced button.
You also need to look for a frame with no motion at all.

[beginwhereUR]

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for your reply. My project preset is for standard. I just went and tried a TIFF capture but it didn't improve things.

I understand the need for a frame with no motion in terms of minimizing blur, but this seems to be a different kind of problem. I see a perfectly clear image in PE4's view window, but the artifacts seem to occur in the exporting process. Why wouldn't I see those artifacts in the preview window, if they're "really" there in the image? As I say, in some ways a screen grab is almost better, and that doesn't seem right. . . .

Any other ideas/thoughts/help much appreciated!

Joe

[Chuck Engels]

Don't forget that the image you are exporting is only 720 x 480, not very high resolution.

When you export the frame be sure to click on the Settings button.
Go to the Keyframe and Rendering options and make sure that the Bit Depth is set to Maximum and you check the box for Deinterlace Video Footage. Give that a try.

[beginwhereUR]

EUREKA! You're a genius Chuck! I changed Export>Settings>Keyframes and Rendering > Bit Depth: Maximum, and checked Deinterlace, and that did the trick. Looks great!

Thank you 1000 times!

Joe

[Chuck Engels]

Glad that worked for you Joe, now you can sleep better tonight