Frame Grab / Export Question

dvddude wrote on 12/16/2003, 1:26 PM
I love Vegas, but there's one thing that confuses me, and it's something I need to use quite often. If someone can put me back on the path to righteousness, I'd appreciate it.

In Adobe Premier, if you export a frame from a DV source (720 x 480), then you get a Targa file that is, not surprisingly, 720x480.

In Vegas, I tend to have the "split screen" preview window showing the filtered/unfiltered material. I also tend to use a more crude resolution.

But even if I change the preview window to "Best Full," when I save a frame, it not only saves the "split" (kind of annoying), but it saves the image as 654 x 480.

Now, I realize that DV uses non-square pixels, but this seems like a bizarre way to handle this. Am I missing something? Is there no way to export a frame at the "true" resolution without pulling it into PhotoShop and resizing it?

I don't mind the distortion of the non-square pixels, but I would like each individual pixel to be represented in the output.

Certainly this isn't the end of the world, but I find it a bizarre and annoying approach; I much prefer the way that Adobe handled tis action.

Unless I'm completely missing some option somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

rmack350 wrote on 12/16/2003, 1:47 PM
This is the majority of what I do with Vegas. And yes it's a little confusing.

The "save image" tool just grabs the overlay from the preview window. What you see is what you get. kind of. It always squares the pixel aspect ratio.

Because I work with stills of circuit boards I don't wan't the aspect corrected. It mushes out the finer details. I always copy to clipboard instead.

The copy to clipboard tool grabs a 720x480 still (or whatever your project is set to). You can then paste it into a new document in Photoshop. It's fairly handy to use because photoshop automatically sizes a new document to whatever is on the clipboard. Clever.

If, in Vegas, you want to reserve a particular file format as a 0.9091 PAR still you can right-click on that file in the media pool, set the PAR, and then click the little unlabeled diskette icon. This save a profile for that file type. For instance, I've set Vegas to automatically treat PSD files as 0.9091.

So why does vegas do this? The assumption is that all stills dropped into Vegas will have a 1.0 PAR. So the "save still" tool saves them that way.

It all seems a little clumsy. I think the problem is in the way it's presented.

Rob Mack
dvddude wrote on 12/16/2003, 1:50 PM
Awesome, thanks so much for the info! This is exactly what I needed to know!
rmack350 wrote on 12/16/2003, 1:57 PM
You still get the split screen on the clipboard, BTW.

Rob
Frenchy wrote on 12/16/2003, 2:01 PM
This has been discussed at length on this forum. You may want to do a search.

Whatever is displayed in the preview window will be saved to the still. You need to turn off the "split screen" when saving a still.

In short, saving a still with non-square pixels is the "correct" way, since DV uses rectangular pixels, and if you are using the still in the DV, it maintains the correct aspect ratio. It is saving the full-resolution still with the correct pixel aspect ratio of 0.9091 and so on...

You can save a frame with square pixels however...

Method 1: Use "copy Snapshot to clipboard", which will produce a 720x480 image that you must paste into a paint program.

or

Method 2: If you want to save the still with square pixels, open the clip in the trimmer, and save the frame from the trimmer preview (you will still need to resize to "best full"). Saving a still via the trimmer does not apply the pixel aspect ratio. I discovered this earlier when I saved some stills via the trimmer, and some others via the timeline. They had different PAR's!! This behavior is intentional and has been verified by Sony techs.

Here is a thread on the subject:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=165528

"Certainly this isn't the end of the world, but I find it a bizarre and annoying approach; I much prefer the way that Adobe handled tis action"

watch for flames...

Have fun

Frenchy
rmack350 wrote on 12/16/2003, 4:14 PM
Yet another possible reason to maybe occasionally force yourself to use the trimmer. ;-)

Rob Mack