Hi Franz

You won't be able to capture using screen capture. Video footage runs at
25fps or 29.97fps and snap shot in OSX relies on a static frame.

Basically, the best way of getting the footage captured is to use an
edit suite tool like Final Cut Pro, you'll need to import the footage
and use the shuttle controls in the app to accurately pinpoint the
playhead on the frame you want before you can export the still. It would
be best to import isolated sections of video, ie. 30 seconds at a high
bit rate and then take a still from that. Export the image as an
uncompressed TIFF or TGA file, that way eliminating any compression
artefacts. 

If you don't have Final Cut or something similar, you need to use a
programme with a track controller so you can pinpoint the precise frame,
it's a bit of a lottery otherwise and you can end up with transition
frames and interlacing...it can get messy and it's a case of garbage in,
garbage out. I've never used anything but AVID or FCP so don't know
whats out there but do know that there is a knocked down version of
Final Cut 4 called Final Cut Express, it might do the business and still
export is a simple part of an edit suite's functionality so you'd
probably be ok. I don't know what it would cost but if its something
that you will need to do regularly, then it might be worth it. You can
also drag frames out of Quicktime Pro but it's a bit quick and dirty and
quality won't be as good.

You could try going to a post production house and asking them to do it.
London Post or Oasis in SOHO are both excellent and have full AVID
suites for which this sort of work is a piece of cake.

Hope this helps


Alex


   

> I am thinking to grab some scene of a film I have worked on 
> and that I have only on DVD. The final use would be quite 
> small stuff (3x4" or similar) for publicity purposes. I would 
> prefer to do it myself, I have a G4 ibook running OSX.
> 
> When I tried with Grab an error message appeared saying NOT 
> ALLOWED. Same with COMMAND+SHIFT+3 Any pointers?

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