"Save Current Frame" - works, but poor still image quality.

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Level 1

34 points

"Save Current Frame" - works, but poor still image quality.

I'm on FCPX 10.2.1 (Compressor NOT installed). My imported videofiles are AVCHD 1080i (25 fps) from a Canon Camcorder, and codec used in the timeline is H.264. HD aspect (1920x1080) /1080i of course.

Here's the problem:

I want to export still images from timeline - and Share > Save Current Frame should be the obvious task :-) But the images get a bit blurred/distorted, and the colours are also altered. Tested all optional export formats given (except OpenEXR and DPX Image), and also with/without Scale images to preserve aspect ratio. No version of the exported still image looks close to the frame shown in Viewer.... (Also connected alternative monitors with different resolution and refresh frequency....nope!).

What gives? Something about interlacing? Or is it the composition of the video picture (2 parts / images per frame)....? Will Compressor (if installed) affect the Save Current Frame routine by giving more options for tweaking??

In advance - thanks for enlightening me :-))

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), 3,1GHz Intel Core i7 Quad, 16GB RAM

Posted on Aug 4, 2015 9:24 AM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Aug 4, 2015 9:28 AM in response to Halstein

Halstein wrote:

What gives? Something about interlacing?

So are your clips interlaced? And what are your project settings?

Russ

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Answer 2

Aug 4, 2015 10:16 AM in response to Halstein

No, you do not need Compressor but you should have it anyway.Save Current Frame outputs a pixel-to-pixel representation of the video frame the playhead is sitting on. If your footage is interlaced you may see only half the pixels. If your video source is square pixels, you can see some distortion. If your color space is non-standard, you might see some weird hue changes. So, please give Russ the information he needs.

Meantime, you can do some experiments. New timeline/project. Open up the Generators. Pick one that's interesting. Put it in the project. Now do your save current frame export a couple of times. Use different generators. Bring in some still images. Use an interlaced and a progressive project setting.

You may or may not know the still image will never be any better than the source video. You can't get a three foot poster at 300dpi from 1080 video (unless you know some really good Photoshop chops). At 300dpi (and dpi is meaningless in video),1080 HD is less than four inches tall at 100%. 4k UHD is about 14 inches tall at 100%.

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Aug 4, 2015 10:30 AM in response to Halstein

Sorry that I skipped over the first part of your post. Ignore my two questions.

Russ

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Answer 4

Aug 4, 2015 11:21 AM in response to Russ H

Russ H wrote:

Sorry that I skipped over the first part of your post. Ignore my two questions.

Russ

Ditto.

Let's try another question then since we don't really need any of that information and can't help you now that we have it: Has Save Current Frame ever worked for you before?

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Answer 5

Halstein Author

Level 1

34 points

Aug 4, 2015 1:03 PM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

Hi guys, and thanks for chiming in :-)

I've never used Save Current Frame earlier, so I guess testing with another setting in the timeline might help.

For reference: The camera is a Canon Legria HF G10. I double-checked my settings for these last shoots - and noticed a possible quirk.... I've been filming in 50i.... not 25p. But FCPX do not seem to support 50i - when I make a new Project, and even go to Custom settings. If so, wouldn't this 50i footage be transcoded to 25i (as the Project setting is for now) after import? Then again, the footage in my timeline is then 25i - and looks perfect.

Any thoughts? Export the whole Project using the highest possible quality settings (but at 25i), then re-import to a fresh Project....

Existing settings:

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Answer 6

Halstein Author

Level 1

34 points

Aug 4, 2015 3:36 PM in response to Halstein

2 pics for comparison - both taken as screenshots with JPEG compression.

From Final Cut's Viewer: 🙂

Exported image by Save Current Frame: 😕

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,082 points

Aug 4, 2015 8:48 PM in response to Halstein

The image is showing the interlacing with two fields. Set the viewer to show both fields, and you'll see something similar in the FCP viewer. Put the clip in a progressive project and export the frame from there.

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Answer 8

Aug 4, 2015 10:02 PM in response to Halstein

The output can not be better than the input 😉

Your frame shows an SD (=720x480) and interlaced (='lines') video.

And probably highly compressed source. (what were your recording settings?)

Just for comparison:

This is a 'save current frame' from some school play:

< click for full size >

The kids from our school's theatre project played Hamlet

.... 3h .... <snore> 😝

I'm an ignorant when it comes to 'high culture'. Yet alone this make-up!! 😁

… and I haven't edited it yet… again those 3h!!! OMG!!

back2topic:

source here is 4k/25p/100mbps video...

(plus a grain of additional, post-pro 'sharpening' in Pixelmator .... )

Just to mention:

all those codecs for video (dv in your case, h264 in my case) are optimized for playback video, none of them stores single, full frames ....

FCPX (nor Compressor) can do magic ....

You're biggest problem is using interlaced material ... follow Tom's advice.

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Answer 9

Halstein Author

Level 1

34 points

Aug 5, 2015 1:52 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

You nailed it Tom ➕ Thanks!

Tom Wolsky wrote:

The image is showing the interlacing with two fields. Set the viewer to show both fields, and you'll see something similar in the FCP viewer. Put the clip in a progressive project and export the frame from there.

The interlaced footage certainly need its counterpart for exporting stills!

Created a new Project in 25p / 1920x1080, dropped in the 50i footage, then rendered it all. Save Current Frame now make the still image perfect - as I expected in the first place 😉 If I rather should use 50p in the Project....? Would the rendered result of the 50i files be different....? Will do some testing, but for now - this is the works. Again - Thanks 🙂

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