Using avconv (formerly ffmpeg):
avconv -ss 00:07:05 -i MAH00016.MP4 -t 2 -f image2 -q 1 Image-%03d.jpeg
The options:
- -ss starting time in hh:mm:ss (or seconds)
- -i input file
- -t duration in seconds (or hh:mm:ss)
- -f mux/demux for still images
- -q quality (1 = best)
Use a video player to find the interesting section, then bracket it with the starting time and duration. Putting the -ss starting time before the -i input file lets the decoder skip through the file, rather than grinding through everything preceding the specified frames.
The -q 1 setting wrings the best quality out of the input video file. That’s why the camera captures 1920×1080 video @ 60 fps; I wish I could dial its compression back a bit, but that’s not an option.
So.
Do you think he didn’t quite kill me between bites or is that a K-Mart bag and he was yakking on a phone like everybody else?
Clicky for more dots. I compressed the image from the avconv output file, but it’s good enough.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
4 responses to “Extracting Frames From A Video File”
My first impression was that it looks like a CVS bag, though I could be wrong. As you imply, it’s hard to tell.
I really wish the video data wasn’t so aggressively compressed; dropping back to 30 frame/s doesn’t help, so it’s not a data rate problem.
The camera runs embedded Linux, but with no controls for anything. [sigh]
The straight, nearly-vertical lines above the joint between the thumb and forefinger on the right hand suggest he is holding a dark-colored bottle, rather than a sandwich. Any chance that could be an artifact of the reflection in the window?
The view through the window may be a Rorschach test: we can find nearly anything we want.
But… a dark brown bottle? Eeek!