Solved Video editing question

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Danbor

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Hello all. Back in the late 1980's during my last tour in Europe while in the U.S. Army, I aquired one of those video camaras that recorded video on a cassette. One then transferred said video to VHS. The wife and I spent many hours just driving around recording what we could of that beautiful continent and making memories. After 35 years of marriage, she passed away from brain cancer. That was seven years ago now.
A couple of years ago, I had all those videos transferred to CD's. Which I then copied to an SSD on this computer. SO I still have the VHS tapes, but no VHS player. And I have the CD's and of course the files on my computer.
My daughter wants me to go through those videos and choose some scenes to make still pictures suitable for framing, ( I've tested and found some suitable paper that my printer can use to make that happen ).
I have tried using celluoid to play the video, pausing the playback and taking a screenshot. Then trying to clean the result up with Gimp. Sadly, my best effort results in, at best, a blurry image.
So, finally my question. Is there a program that I can use to go through a video frame by frame to get a clearer image for processing? I know it's not film so the term "frame by frame" isn't accurate but I don't know the correct terminology.
I don't need to edit a video, just copy "pictures" from it.
Oh, if it matters, my main system is Mint cinnamon 22 but I also have LMDE6, Mint XFCE, Mint Mate, Kubuntu, Fedora 40, and Debian 12 on virtualbox virtual machines available if needed.
 


Danbor said:
Hello all. Back in the late 1980's during my last tour in Europe while in the U.S. Army, I aquired one of those video camaras that recorded video on a cassette. One then transferred said video to VHS. The wife and I spent many hours just driving around recording what we could of that beautiful continent and making memories. After 35 years of marriage, she passed away from brain cancer. That was seven years ago now.
A couple of years ago, I had all those videos transferred to CD's. Which I then copied to an SSD on this computer. SO I still have the VHS tapes, but no VHS player. And I have the CD's and of course the files on my computer.
My daughter wants me to go through those videos and choose some scenes to make still pictures suitable for framing, ( I've tested and found some suitable paper that my printer can use to make that happen ).
I have tried using celluoid to play the video, pausing the playback and taking a screenshot. Then trying to clean the result up with Gimp. Sadly, my best effort results in, at best, a blurry image.
So, finally my question. Is there a program that I can use to go through a video frame by frame to get a clearer image for processing? I know it's not film so the term "frame by frame" isn't accurate but I don't know the correct terminology.
I don't need to edit a video, just copy "pictures" from it.
Oh, if it matters, my main system is Mint cinnamon 22 but I also have LMDE6, Mint XFCE, Mint Mate, Kubuntu, Fedora 40, and Debian 12 on virtualbox virtual machines available if needed.
Click to expand...
Commonly used are the command line tool: ffmpeg, and the GUI app: VLC. See here to get an idea:
unix.stackexchange.com

How to extract images from video file?

I mean, how to generate images files from a video like screenshots.
unix.stackexchange.com unix.stackexchange.com
 
Avidemux has a feature to play a video frame by frame. The easiest way to install it is AppImage.
  1. Just open your video and press LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys on your keyboard to find the needed frame, or buttons with arrows at the bottom of the program's window near PLAY button, under the timeline.
  2. When the frame is found, press File -> Save as image.
 
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@Danbor :-

Yup; @damix9 is quite right.

I have a number of video-edit tools "installed" (mostly Puppy-'portabilized' AppImages), amongst them Avidemux. I use this - along with mifi's LosslessCut - as a clip editor, cutting-out and preparing clips to later be joined together with transitions'n'stuff then 'final rendered' using either Openshot or Flowblade. If I want to make a really good job of something 'special', I'll use Lightworks.

I wasn't even aware of this function in Avidemux, since it's not something I tend to do very much.....and usually, I'll employ the same screenie-of-a-still trick you were trying. This Avidemux function seems to work very well, so.....thanks, @damix9 !


Mike. :D
 
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/usr/bin/ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -r 30 -s 640x480 -f image2 frames-%04d.jpg

can be used to extract every frame from a whole mp4 video file if that file uses 30 frames per second. Adjust the -r parameter as needed. Use ffprobe -i video.mp4 to find the frame rate for the video. You can use -ss hh:mm:ss -i video.mp4 and/or -t hh:mm:ss after the -i video.mp4 parameter to seek to a specific start time and stop at a specific end time in the video. Substitute the correct values for hh, mm, and ss as needed. After this you could use Gwenview to view every frame and delete the ones you don't want to keep. You could extract one frame per second if you want less work by using -r 1 instead of -r 30, but you might miss out on some nice shots. Make sure to do this in a separate subdirectory since you'll be creating a lot of files. Adjust the resolution as needed if the video uses something other than 640x480.

Signed,

Matthew Campbell
 
Thanks for all the tips. I'm slowly working through them. I've been trying to get the VLC route to work for most of the day. No joy. I followed the steps outlined to the letter. Several times. No images were generated. All of the internet searches I could find were for the windows version and all said open VLC as administrator. Obviously won't work in Linux.
I then spent a couple of hours researching the ffmpeg option. Lots of information, not much of it helpful to a casual user that hasn't done any programming since he gave up writing programs for his amiga 1000 in Amiga Dos.
It looks like I would need to watch my chosen video, pause it where I want to start, write down the time, then resume playback until I get to where I want to stop, write down the time so I have them handy when it's time to put them into the command. Then,using file manager, locate the directory where the video is stored, copy the path so I can paste it into my cd command. After that, file manager can show me where I put the save to directory so I can copy and paste that location into the command. Lastly, Find an example of the command I need showing a start and stop time, copy and paste it into terminal before changing the relevant file name, times, and path to storage.
I would have to do it that way, my fingers do not work well for typing and my ability to remember exact path strings is not what it once was.
I'm not sure what will happen after I get all that done and hit enter. Will the whole video play? Will the video play only the part between the start and stop times? Will the video not play at all and just generate to images? I have no idea, none of the documentation says anything about it.
These videos are between 45 minutes and an hour long. I don't have the storage real estate to store images taken every 3 seconds on a 60 minute video!
Later tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, I'll see if I can find an appimage of the Avidemux program, install it and see if it works better than the VLC program.
Wish me luck! ;)
 
@Danbor :-

Ah, nice one, mate. And, er, BTW; so sorry to hear that about your other half. Rough luck, buddy.....not a nice way to go, for anyone. You have my sympathies.

Even I learnt something I didn't know through this thread. So; a positive outcome for more than one of us...

At least you have plenty of good memories. That's something to be grateful for.


Mike. ;)
 
Thanks Mike. It was as dark time for me for sure. I've lost a lot of family and comrades through the years. But I do have the memories. And I take some comfort in knowing that she won't have to go through the agony of losing her reason for living.
What just blows me away is that I've found another wonderful woman that is insane enough to love and marry me! Never thought I'd live to retire, but here I am! Still alive and still learning!
 
@Danbor :-

Danbor said:
What just blows me away is that I've found another wonderful woman that is insane enough to love and marry me! Never thought I'd live to retire, but here I am! Still alive and still learning!
Click to expand...

Well, that's marvellous to hear. Not too many of us get a second chance for happiness in a lifetime; grab it with both hands, and make the most of it.....you just never know how long it will last.

Good for you..!


Mike. :)
 
I've beaten the odds and outlived most of my enemies, and enough of my friends that I avoid making new ones, if you know why you know not to ask. ;)
So I know I am blessed. Every day I wake up is a bonus day that most of my peers never got the chance to live, so I embrace it for myself and all those young men that now live only in my memories.
And throw in another Angel willing to put up with a crusty old Vet. What more could a high mileage guy ask for?
And thanks to everyone that puts up with my questions here! I do appreciate it!
 
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