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Capturing stills from internet video?
April 5, 2008 8:14 AM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

How do I extract a still from a New York Times video segment?

I'd like to get a still from a video that was posted on the NYT website. I can't seem to pause it and take a screen shot because it doesn't really "roll back" in steps. It jumps back and plays automatically- making it really hard to hit the pause button at the right moment. I saw some freeware that seemed to take stills from internet video, but I can't get them to find the video on the page (I tried FXFrameCap and ByteScout). It seems like there must be a way to do this. I don't mind paying for software if a Mefite says it'll work.
posted by Thin Lizzy to computers & internet (5 comments total)
It seems to me all the videos the Ny Times shows, are flash videos, with the .flv format.

The easiest way I can think of to capture a still from such a video, is to dig the one played out off the cache of your browser, and play that in the free VLC-player, which does allow you to pause or full screen a video, and even to capture a still.
posted by ijsbrand at 8:34 AM on April 5, 2008


If it's not a Windows media stream, just press Print Screen and paste the result into an image editor.
posted by brownpau at 8:41 AM on April 5, 2008


Mabye take a screen capture right at the time when you want it? Archaic, but effective!
posted by saxamo at 8:42 AM on April 5, 2008


Yes, taking a screenshot should work, if all you want are stills. This is definitely true in Linux, and I'm reasonably sure it'll work in Windows as well.

If you want the whole video, it'll be a little harder. The NYT purposely makes it difficult to download their flash videos from the site (though, if you can see it play, it's technically possible). You might try checking on the iTunes store - I hear that they post some of their vids online (probably under video podcasts)
posted by chrisamiller at 11:38 AM on April 5, 2008


If you are on a Mac, use the 'Grab' tool under Applications > Utilities.
posted by sindark at 12:14 PM on April 5, 2008


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