Google just made it easier to grab high-quality still images from videos — and it works in a bunch of browsers. In a post on Google’s Keyword blog aimed at students, the company announced a new feature built into Chrome that lets you capture a high-quality, non-overlayed frame from the source video. Just right-click on the video when paused and select “Copy Video Frame.” It might not work on all videos — actually, as far as I can tell, it mostly just works on YouTube — but it does work in a bunch of Chromium-based browsers, not just Chrome.
Google’s pitching this as a tool for students to grab notes from lecture videos, which, sure! After messing around with the new feature for a few minutes, I can confirm that it does offer much higher quality screenshots than my two previous techniques: taking a screen capture or the Enhancer for YouTube “screenshot” button.
Here’s the most interesting stuff I’ve found about the new feature:
Actually, aside from YouTube, I’m not sure where else it does work. I haven’t tested every video player on the web, so if you find somewhere else it works, please let us know in the comments.
