Good suggestion & I'll try to implement it. But, problem is--without going on in excruciating detail--these are PAL DVDs, so they are VOB files, which makes everything much more of a pain in the butt. Esp if you want to not just save single frames but also know exactly what frame you're selecting. And have a step feature to select them with. VLC, for ex, can handle VOB files, unlike other progs, but it's made for packets so it can't deal with frame-select. Many media players can't do this either (even if they have a step feature they don't give frame info) ...because, I assume, most people don't want or need that feature, so basically I had to find a way to export to Mpeg2 & work from there. (Ulead or something higher end would probably save me the hassle of converting but I can't afford that stuff.) So anyway I convert them with Streamclip (which is a great little program--fast, free, works beautifully); then find the frames I need with VirtualDubMod. From there it was either IrfanView, which is good for a lot of stuff but not this, so much, or just Micro$oft Paint, which as we all know is, ah, kind of limited. But free--I can't afford Photoshop. Thus I emigrated here.
I'll see if I can't get better qualify from png files, will post if they look significantly improved--thanks for the suggestions! --e