Screenshot with mplayer
To take screenshots with mplayer, you need to first run mplayer with a special flag.
mplayer -vf screenshot movie001.mp4
Then once the movie is playing you can screen shot any frame by hitting the 's' key. mplayer will name the files starting with shot0001.png.
When I first tried this command I got a strange error, saying that it could not make the screenshot. Look into the log lines and you may seem something like this:
sending VFCTRL_SCREENSHOT! *** screenshot 'shot0001.png' *** PNG Error opening shot0001.png for writing! A: 27.7 V: 27.7 A-V: 0.075 ct: -0.037 0/ 0 83% 3% 1.3% 0 0 sending VFCTRL_SCREENSHOT! *** screenshot 'shot0002.png' *** PNG Error opening shot0002.png for writing!
At this point I found two solutions. Trying moving the current directory (which is the directory that mplayer saves the files) to a different path. Or try using a different version of mplayer. I would suggest a fork of mplayer called mpv. In mpv screenshots can be taken without any additional flags. Again use 's' while the movie is playing to take the actual screenshot.
mpv movie001.mp4
Additional tips
mplayer will step frame-by-frame while the video is paused by hitting '.' This should help to land that perfect shot. (In mpv you can step back with ',')
mplayer offers a host of nice functionality to move through files. Try looking in the man pages ofr both programs for more information.
man mplayer man mpv