Pleb
16th November 2006, 08:15 PM
Unless your video player has a built in screenshot function (eg VLC Media Player), if you try and use the Windows Print Screen button to take a screenshot, you'll probably end up with a black picture.
This is because when the video plays, it is actually displayed on a different surface/layer called overlay that is produced by hardware acceleration. When you take a normal screen capture, you're taking it off the normal surface where the video isn't displayed. That's why it comes out black as it is invisible to the screen capture software.
In Windows Media Player, since version 9, you can get around this by pressing Ctrl+I...this will bring up a Save Image dialog box.
If you're on an older version of WMP or on a different Media Player altogether, you can disable the hardware overlay globally throughout Windows, or just in the specific Media Player. To disable it globally, Click Control Panel -> Display -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshooting and slide the Hardware Acceleration slider from Full to None. For advice on how to do it for some specific Media Player programs, see http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/11/capture-still-images-from-windows.html
When the hardware overlay is disabled you should be able to capture a screenshot successfully using the Print Screen button.
Or you can just download some screen-capture software ;)
This is because when the video plays, it is actually displayed on a different surface/layer called overlay that is produced by hardware acceleration. When you take a normal screen capture, you're taking it off the normal surface where the video isn't displayed. That's why it comes out black as it is invisible to the screen capture software.
In Windows Media Player, since version 9, you can get around this by pressing Ctrl+I...this will bring up a Save Image dialog box.
If you're on an older version of WMP or on a different Media Player altogether, you can disable the hardware overlay globally throughout Windows, or just in the specific Media Player. To disable it globally, Click Control Panel -> Display -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Troubleshooting and slide the Hardware Acceleration slider from Full to None. For advice on how to do it for some specific Media Player programs, see http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/11/capture-still-images-from-windows.html
When the hardware overlay is disabled you should be able to capture a screenshot successfully using the Print Screen button.
Or you can just download some screen-capture software ;)