Making Screen Shots

[Shlup]

I would like to be able to capture images from video files, whether I'm watching them in Windows Media Player, WinAmp, or Divx. "Print Scrn" doesn't capture the video image, and I haven't found a program that'll allow me to take a screen shot.

Anyone have any tips?

[Shoyku]

When I take video screenshots using WinAmp, I go into the video options and uncheck "Allow hardware overlay video (recommended -- best performance)" and that does me nicely.

There are other ways of doing it, like some method of going into dxdiag, or some other options in order video players, but I personally use my method mentioned above.

[crono_logical]

Yeah, you can't screenshot video running in the overlay. Video uses the overlay by default because it can render the frames faster so plays more smoothly. All the other tricks to get a screenshot to work are really ways to force the video to not render in overlay to allow you to use the normal screenshot button.

Even then, my preference is to use a simple video editor like VirtualDubMod (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/virtualdubmod/VirtualDubMod_1_5_10_1_All_inclusive.zip?download), since it's easier to grab the exact frame you want rather than hope you hit pause at the right time. :p

[Shlup]

Seems to be working. Only problem is that most of the files I want screen caps from are in divx formats, and Virtual Dub and WinAmp say "Nono," but I think I'll work on it.

[Rainecloud]

I watch all my DVD movies, Mpeg and Avi files in a player called "Intervideo Win DVD 6", and it has a little button on it that enables me to take screenshots from any of those formats. They come out a little blurred sometimes, but the quality is usually quite good.

I guess it's a program you'd have to pay for, though. :\

[crono_logical]

Virtualdub can read DivX codec format. Provided you have a full DivX compatible codec installed anyway, and not the crappy Video for Windows thing. Getting XviD (another free codec, which I prefer over DivX) should be enough to use DivX too.

Whoever ripped it was probably being a dumbass and naming the files ".divx" because it's a buzzword amongst the average internet user for video, a bit like mp3 is for audio - you'll find they're normal .avi files most of the time and can just safely rename them.

[Shlup]

When I set up my computer I never bothered to fix a few things - Most of my video files wont play in WMP; just the audio plays. I looked for codecs but haven't been able to fix it, so I've just been watching everything in Dixv.

What codecs do I need? D:

[crono_logical]

FFDshow (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ffdshow/ffdshow-20030523.exe?download) is good at decoding almost everything, and fast too, except newer XviD videos, for which you want the latest binary from this page (http://www.roeder.goe.net/~koepi/xvid.shtml). You'll need the XviD binaries if you want to screenshot through VirtualDub anyway.

[Shlup]

Most of the files still wont open in Virtual Dub (getting errors that say "Can't find decompressor for format [DX50/DIV3/"), but they open in all my players now. I'll see if Shoyku's method works. :o

[DMKA]

Well if you want one thats simple, free, will do it with everything besides Quicktime/Real Media (yes, including DivX, XviD, and DVDs), and has some nice opitions (such as the size you want the snapshot, resolution, ect.), then your best bet is ViPlay (http://www.snapfiles.com/download/dlviplay.html). Besides, its a small and excellent player that never fowls up and is nice and fast even if you have a low-end machine, so I also reccomend it to aanyone whos looking for an alternative to WMP. :)

[Shlup]

This program has opened every file I've tried and takes easy snaphots. OMG THX U :monster: :cookie: :cookie: :cookie: :cookie: :cookie: :cookie: :cookie:

[DMKA]

Yay! You're very welcome Mandee. :D