Help with Screen Capturing

[The Mutericator]

I'm trying to capture screens (or screencapping, as some may call it) from an anime I've got here on my computer. I can't get anything to work - no matter what I do, once I've saved the image, it changes depending on how much the video itself has moved or, if I've closed the video, it simply goes black. I'm told its an issue with the way the computer does layering - video files go on a separate layer, making it more difficult to cut screens out of them.

I've been using ZPlayer, both older and newest versions, but I've also tried Winamp and Windows Media Player to no avail. If you've ever tried to capture screens from something playing, you know the problem I'm having.

Halp? I've searched online, and no one seems to have a solution (or I'm the only one with a problem). I'm to the point where I'm willing to download a new program to get it to work (SnagIt, for the record, didn't solve anything either). I figured if anyone would know, it would be you, OCR.

[atmuh]

I have the same problem.

HALP!

[Strati]

Video playing software usually blacks out the image if you try to screencap using PrintScreen or something. I don't know about any others, but I know that both VLC and Media Player Classic have options that allow you to screencap. Check under the menus for something like Snapshot or Save Image.

[The Mac Attack]

I find Virtual Dub (that's a link there in case it doesn't display properly) to be pretty good for picking out the exact frame I want, and then copying it onto the clipboard.

Open your video in it, line up exactly which part you want, then go Video->Copy Source Frame to Clipboard, and paste it into photoshop or whatever.

[The Mutericator]

Mac Attack, your solution would probably work... if VDub could open .mkv files. Any ideas or plugins?

[The Mac Attack]

Yep - Virtual Dub Mod:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdubmod/

[The Mutericator]

Yep - Virtual Dub Mod:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdubmod/

Oh, awesome, it worked! Thanks so much, Mac Attack!

Screencap heaven, here I come... to celebrate, have a serious cabbit:

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5097/seriouscabbitsb8.png

EDIT: Wait, wait. Looks like there's a minor issue with some episodes, VDM refuses to open them because of an error... "Only handle [s Text] subs at the moment". Any ideas?

[Merk]

What about capturing a program? Am I stuck with Fraps? It's not free and I'd rather not 'acquire' it. The only open source equivalent I've seen is Taksi, and it's not fully featured yet.

[WesPip]

For most videos, if you turnthe Video Acceleration option thinger to low or the equivalent, it'll let you screencap it with PrtScn.

At least, it works with WMP and MPC.

[Merk]

Sorry, I meant videos with audio, which I suppose is a different thing than what was asked here.

[Pyrion]

Your problem is common to anyone that is using hardware overlay to display the video. In essence, the program is simply putting a nearly black (R16 G0 B16 IIRC) block wherein the extents of the block are where the hardware displays the video. When you attempt to do a screencap, you're only getting that 2D block and not the video.

The solution is also pretty simple. Disable hardware overlay. The video might not play as fast or as nicely-filtered, but you'll be able to capture frames.

[The Mac Attack]

EDIT: Wait, wait. Looks like there's a minor issue with some episodes, VDM refuses to open them because of an error... "Only handle [s Text] subs at the moment". Any ideas?

I think VDM doesn't have complete up-to-date support for MKV files. If you're really set on getting a screencap with Virtual Dub(/Mod), then demux the file first with something else.