Screen shot question

Hi I have never taken a screen shot before and I was wondering how it is done. I am referring the process of taking a picture of what you see on your screen whether it is a program or the entire thing. If anyone could tell me how to do it and what program I would need to download (for free) I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

press "prnt screen" key (might be label as Print Screen), then you can paste it in Paint

 

Right, but make sure to do a save as, the default is BMP which has a huge file size. JPG is a good option.

 

Also, you can hold down the ALT key and then hit Print Screen. This will capture the active window only. This is useful if you just want to capture an error box rather than your entire screen and then crop.

-Vb-

 

hmm, i didn't know that. Thanks Vb.

 

You're welcome.

 

I always just cropped it in paint

 

Ya that alt thing is probably one of those things that M$ did right but no one knows about. It is especially helpfull when you need to extract a graph or something of that sort from a software that has no capture tool to paste it in a report ... I always use it

 

As long as we're talking about "Print Screen," I've come across something I've not seen before. I was trying to capture a screen from a video sequence (avi, dvd, etc.) and I thought that just using print screen option would work. I pasted the captured image into Paint and it was there. What's was odd was that when I closed the video player (WMP or Intervideo DVD in this case) the pasted image just became black.

This really confused me so I tried it again and this time just moved the video player after I had pasted the image. The image moved with the media player also. Basically the image in Paint only showed up where the video player overlapped with it. Eventually I got my screen capture by using another video player with a screen capture option built in, but does anyone know what the technical reason behind this is? Why is it when you do a print screen on something in a video player, it only shows up when the video player is open and is in the same position (foreground or background) as the pasted image?

 

It happens I know with WMP, might be a rights protection issue, but yes, I've found the same thing.

 

I believe when you try to capture video using just the Print Screen feature, it will just capture an overlay image. Most players display their video on top of another window, so you're just getting a still of the overlay. Once the player is closed, so does the overlay image and all you get is the capture of the black window behind it. You can tell if it's an overlay window by dragging the video window around while it's playing, you'll notice that the video will trail by a fraction of a second and you'll notice a black screen behind it.

It's best to use either a player that has a scene capture option or download and use some free screen capturing software, I think that'll work a bit better than print screen.

-Vb-

 

Also useful when you want to save a web page and get that popup from IE that says it "may not save correctly" - and usually does not.

 

Hmmm. Alt + Prnt Scrn. Thanks for the tip. I had never known about that, it could be very handy. I wish I'd known about it before I wrote my tutorial for DVD to DivX, I had to take screens and crop it everytime.

I use WinDVD for screen capturing. I've never had to capture a screen from a WMV, so I'm not sure how to do that (since WinDVD doesn't show the video for WMV).

I ought to look for a plugin or something to get WMV compatible with WinDVD.

 

Anyone know how to take a screenshot from a DVD?

I have MPC and VLC. MPC doesn't work if you change the output to a diff render type (though its OK with non-DVD video files!) and VLC doesn't seem to have a screenshot option... as we all know 'print screen' doesn't work...

I don't really want to have to download another program, so if anyone knows there are one, two - six rep points on offer! Plus I have sway so I'll get Chaz to rep you

 

In VLC; Video > Snapshot, or right-click > Snapshot.
It saves the image vlcsnap-xxxxxx.png in your My Pictures folder.

 

So that's where it goes

I don't use My Documents Only there for stupid programs which don't give you a choice

Rep+ btw, I'll have to see with Charlie. Try to catch him on a good day y'know

 

When you are using hardware video acceleration, the player uses an overlay image and the video card replaces whatever color the player specifies with the actual video. A lot of players use purple, some use near-black.
If you go to the options and turn off hardware video acceleration, print screen usually would work.

 

Ive tried the print screen thing and also the holding alt and print screen and...nothing. Any ideas?
Hope this isn't a thing having to do with my recent OS switch like the print screen button is disabled or something.

 

If you have Vista, you can use the Snipping Tool.

 

You might want to give FastStone Capture a try. You can copy any part of the screen you wish, or all of it, or even a scrolling screen. See the attachment.
http://www.faststone.org/

 

Ill give the fastStone a try, Thanks