How to Capture Screenshots from Windows Media Player
March 9th, 2005Grabing a screenshot from Window Media Player is not so easy as it seems. Yesterday I tried to use the extremely useful screen capture by ‘Print Screen Key’ to try to capture a wmv running file on my Windows media player classic V10. But whenever I tried to use the print screen, a blank image was captured from the windows media player.
Screenshots from Windows Media Player
Then I thought maybe the running video was posing a problem with capturing a frame. So I paused the movie and tried the print screen technique. But still got a blank screen.
Then I tried to capture paused and running movies in full screen (Full screen shortcut – using Alt+Enter). But again no luck.
So I decided to tweak some advanced options of Window media player. After lot of different combinations of tweaks, still had no luck.
Looking to buy a professional multimedia software to do the job? There are several shareware and paid professional image capture software available which can do the job. But why should I pay when I should try to get a freeware or get a tweak to fix it myself. I tried to see how professional paid software’s for this worked, but I was disappointed the moment I captured the screenshot. It had a big logo on every image it captured. Of course it was shareware and you needed to pay to remove the text messages.
Free simple way to capture Images from Windows Media Player
- Open Window Media Player
- Then go to Tools | Options
- In Options, select the Performance Tab
- Way below you click on the Advanced Button
- Uncheck “Use Overlays’
- Click Ok
- And you are ready.
Now run your movie in any size or screen resolution. Use the standard ‘Print Screen Key’ Method as described and you have captured a snapshot from your favourite movie on windows media player without using any special multimedia software. Enjoy!
More Ways to Capture Screenshots from WMP
Update: Some users have given excellent suggestions in the Comments which provide an alternate method if this does not work.
- Instead of the Print Screen Method – try pressing “CTRL+I”. This pops up a save as window after capturing the screenshot
- After you open Window Media Player. Go to Tools | Options | Performance Tab. You will see a picture similar to the first image above. Reduce the “Video acceleration” from the default Full to None, click ok and then close down media player. Next open the file you want to take a still using the Print Screen method – from press ALT and the PrintScrn key to copy an image of media player to the clipboard.
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4 years trying to do that, jejejej, thanks a lot
I know it’s been said already but
THANK YOU
I was going to change me gfx card! You save me sooo much work.
^__^ I luffs you! I’ve been looking for hours for a way to screencap with stupid WMP!!!! *hugs*
thankyou!! you saved my day
THANK YOU!!!!!!
I’ve been trying for ages to make screenshots from wmp, but i never found a way…and after all it’s so easy! Thank’s a lot for sharing, this really made my day! *hugs* xxx
Thanks for the information! It works just great for videos I have on my hard drive, i.e., short interview clips that I’ve downloaded, but when I try to get a screen capture from a DVD playing in my player and import it into Paint, the top half of the image is black, and the bottom half of the image is the half of the image I was trying to capture. Any hints?
There is a much easier solution by just pausing the movie and pressing ctrl-i, which will save a screenshot of the movie. I tried it on WMP10 and it works fine.
Awesome Info, Thanks!!
I too attempted the Ctrl-I option and nothing happens. I have v10 w/XP. Is tehre a setting for this?
However, turning off the Overlay worked great and I use HyperSnap DX (Best screen capture software out there).
Ahhh, I can now take a screen shot! The problem now is, when I try to crop it in Paint (i.e., to crop out the Windows Media Player), whatever I try to crop gets a black bar across half of the picture, and only the top half of the picture comes out at the bottom.
Eh, perhaps I need to consult a Paint expert. Thanks again for the great information!
Wow, thank you so much. I found the answer to this much faster than I thought I would. Thanks so much!
Yes!!! thankyou so much,
for hours i was swearing and getting so frustrated!! ur a genius.
thanks again mate :D
This is what make the web great, one google search, this guy’s hard work and boom! a problem solved that had been driving me crazy…Good man!
i love it it is the best thing ever you totaly rock i am loving it. your the best. it took me 5 years to figuire this out. your are the bomb. love ya lov ya. woot. this is the best thing thats hapened in my life love ya
omg thanks!!!! i thought i will never be able to do this without paying!
AWESOME — thanks a million!
THANK YOU so MUCH!!
top man, top tip
thanks hardeep singh
Wow, you are very awesome. That is all.
Thank you very much…found your post on Google and it addressed my problem and solved it. Thanks!
THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH, this really helped me!
wow! you’re really great! u know that while im reading your “story” :) behind the tweaking of the solution..i thought we have the same attitude..i really hate downloading softwares..i would prefer tweaking for hours or even YEARS than downloading..anyway, thanks a lot..i need this info for my thesis..arigatou gozaimasu! [ thank you!:) ]
Dude!
thank you soooo much
you have completed my life :)
Thanks dis rocks yo! Pimp dizzad in the hiz!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! in the past ive found that SOMETIMES WMP will let me screencap, and if that doesn’t work (which is most of the time) then sometimes winamp will let me screencap. Sometimes neither work though.. also, winamp doesn’t really play DVDs, so when I need to screencap a DVD i’m screwed! Anyway, bless your heart for posting this info, can’t tell ye how much I appreciate it! Makes all those money-grubbing screencap programs seem a bit silly, huh? :D
Thank you! Very helpful.
On Windows 2000 with Media Player 9, neither the CTRL-I or unchecking overlay methods works.
I’m still bummin.
J
U da man!
genious!
you’re a genius, a genuis i tell you! thanks a lot!
“Can someone please help me? I tried disabling video acceleration, overlays, and I tried using ctrl-i, and nothing seems to work. The first two, in conjunction with print screen, just result in the same problem, and ctrl-i does nothing.”
I have this same problem, maybe the author can figure it out.
Thank you so much for this very very HELPFUL tip… Best tip i’ve ever had… it took me 2 software downloads at download.com worth 5mbs before i finally (to my relief) discovered of the PERFORMANCE TAB approach! Thanks so much Ü