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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woo hoo!
lots of cool desktop wallpapers to be created now…. mwaahhhhhhh
Thanks sooo much! I was looking for this trick forever and finally I found it on your page! Thanks SO much!
I’ve been trying to do this for years and finally someone was able to figure it out and share it.
You deserve a pat on the back and a “Thank You” from all of us that wanted to do this but were unsable . . . until now! Thanks!
You’re incredible.
Thank you so much!!
You’re such a legend. ^_^ That is by far the best computer tip I’ve ever been given.
With two computers at home i would have thought this tip would work on one of them. Both pc with xp, one with WMP 10 the other 9. Neither worked so i tried advice from a guy on top he said download BSPlayer. Prt Sc works perfectly. No complaints. Thanks to evry1’s input. Awesome sight.
Thank you so much. It’s guys like you that keep the web alive as a resource.
You rock, thanks!
Thank you! It really worked (nothing else I’ve read on the web has helped).
Thanks thanks!!
There are good people in the world! Thanks!
Everything has already been said, but I pose a question.
Why does Ctrl – I work for some people?
Hmmm? Doesn’t work for me.
For those that do not get it to work right away, go into WMP->Tools->Options->Performance tab
then, down where the Advanced button is (like in the screenshot), you NEED to drag the Video Acceleration from Full to None.
Then you will be able to get something other than a black screen! Remember to drag it back, afterwards!
If you can’t drag it, try resetting to your defaults.
Thanks again! As has been said, this is the MOST useful tidbit on the ‘Net!
The suggested method didn’t work for me with a WMV embedded in a webpage, however what worked for that case was:
- start a video playing in WMP with overlays enabled
- open the webpage
- hit alt-printscreen
The reason this works is because most video cards, mine included, can only do one overlay at a time. By using that up with standalone windows mediaplayer, the one embedded in the webpage has to fall back on drawing without overlays.
Presumbably this would work to capture shots from other players (realplayer, quicktime) as well.
Still no luck after trying your method. When I push prt scr, and paste it into an image program, the picture disappears after I turn off WMP. Or if I paste the picture and play WMP the image that was pasted will begin to play.
I’ve tried everything, nothing has worked.
(I have WMP XP)
words cannot express my gratitude for ur help. i am running out of HDD space and just wished to capture some memorable images from anime. thanks to u that dream will be a reality now.
- austen
You da man.
You are god. o_o
Wow, that is Great!! I was already getting pissed. That’s when I did a search, and found you. Thanks!
Just wanted to note that you gotta uncheck the “Use overlays” box under “Video Acceleration” rather than the one under “DVD video” to do the trick. Great tip, though. Thanks!
OMG after trying to capture the screen, and it not working… I had just given up. This page has given me new hope!!! :) Thanks to the creator of this topic thing, and to Arthur for the great tips!!!
For those of you who have tried modifying WMP v10 settings and still got a black screen shot, you need to put the WMP settings back to full (or whatever they were set to) and modify display properties. Do this selecting Control Panel > Display > Settings tab > Advanced button > Troubleshoot tab. Drag the hardware acceleration to None and get your screenshot. I use SnagIt for full control of which screen elements I want to get. Don’t forget to set it back when you’re done. Good luck.
awesome! thanks.
doesn’t work for dvds on my system, but otherwise fantastic.
thanks from Spain.
You are a real friend. :D
VERY USEFULL!!!!
Thank you now i can capture the moveis i like most on pictures instead of looking from the internet!!!!
THANK YOU! You’ve no idea how much this has helped.
Usually I just open the files in PowerDVD, but this one wouldn’t open.
This also works for WinAmp, btw–Options>Preferences>Video. And it works well with screencapping utilities.
Thanks again!
u are great help man without u i think i’ll just give up on finding a solution. thx a lot ;)
It still doesn’t work for me! Please help! Iv done everything that has been said :( does it matter what type of the disc it is?
Please help me!
Thank you so much!! :)
I really didn’t want to download a lot of programs.
Jenosis
Thank you for this advice and for going through the work to figure it out. The closest I came was the advice to reset the “video acceleration” bar to none, which is a complete overkill versus your solution. For those who are lazy, here is the Player Help description of the overlay feature that you turn off:
“Enables the graphics/video display card to display and scale video from an alternate source on top of the image displayed on the monitor. If you select this option and overlay hardware is available, video is displayed using the overlay hardware of the video card.”
Seems like most of us neither have the hardware, nor have the use for this feature at all. Thanks again!
OH man, the small trick that save the world.
Believe it or not. This question stumped onto my head about two minutes ago.
Off I go onto google and to find this. Amazing.
Thx.