How to capture screenshot of video in Windows Media Player

Posted on 26 January, 2008
This item is filed under [Multimedia, Tips & Tricks]

January 26, 2008 · 8 comments

The simplest way to capture a screenshot of whatever appears on your computer screen is to press the ‘Print Screen‘ key and then pasting the clipboard content into any image application like say, ‘Paint‘. This works well most of time, till you try to capture a still of a video playing in Windows Media Player. Alas, you only get a black screen where the video is supposed to be.

So, how do we do it? The easiest solution is to use a player that supports capture, like the VLC Media Player. When you are playing a video in VLC player, just click Video > Capture to capture a video frame.

But suppose you are forced to work with Windows Media Player, you can still manage to capture by modifying the settings. In Windows Media Player, go to Tools>Options>Performance>Advanced and uncheck the ‘Use Overlays‘ option and press ok.

wmp_capture.jpg

The above method should work with other video players too, if you can find out how to disable overlays. Disabling overlays reduces the image quality. So, do remember to enable it once you have captured your screen.

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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

Andrew January 26, 2008 at 7:18 pm

Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you.

And thank you.

Reply

tre August 20, 2008 at 5:15 am

Awesome tips for the Video Overlay. Thanks a lot! How did you come across this method? lol

Reply

Dan Keeney, APR November 19, 2008 at 10:59 pm

Very helpful. Worked perfectly. Thanks!

Reply

Joe November 30, 2008 at 3:19 am

Thank you! : P

Reply

Philip August 19, 2009 at 9:00 am

This has been a big help. Thanks a lot

Reply

Nancy September 14, 2009 at 12:36 pm

Thanks! This simple trick saved me a bundle of time!

Why doesn’t Microsoft’s “Help” (I use the term loosely) for Windows media player document this quick and easy tip for taking screen captures? It’s as if they want their software to be difficult to use.

Reply

Debwork Web Design December 30, 2009 at 9:41 am

THANK YOU – you have just saved my web customer a lot of my time!

Reply

anonymous February 27, 2010 at 6:10 am

thank you man.

Reply

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