Taking Macross Screen Captures

[Roy Focker]

I want to take screen captures to eventually make my own crappy Macross fanworks with.

I've down loaded some screen capture programs in the past and one came with my digital camera but when ever I make a capture from a video on my screen it show up as a black screen.

I don't want a black screen. Is there away around this? A program (a free one) that allows you to actually have image instead of a black screen? I assume that the black screen is an anti-copying measure but that hinders fair use.

[Mechamaniac]

I have had the same experience.

IMHO, the best way to screen cap DVD's is to use the built in screen cap feature that is in most of the better DVD player programs out there. Those have always worked for me.

[ewilen]

This is how I make screen caps:

Play the video file using Quicktime Player or VLC under Mac OS X.

Pause the video.

Hit shift-command-4 to bring up the "screen capture marquee tool".

Drag the tool across the part of the video I want to capture. It gets saved as a PDF file which I then manipulate with Graphic Converter.

I haven't tried this with actual DVD's, but I suspect it would work.

Only minor Mac-vs.-PC needling intended. The point is, you may not need a special "screen capture" facility to grab stills out of video. Assuming Windows lets you do a regular screen grab (as needed for tutorials and bug reporting), maybe you can just use that. If it isn't built into the system, maybe this will help:

http://www.traction-software.co.uk/screengrabpro/

It's free.

[Aegis!]

Up until now I got the very same problem but I got the answer for it :

Dowload Zoom Player and use its built-in capture feature.

You need nothing else.

[Damaramu]

If you're using Windows Media Player, just hit "ctrl + i". That is, the control key and the "i" key simultaneously.

[dna]

You can have some problems with capturing screenshots unless you turn off hardware acceleration (assuming PC not MAC).

Just if you don't know what I'm talking about, right click the desktop and choose properties/settings/troubleshoot. Move the slider off.