A Tool To Take Snapshots

[SlickVic78]

I was wondering if any of you knew of a simple tool that could allow me to take a snapshot of a video within RealPlayer... I was able to get this to work with the older version of RealPlayer (version 8)... I would be able to resize the window and then bring it back... The snapshot would work...

Basically, now, when I try to do this using RealOne, either way I try (by using the PrintScreen key for full desktop shot, or just ALT + PrintScreen Key) I get the RealPlayer but, the inside of the player is black... It doesn't show the keyframe that I caught when creating the snapshot...

I have attached a snapshot as to what I am talking about. I should see a keyframe within the RealOne Player.

Any useful, yet simple, tools that will take snapshots that I am looking for with ease? Or can I still accomplish this task using the PrintScreen Key method?

Thanks!
-SlickVic78

[greypigeon]

Think you are looking for something like this: SnagIt
http://www.techsmith.com/

Just give it a try

[SlickVic78]

Hey greypigeon,

You know what. I believe SnagIt is the one I heard of before... Totally forgot about that prog. I'll give it a whirl.

Thanks for the info!
-SlickVic78

[~*McoreD*~]

Some useful info:

I tried to capture Media Player or Real Player and the video is a blank solid color.

When Camtasia or SnagIt grabs a solid block of color instead of an image which looks fine on the screen, the problem is usually due to graphics hardware acceleration being used to display the image. The newer media players from Microsoft and RealNetworks are good about trying to use any graphics hardware acceleration that is available on the system. For example, some systems have graphics hardware which can perform a "hardware overlay" of video on the screen which bypasses the normal Windows display memory that SnagIt captures. Most video capture programs used to capture video from a video camera use "hardware overlay" by default for their video preview. Note that this kind of problem affects all screen capture programs, and even the image put in the clipboard by the Print Screen key.

The best solution is to disable hardware acceleration in the application that is playing the video, or disable hardware acceleration system wide.

To disable acceleration in:

• To disable graphics hardware acceleration globally: for all applications on Windows 2000 and XP, Right click on the desktop and select Properties. Then choose Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot, Slide the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.
  
  
  
• Media Player: In Media Player 9, select Tools >Options > Performance. In Media Player v6.4 and earlier, select View > Options > Playback. In both cases slide the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.
  
  
  
• RealOne: Just go to Tools > Preferences > Hardware and set the Video Card Compatibility to "Most Reliable" by sliding the slider all the way to the left.
  
  
  
• RealPlayer G2: Select Options/Preferences from the RealPlayer menu. Go to the "Performance" tab and disable (uncheck) the "Use optimized video display" setting. You may need to stop and restart any movie being played to have the change take effect.
  
  
  
• For the Apple QuickTime, select Edit > Preferences > Streaming Transport. In the dropdown box select Video Settings and uncheck all of the DirectDraw options.
  
  
  
• To disable graphics hardware acceleration globally for all applications on Windows 2000, select Control Panel > Display > Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshooting, on other versions of Windows select Control Panel > System > Performance tab > Graphics > Advanced settings. In both cases slide the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.

Very cool program.

[SlickVic78]

What would I do without the crew over here at B1! You rock ~*McoreD*~! I ended up following the settings for RealOne in the hardware section of the preferences tab, and sure enough, a simple snapshot how I have always done turned out to work!

Again, thank you so much for all of your help!

-SlickVic78