screen shot appears as black

[Dave Davison]

After downloading one of the You Tube series of a cartoon, [3 x 9 mins segments] converting and burning them to DVD I wanted to capture a frame from the video to print as a sleeve for the case. I stopped the video at a point where the main character was in full view and - using both "FastStoneCapture" & the Prt Scr key on the keyboard respectively, captured the scene. However, when I pasted it into a Word doc and tried to print it all I got was a black image. I don't seem to recall experiencing this anomaly before. Another curiosity I encountered is that when the captured screen shot is pasted into a Word doc, dragging the scroll bar causes the picture to move within the frame. Enlighten please. Dave.

[HansV]

Does the screenshot in the Word document show up correctly on your screeen, or do you see a black rectangle there too?

[Argus]

I have seen this before, i.e. a black screen (or whatever colour is used) in the capture. I think this is a result of how the media player handles hardware overlays. Sometimes one can set the player to not use hardware overlay surface, or hardware acceleration etc. It may be a bit different depending on player; I have not needed to tinker with this in a long time, so I don't remember exactly.

When a media player uses the hardware acceleration, hardware overlay, it's not possible to capture a screen shot with a normal Print Scrn or screen capture software, since it uses the graphics hardware and "bypasses" the OS. I can't say why it sometimes works, haven't looked closer at the issue, perhaps it's not always using the overlay.

In the case of Windows Media Player; one could try:
Options > Tools > Performance tab > Advanced button and uncheck "Use overlays".
But we could need a little more information about what software you use to play the video, not the screen capture software or the software you paste the captured image into.

A little search gives this, a simple explanation at Wikipedia, also see the Screenshots section.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_overlay" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Dave Davison]

Thanks gents... Yes Hans, the screen shots taken with both the Prt Scr key and FastStone Capture are visible when pasted into a word doc. It is just when I try to print them that a black image appears the same size as the picture. The strange thing is this seems to happen intermittently as I am sometimes able to print the picture and sometimes not. Regarding what media player I use I have various media players on HD but mostly select VLC as I find it quite versatile. Will read up on the link pointed to also see what the "hardware overlay" tab is set to in WMP. Regards, I really appreciate this ever open door for stumblers like me. Dave.

[Dave Davison]

In the case of Windows Media Player; one could try:
Options > Tools > Performance tab > Advanced button and uncheck "Use overlays".
Sorry but I need some help [the path] to the above goal, tried but could not navigate to the destination... In my limited knowledge I clicked on : - My Computer; C Drive; Prog files; WMP folder; wmplayer; but could not see the performance tab, perhaps that's because it's not there! Thanks Dave.

[HansV]

Argus meant that you should start Windows Media Player, then select the Tools menu etc.

[Dave Davison]

Hi Hans.........I right clicked on an audio file and selected WMP from the menu options but SORRY, the tabs suggested are not visible??????? What am I doing wrong? Dave.

[HansV]

If you don't see menus, press the Alt key - the menus should pop up.

[Dave Davison]

Thanks Hans...I located the said overlay boxes; unticked them both but they default back to being ticked. Any idea how to stop this defaulting back to being ticked? Regards Dave.

[HansV]

Sorry, no idea (I have Windows 7, which doesn't have these options in Windows Media Player)

[Argus]

I right clicked on an audio file and selected WMP from the menu options but SORRY, the tabs suggested are not visible??????? What am I doing wrong?

Yep, from within WMP, as Hans said a bit difficult otherwise. But I see that I said "Options > Tools", it should be Tools > Options, not the other way around, sorry about that!

I didn't get any notifications after your first reply.

As Hans said, you can use the Alt key in WMP, or right-click on the Title bar (to find the menu if not using the classic menu).

I don't know why the setting reverts (though you changed both, it shouldn't matter). You have to click OK, then OK in the Options dialogue, and in my case with WMP 11, I get a confirmation dialogue at this point, then click Yes and it's finished.

The other way around could perhaps happen, i.e. that you could not set: "use overlays" in WMP, if the hardware acceleration was set too low, or similar, but this, I don't know.

If it isn't possible to change that setting perhaps you could try temporarily lowering the hardware acceleration, i.e. moving the Hardware Acceleration Slider to “None”, see if that can help you with the screen capture. But remember that there will be no hardware acceleration at all, so playback will be slower, difficulties running some software perhaps etc. etc. so you probably would like to change it to its current position when your finished.

Either globally for all software, in Windows XP:
Right-click on the Desktop > Properties > Settings tab > Advanced button > Troubleshooting tab.
Or change it in the different players such as WMP; but I think that with some other players you have to use the global setting above.

Then we have all this about DVD decoders, and as I said in my first post, I’ve not looked at this for a long time, it could be some other things involved when trying to capture from a DVD.

[Dave Davison]

Well ! Thanks guys, the end product is really not that critical to warrant too much meddling with settings that I don't fully understand, at least I found and unticked the overlay tabs which default back to the ticked state because the hardware acceleration setting is maybe too high. To get round the obstacle I simple did a Google for "The Snowman Film" on You Tube and found a suitable photo on a product advertised on EBay which copied instantly using FastStone Capture and was printable.
As ever thanks a million. Dave.

[HansV]

That's a good workaround!

[Hey Jude]

To get round the obstacle I simple did a Google for "The Snowman Film" on You Tube and found a suitable photo on a product advertised on EBay which copied instantly using FastStone Capture and was printable.
As ever thanks a million. Dave.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 050394413# I love this Snowman video if this is what are talking about...I've watched it for about 15 years now on Christmas Eve prior to any presents being exchanged. The kids are dragging it out and putting in to "get it over with" haha I've got this on my bookmarks toolbar and play it daily to just keep me relaxed and ready for whatever happens to come along. It may be totally off the subject, but I have 3 different versions of the book which is cartoon form and have the VHS as well as DVD. I found this online about a month ago....

[Dave Davison]

Hi Hey Jude..........thanks to this amazing technology there are multiple links from which such classics as this can be harvested. I searched for & found it on You Tube but -as is the norm for this site - it came in three parts so I simply merged them together using ConvertXtoDVD; a great peice of software, one of the few I have had cause to purchase but which is dead easy for oldies like me to use. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJScRh15 ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; > is where I found the one I downloaded. Seasons greeting when it does arrive... Regards Dave.

[Hey Jude]

Hi Hey Jude..........thanks to this amazing technology there are multiple links from which such classics as this can be harvested. I searched for & found it on You Tube but -as is the norm for this site - it came in three parts so I simply merged them together using ConvertXtoDVD; a great peice of software, one of the few I have had cause to purchase but which is dead easy for oldies like me to use. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJScRh15 ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; > is where I found the one I downloaded. Seasons greeting when it does arrive... Regards Dave.

There was an episode from Twilight Zone called "Her Pilgrim Soul" that came in 4 parts as well, and I had to do similar to what you did, so I was excited to be able to find The Snowman in one piece--so to speak :-) Yes, Season's Greetings are upon us already! Same to you! Yeh, I'm an oldie too and the easier to use the better


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RolYkGIuTuQ Part 1 of 4 and other parts are on same page

[Hey Jude]

Seasons greeting when it does arrive... Regards Dave.

Of course you can always listen to George Winston playing Walking in the Air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTvpsbZJo-0