Hi, like many others I've also been suffering from the snapshot crash to desktop since VLC 1.0 .
While messing with the video output modules can produce a working snapshot, the video will not look as good as the default modules, so that is not a satisfactory solution.
What I did found out and wanted to share here, is that the problem seems to be related to specific cards or drivers, namely ATI. I was using an ATI HD5850 and having VLC crash to the desktop when taking snapshots, I tried several catalyst driver versions (9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2...) and it was the same. As soon as I replaced the card in my system with an nVidia GTX285, voila: snapshots are working normally again (as well as other crap I was having with the ATI card).
I'm sure that not all ATI users experience the same... it's probably not that simple. I don't want to say that ATI = VLC crash. Afterall, it doesn't happen in VLC 0.9 series, even with that same ATI card. But in regards to VLC 1.0, dumping the HD5850 for a GTX285 solved the problem.
I hope this will help the VLC devs to better understand the factors causing the snapshot problem in the VLC 1.0 series and fix it.