The VideoLAN Forums

I just downloaded the player with hopes that I could use it to capture still images from a DVD that I've been trying to take images from for some time. I have set the directory that the captured images are supposed to go to, but they don't seem to get there. Any suggestions?

the settings are wrong then i would assume?.. or they were not saved perhaps? there's some issue there, but the functionality does work flawlessly from my experience.

do a search for vlcsnap*.png to find the existing captures.. I think maybe "profile name/My Documents/My Pictures" is the default.

what buttons do I press to screen cap?

the same buttons that are setup through your hotkey interface settings..

settings - preferences - interfaces -> hotkey settings.. "take video snapshot"

if you want to make screenshot from a video there's a special way

you can use the "print screen" key


but it only will work if you run another player before VLC

1- you lanuch a video with a player (it will use overlay)
2- you launch the video you want to capture to in VLC (overlay is already used by the other program so vlc won't use overlay and you will be able to make your screenshot using "print screen" key)
3- you do "right button">"paste" in a picturing program
4- that's it

PS : I know that's a strange way but it works fine
rePS : sorry for my english it may not be exact

you can use the "print screen" key

but it only will work if you run another player before VLC

1- you lanuch a video with a player (it will use overlay)
2- you launch the video you want to capture to in VLC (overlay is already used by the other program so vlc won't use overlay and you will be able to make your screenshot using "print screen" key)
3- you do "right button">"paste" in a picturing program
4- that's it

an other solution would be to disable video overlay in the prefs.

it stores them in your "my pictures" folder

i've gone through the preferences and i can't seem to find where to disable the overlay. Can someone steer me in the right direction??

settings_preferences_video

fil in the directory where you want the snapshots to be saved!
and in what format pgn or jpg

This should be added to the VLC documentation.

I searched all available documentation (which is not very darned much) last night trying to find a way to screenshot (then I found the option in the menu).. the documentation available says "To take a screenshot in VLC, disable DirectX in Windows, then play the video, and press Print Screen"... not at all helpful, nor even particularly correct.

(Video options->Snapshot then finding the file stuck in My Pictures, even though I didn't have a "My Pictures" folder before then...)

i've gone through the preferences and i can't seem to find where to disable the overlay. Can someone steer me in the right direction??

settings_preferences_video

fil in the directory where you want the snapshots to be saved!
and in what format pgn or jpg

yeah, you just have to make you've got the "advanced settings" box in the bottom right corner checked, or you'll never find it

I am using a newer nightly, but I'd think the process is the same as with older builds.

In Settings | Preferences, head to video. It should show you options there about your snapshot. Including snapshot format (default is png, alternate is jpg), as well as snapshot directory.

I did read in a prior thread that the pic directory often defaulted to "my pictures." Not sure if this was ever fixed. However, if you still can't find your pics, search for vlcsnap*.png (or vlcsnap*.jpg) and wherever it shows up is apparently where its being saved. Heh.
I also remember several older nightly builds where the screenshot function did not work properly. Newer builds have fixed teh error, though.

When your video is open, on the top menu, go to video, then go down to snapshot. If it works right, you should see a snapshot in the top left of the video, of teh picture you just took.
Also, you can right click on the video as its playing, and in the middle section, should be an option to "snapshot" as well.

Or, go the keyboard route, and at the place you want teh snapshot, Ctrl+Alt+S. You can try to change this by going into Settings | Preferences - Interface | Hotkey Settings. MAke sure advanced options is checked, because "Take Video Snapshot's" hotkey is apparently advanced.

As for overlay, if the program includes a built in snapshot function, why would you want to disable overlay/hardware acceleration, hit prntscrn to take a capture, paste into a graphics editing app, crop/resize, then save, when all you had to do is hit ctrl+alt+S and its automatically saved. But, whatever works.

Hope something there helps.