Shoutbox

How come, when watching a DVD/Movie on the computer, when you take a screenshot of the video (by pressing the PrntScrn button. Then paste it into paint or something and turn the movie off the image in paint dissapears? even when saving the image (while the dvd is on and picture is there. The picture stays normal, until the dvd is turned off then it dissapears, then when i load the dvd player up again the image comes up again.

are the JPEG's written differently, can we use this to say upload to the web, and when someone looks at it while playing a dvd, it will display the current frame of the dvd their watching?


how does it work?

I remember trying to take screenies of wmp videos.... and I'd paste
into paint, the image would be there, but it was like there was a
'hole' in the window, that showed what was behind it....I dunno, maybe
this is the same situation, try moving the DVD window and see if it
moves around in paint.

yup, it did.

Its because its a hardware overlay if i remember correctly , so when you take a screenshot theres nothing there (because its being directly rendered onscreen by the hardware)

its because of a setting in most video players called video acceleration and the use of overlays with it, if you dont want it go in windows media and go tools>options>performance  at the bottom under video acceleration click advanced, when in advanced look at dvd video section and video acceleration section then uncheck the boxes next to use overlays, u may need to restart windows media player or current video to take affect

quote:

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Originally posted by ~INVASION~
its because of a setting in most video players called video acceleration (...)

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has got nothing to do with it...

quote:

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Originally posted by ~INVASION~
(...) and the use of overlays with it

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This is the only reason...

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anyways, I once wrote a detailed post about it on the forums, I'll search for it...

EDIT:

• CookieRevised's reply to Screenshots And Video?
  
• CookieRevised's reply to question - 2 screens - fullscreen game on 1, normal on other...
  (the small print in that post)

Not so detailed as I thought it was. Nevertheless, it explains why there is that balck hole. -dt- also explained it in short in this thread already though...

In short: the printscreen function of Windows only grabs what's in the standard graphical windows memory. Video and other stuff can be shown directly in special video memory (not accessed by PrintScreen) with DirectX, this is called Video Overlaying. Windows only creates a "transparent" region on the window which will contain this special overlay channel, hence the "black hole"... To take screenshots of video or whatever shown in this special memory region, you need specialized software (see threads).

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised

quote:

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Originally posted by ~INVASION~
its because of a setting in most video players called video acceleration (...)

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has got nothing to do with it...

quote:

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Originally posted by ~INVASION~
(...) and the use of overlays with it

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You're right, but the first is usually implemented by utilising the second, so avoiding the first removes the need to use the second, which is the problem.

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quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
To take screenshots of video or whatever shown in this special memory region, you need specialized software (see threads).

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In the case of playing video, hardware overlay can be disabled, and screenshots can be taken using the printscreen key.

Overlays can be disabled in Windows Media Player as shown below. To access the shown dialog; go to Menu > Tools > Options, and then on the performance tab of the Options dialog, click the button labelled Advanced ... in the video acceleration.



Alternatively, and more easily, some players have a "snapshot" feature, It takes a snapshot of whatever video it is currently playing. This can be saved to disk or be placed in the clipboard (to paste into an image manipulation program). Usually, it is taken in the size of the original video, even if you have stretched it to watch fullscreen, or in a smaller or larger window, however, there may be the option to make the snapshot in the size currently visible. PowerDVD and WinDVD both have this feature.

U can always get SnagIt which is basically a screen capture software, but alot more powerful than PrintScreen. It also takes video screen shots and DX apps too . U should definately check it out (that goes for every1 too )

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
To take screenshots of video or whatever shown in this special memory region, you need specialized software (see threads).

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thats what i thought untill about a year ago, i looked for software to aid me but it turns out you can just urn the setting off, no need to download or spend money on expensive software that does something, the video player already has

quote:

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Originally posted by rav0
In the case of playing video, hardware overlay can be disabled, and screenshots can be taken using the printscreen key.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ~INVASION~

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
To take screenshots of video or whatever shown in this special memory region, you need specialized software (see threads).

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thats what i thought untill about a year ago, i looked for software to aid me but it turns out you can just urn the setting off, no need to download or spend money on expensive software that does something, the video player already has

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Well, yes, you could turn it off. In all my posts I clearly said "if you want to take a screenshot of that special video memory". If you don't use that special video memory, aka overlaying, you don't need that 'special software' of course.

PS: Turning off the video overlay greatly decreases video performances and puts a lot of strain on your CPU!