Anyone know a straight-forward way to do a screen capture (in a .jpg, .gif, or .bmp) of video being played through MCE?

 

I know that the PrintScreen key will capture a frame anywhere... but you need a program to paste the image into, like PhotoShop.  Only thing, I don't know if you can capture a video frame.. as there are directdraw limitations.

Yeah.  I use WisdomSoft Screenhunter (free software) for screencapture from the desktop, but it doesn't seem to capture inside WMP or MCE screens.  I'd love to find something to capture the still image through MCE.

I have no problems getting screen grabs using build in printscreen, shift-printscreen and alt-printscreen functionality.

There is a util gamers use that the name escapes me and I'll get the info when I'm at work on monday but it will do screen grabs and video capturing of the screen, even with directx content.  We use it at work for ingame play videos but it will work with dxva acceleration on for video. 

You can use paint which comes with windows to paste the screen shots too.  you might notice a blur and might get better results pausing the video.

Can you use print-screen to save as a file or to the clipboard?

it goes to the clipboard, then you need to paste it into a program that will accept graphics.  ms-paint is on every xp machine, you can paste it into paint and then save it as some common graphic formats.  Its not quick and fast but it does work.

There are a number of free and very inexpensive screen capture programs that you can get from download.com that will capture Media Center screens. We have some screen shots of our Media Center application at: http://www.mcelabs.com/screenshots.aspx.

-David

accident:

it goes to the clipboard, then you need to paste it into a program that will accept graphics.  ms-paint is on every xp machine, you can paste it into paint and then save it as some common graphic formats.  Its not quick and fast but it does work.

I am trying to do a really simple thing which is to take a screen snapshot of the Vista Media Center Screen.

The problem is that all I get is a black screen when I paste into ANY of my image programs after I do a Print Screen.

I am not trying to capture video but rather, I am trying to merely get a few screen snapshots of such things as the program guide,the main display,etc.

I also tried to use the snipping tool via a hot key but it does not run when I have Vista Media Center open.

 

I have read numerous posts in here that indicate  folks with Media Center in XP have NO problem with screen captures BUT no posts about screen captures in Vista Media Center.

Can anyone give me some help please?

Thanks a lot

maybe try the vista forums, rather than the mce ones?

I figured this was a good thread to ask in because it was about screen captures but I took your advice and posted my question in the Vista SW forum.

 

Thanks anyway

 You just have to run the media center in "windowed mode." I ran into this problem too. Running full-screen = black screen shots...if anyone has a work around, please let me know. I'm trying to get video recordings of my screens so that I can make a tutorial...

 

I finally used "screentoaster" www.screentoaster.com - it allowed me to make a 1080 resolution youtube video of my setup...not bad but takes some playing with. Run MC 7 in Windowed Mode, and drag to 1080 res. My end result is at: www.youtube.com/rix480