Copying stills

Am using version 9.00.00.3250 of Windows Media Player, Windows XP
Professional version 2002 service pack 2. Trying to copy stills from videos
to excel. Find that it works sometimes and not others. It works when media
player is paused and I go to another application and come back and the image
is still on the screen but if when I return the image is gone than I can not
copy it successfully. Any ideas what determines when the screen image stays.
Seem to have a higher success rate with some videos than others but even one
I have trouble with worked once. Just don't know why it worked in that
instance.

Thanks

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:52:44 -0800, "cycleboy1975(remove
this)@hotmail.com"
<cycleboy1975removethishotmailcom@discussions.micr osoft.com> wrote:

>Am using version 9.00.00.3250 of Windows Media Player, Windows XP
>Professional version 2002 service pack 2. Trying to copy stills from videos
>to excel. Find that it works sometimes and not others. It works when media
>player is paused and I go to another application and come back and the image
>is still on the screen but if when I return the image is gone than I can not
>copy it successfully. Any ideas what determines when the screen image stays.
>Seem to have a higher success rate with some videos than others but even one
>I have trouble with worked once. Just don't know why it worked in that
>instance.

Yes, it's usually easy to solve though. It's to do with the way your
graphics card is told to "overlay" the video on top of other stuff -
using overlays is very good for playback performance but means
"PrtScrn" and other ways to capture the image will fail.

If you open media player, go to the Tools -> Options -> Performance
tab. Now click the "Advanced" button and write down the settings of
each checkbox (on paper - yes, I know !)

Uncheck "use video mixing renderer" and "use overlays" and "high
quality mode". OK out and try capping the picture like that.

If it still doesn't work, uncheck the "Use primary surfaces" box too.

When you're done capturing images, go back and reset the settings to
the list you just made, to ensure your video playback performance
isn't affected in day to day stuff.

HTH
Cheers - Neil

Or you can just use "CTRL-I" in WMP, too, which should work great. =)

--
(speaking for myself and doing this in my free time)
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]" <neil@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ji5sn1p2kn8mhgp94inbnh5oi3q0jpo1r5@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:52:44 -0800, "cycleboy1975(remove
> this)@hotmail.com"
> <cycleboy1975removethishotmailcom@discussions.micr osoft.com> wrote:
>
>>Am using version 9.00.00.3250 of Windows Media Player, Windows XP
>>Professional version 2002 service pack 2. Trying to copy stills from
>>videos
>>to excel. Find that it works sometimes and not others. It works when media
>>player is paused and I go to another application and come back and the
>>image
>>is still on the screen but if when I return the image is gone than I can
>>not
>>copy it successfully. Any ideas what determines when the screen image
>>stays.
>>Seem to have a higher success rate with some videos than others but even
>>one
>>I have trouble with worked once. Just don't know why it worked in that
>>instance.
>
> Yes, it's usually easy to solve though. It's to do with the way your
> graphics card is told to "overlay" the video on top of other stuff -
> using overlays is very good for playback performance but means
> "PrtScrn" and other ways to capture the image will fail.
>
> If you open media player, go to the Tools -> Options -> Performance
> tab. Now click the "Advanced" button and write down the settings of
> each checkbox (on paper - yes, I know !)
>
> Uncheck "use video mixing renderer" and "use overlays" and "high
> quality mode". OK out and try capping the picture like that.
>
> If it still doesn't work, uncheck the "Use primary surfaces" box too.
>
> When you're done capturing images, go back and reset the settings to
> the list you just made, to ensure your video playback performance
> isn't affected in day to day stuff.
>
> HTH
> Cheers - Neil

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 11:07:53 -0800, "zachd [ms]"
<zachd@nomailplz.online.microsoft.com> wrote:

>
>Or you can just use "CTRL-I" in WMP, too, which should work great. =)


It would work for a DVD image, but the OP didn't specify (and I
suspect it's not) a DVD. It sounds like a bog standard AVI or WMV
online video, in which case the DVD capture won't work afaik. Only
"they" know the answer to that ;-)

Cheers - Neil

I was actually surprised when I tried that a week ago against WMP 10...3937
or so - it actually seemed to work against other file types too. But yeah,
I agree that "they" know best. =)

--
(speaking for myself and doing this in my free time)
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]" <neil@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ju1tn1liru61du17utbjplkiteq2ofnvsu@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 11:07:53 -0800, "zachd [ms]"
> <zachd@nomailplz.online.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>Or you can just use "CTRL-I" in WMP, too, which should work great. =)
>
>
> It would work for a DVD image, but the OP didn't specify (and I
> suspect it's not) a DVD. It sounds like a bog standard AVI or WMV
> online video, in which case the DVD capture won't work afaik. Only
> "they" know the answer to that ;-)
>
> Cheers - Neil
>

Hmm maybe something's different about my system then - the capture DVD
image menu item only seemed to be active when I've got a DVD in the
drive and playing / paused. Would be nice-to-have globally if it does
work like that.

Cheers - Neil

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 18:49:55 -0800, "zachd [ms]"
<zachd@nomailplz.online.microsoft.com> wrote:

>
>I was actually surprised when I tried that a week ago against WMP 10...3937
>or so - it actually seemed to work against other file types too. But yeah,
>I agree that "they" know best. =)
>
>--
>(speaking for myself and doing this in my free time)
>See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
>This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Thanks guys. When I went to the options the video mixing renderer and
overlays were both already unchecked (maybe because I tried contol I??) Tried
unchecking primary surfaces and still didn't work. Couldn't see an option for
high quality mode so just played around with the combinations on the other
three. Found that if all checked the image copied to excel but "moved" in
relation to rest of copied screen. Worked the way I wanted when video mixing
renderer box was ticked but the use overlays box was not.

Cheers.

"Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]" wrote:

> Hmm maybe something's different about my system then - the capture DVD
> image menu item only seemed to be active when I've got a DVD in the
> drive and playing / paused. Would be nice-to-have globally if it does
> work like that.
>
> Cheers - Neil
>
> On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 18:49:55 -0800, "zachd [ms]"
> <zachd@nomailplz.online.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >I was actually surprised when I tried that a week ago against WMP 10...3937
> >or so - it actually seemed to work against other file types too. But yeah,
> >I agree that "they" know best. =)
> >
> >--
> >(speaking for myself and doing this in my free time)
> >See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
> >This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
>