Capturing Image From MPGs

UnclStevel said:

I make all of the screen caps at ET by starting the clip, then pausing where I want a capture, then pressing Alt+Print Screen to capture just the active window. Open an image editor and hit Ctrl+V to paste it and whala!

Uncle Steve

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That is precisely the method I use, and I'm successful about 20% of the time. The rest of the time I get solid black screens.

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How to re-record other video files playing on the screen (from RealPlayer, MediaPlayer or QuickTime)
Please note that HyperCam is not intended for re-recording of other video clips from the screen (e.g. playing in Media Player, RealVideo, QuickTime etc.), but rather for creating regular software presentations, tutorial, demos etc. If you still want to try it for re-recording other movie clips, please read on for some tips, but do not complain if it won't work for you. We do not support this function.

Sometime people want to re-record with HyperCam other movies, that they see playing on the web or in Microsoft Media Player, RealMedia RealPlayer, Apple's Quick Time Player etc. The problem they face is that often these players use video overlay for faster, smoother playback of the movie. A video overlay is invisible to Windows capture programs like HyperCam, because it is handled by a special video hardware. HyperCam will then record only a solid color block (usually pink, blue or black, the so called "overlay key color", which is all Windows sees at the place where the movie is played. But all is not lost, the overlay use for playback may be sometimes turned off, at least temporarily for recording. Here is how to do this:

Apple's QuickTime Player
In Ver. 4 control panel, disabling, "Enable QuickDraw Acceleration" in it's "Video" settings does the trick.
In Ver. 5 select "Edit/Preferences/Quick Time Preferences" from the menu. Then in "QuickTime Settings" window I have to select "Video Settings" in the selection box at the top and click "Safe Mode (GDI Only)". Then close "QuickTime Settings", close completely and re-start QuickTime Player.

Microsoft MediaPlayer: For different versions, different path through the settings may be needed. I just verified that with MediaPlayer ver. 7 and 8 you must select Tools menu, then Options, click the Performance tab and slide the Video Performance - Hardware Acceleration tab down, all the way to None. Note that this does not work for DVD playback in MediaPlayer - DVDs seem to be always played in a hardware overlay, not matter what you set for "Hardware Acceleration" - probably to protect from from copying.

RealMedia RealPlayer
RealOne Player: select "Tools" menu, then "Install/Configure Devices...". In the left "Category" panel, click "Hardware". Next, in the right panel under "Video card compatibility", click to remove the checkmark from "Use optimized video display" button. Close completely and restart RealOne Player.
Older G2: If you are in "compact view", switch first to "normal view" (from "View" menu). Then select Options/Preferences from the menu and click "Performance" tab. Then, at the bottom of "Preferences" window, turn off the "Use optimized video display" option and click on OK. Now you can record with HyperCam whatever is playing inside RealPlayer window.

Another user, Craig who probably worked with an older version, says: I went into the "Video Renderer" properties, (under advanced,) and un-checked both YUV and RGB overlay and flipping. With these four boxes unchecked, it's now recording fine.

Greg Przywara sent me the following advice:
In the Media Player there are these codecs that decide whether the playback screen is optimized or not. To turn off the optimization, you left click on the screen, click on Properties, then click on Advanced. You get a list of codecs in use. (Very important: You must be playing a local AVI file to do this!!) Click on the Indeo Codec and there will be a list of little checked boxes. Uncheck the one that says "transparent" and wa-la! you can now tape Media Player movies with Hyper Cam!!! But always remember to set the compression quality on the Hyper Cam at 100 percent especially if you're recording anything in color or the playback quality will give you a headache.

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