Windows Media Player
About WMP
It's not the greatest program, but does play *most* videos and music files, and it's a nice feature you can minimize the player to the task bar.
Capture Screenshots from Windows Media Player
You can't normally take screenshot of a video because most players use "overlays" and video acceleration, and instead it will capture a gray area. This can ALSO be a problem if trying to show a video on TV/projector using a video output cable.
The simple way to capture images from WMP is:
- Press [Ctrl] + [I] (screenshot for version 9 up)
- This will prompt you to save as a .JPG or .BMP
A better way is:
- Open Window Media Player
- Then go to Tools >> Options
- In Options, select the Performance Tab
- Way below you click on the Advanced Button
- Uncheck "Use Overlays"
- Click OK
Now you can simply go:
- [Alt] + [Enter] (full screen)
- Go to the scene and press the [Print Scrn] button
- Open Paint and [Ctrl]+[V] (paste)
Media Player Classic (MPC)
I've had a weird problem with WMP whereby it often gives an error message when opening DVDs - something about region encoding, even though it's a ligitimate DVD!
I haven't found a solution for this yet, so instead I've been using the MUCH lighter Media Player Classic (MPC) instead.... which can be downloaded freely from here. Create a shortcut on your desktop and go "Open > DVD".