How to Make Screencaps in VLC
The VLC video player is one of the easiest ways to make screen caps. Screen cap is short for screen captures. A screen capture is a still frame from a movie. It can be a DVD, a live performance or something from YouTube. It basically can be any type of video that is able to be played via an external video player, such as VLC. Screen caps come in handy, because they allow watchers to share moments from a movie or other information without forcing someone to sit through an entire presentation.
In order to start screen capping in VLC, you want to open the program. Once opened, head to Settings and then Preferences. Click on the plus to expand the Video section. Find Output Modules, then Filters and under the latter, you want to open up Advanced Options. Advanced Options should be checked so you can open up all the settings you need to set up proper screen capping properties.
Once checked, you want to navigate to Video Output Module. Change Default to Image Video Output. Under Output Modules, you should also be able to find Image File. Click on that to change those options. Change the Image File to PNG, JPEG or BMP. PNG will give you the highest quality whereas BMP will give you the largest file size. PNG is generally good for screen caps no matter what program you use.
When you choose your Image File output, you now want to choose a ratio to screen cap. This is the amount of time between each still frame being taken. Depending on the video, you may want this to be frequently, such as every 20 – 25 seconds. If the video is moving quickly, something even smaller such as 7 – 10 seconds may be required. It may take some time to figure out the right fit for your video. You can always go back and change it as desired.
Finally, save your settings and begin playing your video. If done correctly, you should only hear the audio as the video is screen capped in the background. Once the video is done playing, navigate to the folder where you are keeping saved items and preview the screen caps. You have now successfully screen capped in VLC.
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Comments
I just dowloaded the newest version of VLC and nothing is exactly as you describe. I cannot for the life of me find anywhere to set a 'ratio' and let the program do the capping for me instead of having to sit here and take individual caps myself. Any ideas?
All I get when I select a video file to open is the sound. No picture at all.
I have the newest version (1.01) and nothing is exactly like you said.
Does anyone know a tutorial for the new version?
Note, for those with the later version of VLC:
1) Click on Tools, Preferences
2) Down the bottom, change Show settings from Simple to All
3) Click on Video, Output modules
4) Change video mode from Default to Image video output
5) Under video on the left, click on Image file
6) Make sure PNG is the format, alter the ratio as needed
7) Filename prefix should have a - at the end for tidy filenames, e.g. trueblood-
8) Click OK
9) Open file and play... you won't see any video. Just audio.
Additional steps for DVDs:
9) Click the media menu, then Advanced Open File
10) Select the file
11) Click on the Disc tab
12) Change Title to when the video starts (Windows Media Player may help you find out when). e.g. Title = 1
13) Play video. Mute audio if you want to continue doing stuff while it caps
Find where it outputted it too.... I think I edited my settings so not sure what default is.
Member to change video mode back to default to watch stuff normally.
On my version of VLC there's no Image Video Output, I undestood it's been replaced with something called scene filter, but I don't know how to use it. Can anybody help?
I did find the scene filter settins in the settings showing all, under video -> output modules -> scene filter, but what should I choose as the video output module to make it work? There's nothing with "image" or "scene".
Just hit Shift + S
Look for the image in your My Pictures folder.
Done.
@Endo
You made my day. 2 buttons and presto...I have a screen cap! Thanks a mil!
Shift + S totally works! Ended up in my pics folder.
@Endo
That's great if you want to take a single snapshot, but not if you're screencapping a whole 30 minute video.
Is it possible to do this with a Mac? The preferences in my Macish version of VLC is quite a bit different from described in the windowsian VLC.
100% Perfect i just wanted a simple Answer on how to do a SIMPLE SINGLE SCREEN CAPTURE and the answer is SHIFT-S, if you want to do Multiple Screen Capture easily just HOLD DOWN SHIFT-S and HEY PRESTO 100s of Screen grabs appear in MY PICS FOLDER. Whoop Whoop
FunFacter 3 years ago
Good Way to Do easily but i was wondering is there any way to fix the audio and video syncnorisation problem using VLC??