Windows Media Player 11 no longer supports the CTRL + I method to grab a video frame and convert it into a still image. There is another way to do this using third party programs. ..
VLC Media Player
VLC media player is a popular media player for Windows that is regularly updated with new features and codecs. It also supports 64-bit versions of Windows. One small feature of the program is to take a snapshot of a video while playing or when paused. Other than taking a snapshot, there isn’t much else to the feature.
To take a snapshot of a video or DVD:
- Click on Video in the left column of your computer screen.
- Click on Take Snapshot in the right column.
- If all you need are a couple of stills from the video, VLC is perfect. If you want more options, then I would suggest GOM player as an alternative. ..
Classic Media Player
The Classic Media Player is a great media player that is free, lightweight and customizable. It also has a simple option to save the current frame as a still image. Just click on File and then click on Save Image.
GOM Player
GOM Player is a powerful audio and video player that includes many popular codecs. It can play most videos without installing separate codecs, and it can also play broken AVI files or AVI files that have not been completely downloaded yet.
The GOM player is a great way to watch your favorite videos. It has a built in screen capture utility that you can use to capture still images of the video that you’re currently playing. There are also a couple of other programs that out there that let you do the same thing, but GOM player is cooler because it includes a Burst Capture feature that lets you take continuous screenshots of up to 999 still images!
To capture frames of a video, you can click on the Control Panel icon at the bottom right.
You can either click on Screen Capture to begin a capture with the default settings or you can click on Advanced Capture and configure them as you desire. ..
You can configure the destination directory for the still images, the image format (JPEG or BMP), the quality of the JPEG, the burst capture images (number of images you want to capture) and the burst interval in seconds. You can also quickly set the current frame as your Windows background.
If you find that the video is too dark or too light, you can adjust the brightness and contrast before capturing your images. ..
The GOM Player and VLC Media Player are two excellent media players that have some really useful advanced features. If you’re sick of the default DVD playing software that you get on your computer after purchase, then these two media players are definitely worth checking out.
A couple of other programs let you capture screenshots of videos and one that I have used is Virtual Dub. Since it’s geared more towards editing and processing video files, I didn’t mention it at the top. If you have any other suggestions, let us know in the comments. Enjoy!
