Ever tried to capture an image from Windows Media Player? A colleague and I tried recently and to our great surprise the captured image was blank! And when we pressed Pause the captured image was still blank! Inevitably, the screenshot was essential for a presentation that day, so we reached for the digital camera and averted a crisis.

Using a digital camera is hardly the right way to capture screen images. A quick look at the online help drew a blank. Next, I searched the web for a capture tool (I'd been using Print Scrn); there are certainly tools available for purchase. However, the best solution came from a website that explained how to set the Media Player options to enable screen capture. Options? These were well hidden on version 9 which I was using.

http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/03/capture-images-from-windows-media-player/

These instructions are for Windows Media Player v9 and v10.

1. Open Window Media Player.
2. Choose Options from the Tools menu to display the Options dialog box.
   (To display the menus:
   On WMP v10, click the down arrow button at the top-right of the player.
   On WMP v9, click show/hide menus button at the top-left of the player.)
3. In the Options dialog box, select the Performance tab.
4. Click Advanced, located towards the bottom of the tab. The Video Acceleration Settings dialog box opens.
   
5. Clear the Use Overlays checkbox.
6. Click OK.

You can now capture the Media Player screen(s) using Print Scrn.

Note: You can use Ctrl + I to save a copy of the image.