Screencaps 101

[moira finnie]

Okay, Technobrains,
All hands on deck. Could someone please explain what software is required to create, modify and upload a screencap from a classic (or not so classic) movie from a computer? I do not have a Mac which I have the impression is best for this sort of thing. Only a lowly PC. Please help me to stop being so ashamed of the depth of my ignorance on this topic.
Your humble stone-age computer correspondent,
Moira

[MissGoddess]

Well Moira, I'm the worst at giving instructions as you will see, but the two programs that I use are Windows Media Player (to play the movie) and Microsoft's Paint program (where I "paste" the image after I've "copied" it from the Windows Media Player screen).

I play the movie in Full Screen Mode and hit the "printscreen" button on my keyboard when I get to a moment I want to capture. Then I go open up Paint, click on Edit from the menu and then select "Paste", after which my image capture appears. I can then crop the image however I choose, resize it or make whatever adjustments and then save it to my computer. After I have all the images I want, I generally upload all my screencaps to a web storage site like Photobucket to save space on my computer.

I'm sure others have a more seamless way of doing things, or manner of explanation, but that's the nuts-and-bolts of how I go about it.

I hope that helps!

[moira finnie]

Thanks so much, Miss G.
You explained it more coherently than the guy at Radio Shack and at Circuit City!! I'll let you know how it turns out after I explain things further. While I have both Windows Media Player and Paint programs on my computer, do I also need to install the software that would enable me to play dvds on my computer? Cause that may be my next step, unless I can figure out a way to capture images played on videos on the internet.
Thank you again.
moira

[MissGoddess]

While I have both Windows Media Player and Paint programs on my computer, do I also need to install the software that would enable me to play dvds on my computer? Cause that may be my next step, unless I can figure out a way to capture images played on videos on the internet.
Thank you again.

Hi Moira,

Yes, you will need a DVD drive (it's a piece of hardware) if your computer didn't come with that already pre-installed.

Here's what one looks like:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... u=313-5239