Snagit And The Curse Of The Black Screen
Posted on May 11, 2008
Filed Under Snagit Features, Video
Have you ever tried to capture video with Snagit but instead of getting the video you end up with a black or grey screen?
The problem is actually not related to Snagit but usually due to graphics hardware acceleration being used to display the image/video.
Newer media players normally use graphics hardware acceleration on your system.
Read on to see how to solve this…
Graphics hardware performs a “hardware overlay” of video on the screen, which bypasses the normal Windows display memory that Snagit captures.
Most video capture programs which capture video from a video camera use “hardware overlay” by default for their video preview. This problem affects all screen capture programs, and even the image put in the clipboard by the Print Screen key.
The solution is to disable any hardware acceleration in the application that is playing the video or disable hardware acceleration system wide. Because this affects all applications on the system, it may cause performance problems for some applications and some applications may not run at all.
How to disable graphics hardware acceleration globally for all applications
Windows XP or 2000: Right-click on the desktop and select Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot. Set the Hardware acceleration slider to None.
On other versions of Windows: Select Control Panel > System > Performance tab > Graphics > Advanced settings. Set the Hardware acceleration slider to None.
I hope this little guide was helpful.
Until next time 
Peter - Your Snagit Guide
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5 Responses to “Snagit And The Curse Of The Black Screen”
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Hi Peter,
I didn’t know that Snag-it could capture video. Can it capture the last 20 keystrokes or something to that effect?
Gita
Hello Gita,
It can capture all that happens on screen, so in effect it could capture keystrokes that are written one way or another, but you couldn’t use it as an application logging key strokes on your computer.
I hope that answered your question.
Best,
Peter
When I try capturing video, the video stands stills at a random part and I get a still capture or frame from the video. I hope that works for me, I did not knoe it could capture video and I have just suggested it for the “9th” version wishlist!
I turned the acceleration to none but when I try to reaccess Intervideo Windvd 5 (I ran out of the free trial so I can’t capture images anymore) or Windows Media Player 10, I still get a black screen image when I capture. Any suggestions?
So that was it? This problem has been plaguing us since we invested in SnagIt 1.5 years ago. Always thought it was a limitation with the software and left it at that.