# Mac boffins: A DVD screen capture widget? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 31, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830 "2007-07-31T16:50:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830/1 "2007-07-31T16:50:51Z")
Okay, I’m an idiot on this stuff, so be gentle. When I’m watching a DVD on my iMac, I’d like to be able to stop the action and then take a picture of the screen and save it as a jpeg or whatever. The standard Mac DVD Player doesn’t seem to have this ability; when I try the obvious things, like dragging a frame around the screen and hitting Apple-C, I get a message that that function isn’t permitted (or is it “enabled”). Is there some Dashboard widget I can download to do this? I read once about command-shift-3 being a way to take a picture of a window; would that work? (That just occurred to me, but I’m not in a position to check it right now, being 20 miles away from my Mac.) ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830/2 "2007-07-31T17:02:42Z")
You can capture DVD images by using a different player to play the DVD. I’ve used [VLC media player](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) in the past; it seems to work pretty well. Hope this helps! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830/3 "2007-07-31T17:43:52Z")
You can also use Snapz Pro but it’s not free [http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/](http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830/4 "2007-07-31T23:04:54Z")
[QUOTE=Rocketeer] Okay, I’m an idiot on this stuff, so be gentle. When I’m watching a DVD on my iMac, I’d like to be able to stop the action and then take a picture of the screen and save it as a jpeg or whatever. The standard Mac DVD Player doesn’t seem to have this ability; when I try the obvious things, like dragging a frame around the screen and hitting Apple-C, I get a message that that function isn’t permitted (or is it “enabled”). Is there some Dashboard widget I can download to do this? I read once about command-shift-3 being a way to take a picture of a window; would that work? (That just occurred to me, but I’m not in a position to check it right now, being 20 miles away from my Mac.) [/QUOTE] Apple’s DVD player deliberately disables screen caps, including cmd-shft-3. Use VLC as one of the earlier posters suggested. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830/5 "2007-08-01T00:47:44Z")
I use [DVD Capture,](http://www.pure-mac.com/screen.html#dvdcapture) myself. Works fine for me, and you can use it with the normal Apple DVD player. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830/6 "2007-08-01T00:50:46Z")
PowerDVD, which comes OEM with some DVD drives, has a frame capture button. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-boffins-a-dvd-screen-capture-widget/413830/7 "2007-08-01T13:22:36Z")
Thanks to all who responded. While Googling around, I found [this hack](http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2006/01/01/mac-os-x-screenshot-secrets.html?page=2) (about halfway down) and created DVD Player Scripts which seem to do the trick. It’s absurdly simple, too, which I found strange.