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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
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.
Worked perfectly for both Snagit and Camtasia. Much thanks. It appears that hardware accelerators and some software accelerators (used by individual programs) can place images in a layer separate from the actual screen image, which is what all screen capture software actually capture. Snagit and Camtasia worked fine for all other purposes until I attempted to capture screen video from a psychology research program we wrote in Python that places two separate video clips on the screen side by side. One of the clips would be captured and one would be blank. Reducing the hardware acceleration by 2 steps solved the problem. Unfortunately, I had faced the same problem about a year and a half ago on a laptop, and forgotten about the problem and solution. It seems like my chimp friends have better memories than I do.
Hello Peter,
I downloaded the trail Ver. of Snagit 9.0.2
when scrolling down in a pdf larg file, the image output in the editor is like slices. I am not able to get one complete image.
how can you help.
Thank you
Eitan
THIS WORKED! I had an audio and video problem before (see the audio section here).
I would take a video capture, and I would get a black screen, or the image would be off-centered and half-black etc (same with video captures).
I don’t have the hardware accelerator at zero, I slid it only to half-way, and I can capture everything with GOM now.
Oh, I USE GOMPLAYER, and it is the best video/audio player I think, and it’s 100% free.
I was worried it was a cheap video card, GOM, or something wrong with Snagit, it’s not any of these.
Snagit has been dead-on accurate twice for me on these help pages. Read carefully and try it.
Hi, I have this problem recently with Snagit and Camtasia as well. I have been use it for several years but this problem just come up suddently. I have tried many suggestions onthe web but nothing works. Suddenly, in a certain case it works and then it doesn’t work again. Finally! I found out the problem is created by IE . Normally, I had my IE open all the time on my desktop. After closing the IE and then try again, they just work fine and that problem is solved. I suppose there is somethign to do with the security settiung on the DIRECTX in the IE but I had found out how to properly set it, so I just made sure I am not using IE at the same time as Snagit or Camtasia. I hope this may help.
Herrick
I’ve had trouble with this black box video output with sound and did what you suggested and it still has the same issue. Now I get all these windows pop ups about other applications not running and my virus scanner can’t do anything at this point either. I had to change the settings back for the computer to function properly including going online (I waited 10 minutes to connect then gave up and restarted in safe mode).
Seems like the video capturing/recording issue is mostly when I try to capture live streams from
windows media oriented players. Everything else works perfectly. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Nothing is stupid..doesn’t hurt to try..
–Paulette
i’m using snagit 5.1.1 there’s a problem recording video. it allows me to “record” meaning: switching between windows, it even shows my arrow. but then when i try to record a video … it stops working or it seems to just be a still image with audio. What do i have to do? I tried lowering my hardware accelerator, but it still doesn’t work. I’m worried that if i set my hardware accelerator to “none” it will harm my computer? I’m not too good with computers. can someone please help?
thanks
Hello,
For video problems the suggestion that you refer to will certainly fix the problem. You can trun down the hardware acceleration without any worries, there is no problem setting this to zero. You may not be able to play games, but you can adjust it up again when not recording video with Snagit if you wish.
I am having the black screen issue with both Snagit and Camtasia. I set Hardware Acceleration to none and tried Firefox instead of IE, but the problem persists. Not sure what to try next.
The black screen problem is not based on browser, but your graphics card. So it should not matter which browser or if you capture images on another think on your computer. Try updating your graphics drivers to begin with.
I’ve been having the same problem of “black screen” whenever I try to capture anything in any mode while either IE or Firefox is open. If neither IE or Firefox are open then the capture works fine.
Any thoughts ? using Snagit 9.1.3 (build 19)
I forgot to mention in my last post/reply that I tried every which way with the hardware acceleration and my video/graphics drivers are updated as well.
The problem for me was with Zonealarm Extreme. NOW FIXED.I am able to use SnagIt 9.1.3 by changing my Zonealarm Extreme Security suite 9.1.008’s Forcefield’s browser security settings/Advanced/uncheck “block programs that secretly record your keystrokes”.
I have not had any SnagIt issues since ! THIS WORKS 100%, All the advice & tricks related to hardware acceleration were totally useless…..
Not Browser or video related – happens from PoweerPoint as well. Turning off hardware acceleration had no effect. Seems to be a problem with trying to capture too many pixels – anything above 800 X 800 results in a black screen. Same if either width or height is too large, but I didn’t quantify it through trial and error. I looked in the Help for some indication of a size limitation before I came here, but didn’t find anything through a reasonable search.
I can’t capture the screen of running application on Windows 7 32-bit Ultimate either with SnagIt 9.1.3 or with much older SnagIt 7.
Instead,
1) The current state of Windows desktop is captured in Aero theme;
2) Black screen is captured in classic theme.
Previously, I successfully captured the screenshots with SnagIt 7 on Windows XP on the same hardware.
Also, it is not possible to disable/enable Monitor’s Hardware Acceleration in Windows 7 because the button in Troubleshooting tab is disabled either for generic PnP driver or for driver specific for my monitor (I’m still using LG FLATRONez T711B).
Any suggestions or fixes?
Thanks.
I had the black screen problem with Camtasia but not for Snagit so just couldn’t figure it out. I would like to thank Tom Turner for your advice on Zone Alarm Extreme. I have tried everything with Hardware Acceleration and looking at DirectX etc and nothing worked for Camtasia. I’ve just followed your simple instructions on ZoneAlarm and bingo, it’s worked!!
Thanks so much Tom for sharing, without your post, I would still be tearing my hair out with frustration!
Hi Mary, glad you got it sorted out.
After updating/downloading the newer version of ZoneAlarm Extreme, I’m again having the same problem, “black screen” whenever I try to capture anything with Snagit. I’ve tried everything I can think of including all the above recommendations without success.
Have you updated your ZoneAlarm with the newer version, 9.3.014.000 ? are you having the same problems again as I am?
Does anyone else have this problem after updating ZoneAlarm? and a fix?
Hello Tom Turner,
I would advice that you contact ZoneAlarm about this problem and see if they perhaps have a solution. I have tested Snagit 10 with 3 different security solutions, BitDefender, Adaware and Vipre and none of these creates any problems.
BitDefender:
http://www.softwarecasa.com/bitdefender-antivirus.html
Adaware:
http://www.softwarecasa.com/adaware.html
Vipre:
http://www.softwarecasa.com/vipre-antivirus-antispyware.html
There is one major issue which no one seems to have mentioned as yet. If you have Windows 7 and a modern Nvidia graphics card, it is not possible to disable hardware acceleration – period. As such there are a number of video player applications that will be nigh on impossible to grab. I have work with CCTV for the Police and get hundreds of different players etc through the door. We use snagit and camtasia studio, and both of them have difficulty capturing, we have to keep an old Win XP machine with an ati card in it for such things. Snagit and camtasia really need to work on capturing from the hardware GPU overlay.
I too had been getting just black when I tried on Win7 to capture w SnagIt 9, 10 or several other programjs that were supposed to work with Win 7 (XP & Vista never was a problem!).
I was led to the fix by pondering Mr. Turner’s Nov. 15 post above about Zone Alarm Extreme’s Force Field disabling key logging (includes screen captures I guess).
I have Zone Alarm free and seemingly it does not have Forcefield.
It did occur to me when wondering what else might be doing it…to disable Prevxx (15 min off mode for games). Sure enuf it worked! I will experiment with other settings in Prevxx (require PC restarts to implement) to see if I can avoid turning it off entirely (I also have Avast Free Antivirus [wasn’t the culprit]).
I have struggled with this issue for 4 months & could not figure out why the Snagit Forums at Techsmith (as well as Google search results) weren’t loaded with this complaint. I guess no one else is running Prevxx.
I found this ‘black screen’ page [the page you’re reading this on) via Google. I also found rhis page re ZA on Hyperion’s Capture tool website:
http://www.hyperionics.com/hsdx/hs4faq.asp#ZAForceField
Hi there!
That is fantastic! Thank you so much! I live away from my home country, but I teach online. I needed to record a video of the screen with my voice commentary and I was trying to crack it for the past 3 weeks. Finally, I got the new snagit and I had the black screen curse! Imagine my frustration.
The guide is so easy and helpful! Thank you once again!
I have found another much easier solution for the Image-capture-video. when you want to capture an image from a video, just go to setting for the program used for displaying your video, and cancel accelerated video output “overlay” from the video setting. Like vlc video setting.
THANK YOU, thank you, thank you… Tom Turner. A couple of hours into searching the web for a solution to this problem, and chasing wild geese about hardware acceleration and all sorts of outdated information, I stumbled across your comment. And I was surprisingly disappointed when it didn’t work for me.
But, after a reboot, all was well with the world again. According to Check Point (http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/forcefield_x/help/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm -> Troubleshooting and Customizing) the settings don’t take effect right away: “Your new settings take effect in your next ZoneAlarm browser security session, so restart ZoneAlarm browser security if you want to see them immediately.” Incidentally, if someone is using the standalone Forcefield product (if it’s still out there), they may also find that this applies, though the instructions for resolution are likely different.
So, to clarify, ZoneAlarm Extreme Security users:
– Right-click the ZoneAlarm icon in the system tray and choose “Show ZoneAlarm Extreme Security Control Center”
– Click “Browser Security” then “Settings” (or, alternatively just click “off”).
> – Click “Advanced”
> – Uncheck “Block programs that secretly record your keystrokes” (which could also say “…while simultaneously preventing the ability to do certain screen capture and record operations”)
> – Click “OK”
– Right-click the ZoneAlarm icon in the system tray and choose “Shutdown ZoneAlarm Extreme Security” (consider disconnecting from the internet or the network for these two steps)
– Once it’s unloaded, restart ZoneAlarm Extreme Security from the start menu.
It would be nice if Check Point would put a toggle for this on the context menu for ZoneAlarm and make it activate immediately, because that’s a lot of steps to go through to toggle this feature on-and-off. I’m leaving mine off in the meantime.
Good luck!
David
P.S. By the way, Tom, right now I’m using ZAES v9.3.037.000 with Browser Security v1.5.152.14
That’s all well and good for XP and 2000 but Hardware Acceleration cannot be disabled in Windows Vista or 7 with Nvidia and ATI Video Drivers. This question has been posed to many forums and no one has the anwer yet. If anyone has the answer for disable hardware acceleration in Windows 7 32 Bit, please post it here.
Thanks.
Hi,
I have problem capturing screenshot of video games with my snag it v9.0.
when I try to capture it turns out a black screen. & since I want to capture a video game & with hardware acceleration u can not play games (as peter said) , This guide didn’t work for me.
Has anyone got the solution? Thanks in advance.
Sometimes when I’m using Snagit, the page goes blank (white) when I click on the red ‘capture’ button.
This is just grabbing a still image screen-shot and not using video.
Anyone know how to overcome this?
I have a GREAT solution! I literally spent HOURS using Google and restating my search. I tried to update the driver for my video card and then, I tried to figure out why it wouldn’t update properly. I spend countless hours messing with settings, reading, throwing stuff, and just plain loosing my marbles! Well, FINALLY, I found something about Zone Alarm (A security suite) and I transposed the idea and went into my Webroot settings and chose the correct option to allow access to Snagit. EUREKA! There was also an option for the other capture programs I tried. It works just fine! Ok, first I will explain. Webroot, Zone Alarm, and I’m sure Kaspersky, Norton, and other anti-virus programs block the use of Snagit and other capture program that try to take screenshot of website with vital info on them. For instance, anything you typed like email, bank account, google searches, or any site in general where you entered anything, will be unable to be captured. The reason for this, is to stop hackers from remotely taking a screen shot of lets say your Chase account information. If the hacker can take screenshots without your knowledge, they can get important info to do bad things with your account. So you have to find the setting to allow Snagit.exe or which ever program you use to allow the captures. Once done, you will be able to take screenshots again. YAY! I will explain how to do this in Webroot Secure Anywhere Complete. Keep in mind no matter which antivirus you use, there should be a way to do this. If you can’t google search how, contact your manufacturer. Ok, here goes:
Steps:
1. Open Webroot Secure Anywhere Complete. (Use the desktop shortcut if that’s easy or use Start>All Programs>Webroot SecureAnywhere folder>Webroot SecureAnywhere icon.)
2. Click the Identity and Privacy tab on left.
3. Click on the “View/Edit Applications” link.
4. Scroll until you see the name of your screen capture program. In my case its under “snagit32.exe in C:\program files (86)\techsmith\snagit 10”.
5. In the three columns there are buttons you can choose. They are: “Protect” “Allow” or “Deny”. In my case all my programs were selected as “Deny”. Click on the bubble in the “Protect” column. Not sure what the difference between this column and “Allow” are, but I chose “Protect.
6. Click close when done.
7. Close Webroot, since you are done.
8. Check to see if it worked by trying the same page that went black before.
This should work. It sure did for me! I decided to share this post so I can save you all the hours of net digging I had to endure. Good Luck!
Greg, you are the man.. exactly what I was looking for and did the trick!
This solution also worked for me, Excellent Post.
Thanks
I have the same problem Peter does. When I press the PrtScrn button, I get the Snagit crosshairs, but my entire screen goes black. Essentially, I can’t use Snagit. I know it has to be a setting somewhere (?), but I checked Zone Alarm’s settings and it seems to be fine with Snagit. I am using Windows 7.
Windows 7 OS; Latest Internet Explorer version; Latest FireFox version;
Had Snagit 8.0 upgrated to Snagit 11.0 (same problem)
Nortons Antivirus (probably the problem – I hate nortons)
Problem: Click Red capture button and screen goes white.
Only happens with either Internet Explorer or FireFox active AND my bank web site being view.
Thus, if I wish to take a screen shot of my banking information I cannot as the screen goes blank. Actually, only have to vist a bank website and this happens.
I suspted some security program (probably Nortons) is blanking the screen but I have not found the cause yet.
Any help is appreciated
I can’t turn off hardware acceleration because I have no admin rights. Anything else I can do do solve the black screen problem?
If this is the cause for you there is no other way. Can you ask an administrator to change it for you?
I have Snagit 11 running on Vista, and there is still no way to alter the hardware accelerator tab, even if you have admin privileges. This is extremely unfortunate because I just bought the software, and now cannot do any video captures. Does anyone know a work around besides going in an changing the properties on the Snagit.exe application file?
Hello Victoria,
Thank you for your comment. In this case I would suggest that you contact in-product support and give them as much details as possible about this and hopefully there is a solution.
You find Snagit in-product support here
Best of luck,
Peter
I was using snagit fine until I upgraded today. I have windows 8.1. I reboot and click the capture image button and the screen goes black and capture black image.
I tried the various approaches outlined above but nothing seems to help. I wish there was a hot line to call.
Appreciate any advise
Oscar