Mac Lab Report

Capture Stills from DVDs with a Simple Hack

- 2006.03.16

My seven-year-old son enjoys taking screen shots of scenes in movie previews so he can print them out and hang them on the wall of his room.

He recently decided he wanted a screen grab from a DVD he was watching, but (as many of you know) that function isn't available when using Apple's DVD Player. This is one of those little things that Apple presumably does to keep movie studios happy, while they remain blissfully unaware that simple workarounds exist, such as Mac OS X Screenshot Secrets.

A number of other hits on my search list pointed me to utilities such as ScreenShot Plus and SnapNDrag, but since I only wanted fixed screen grabs, I decided to give the hack described in Mac OS X Screenshot Secrets a try.

You can add a DVD screen grab command to Apple's script menu. In OS X, the steps are simple:

Log in as owner or admin.
Open the Script Editor utility in ~/Applications/AppleScript/.
Type the following: do shell script "screencapture ~/Desktop/DVD-screenshot.png"
Save the Script as "DVD Screenshot" in the following location: ~/LIbrary/Application Support/DVD Player/Scripts.

If there isn't a folder called "DVD Player" in your Application Support folder, just create one. Then create a Scripts folder inside of that, and save your script there.

The next time you run DVD player, a new menu item will appear in the script menu: DVD Screenshot. Pause the movie at the desired location, choose the menu item, and the entire screen (movie included) will be saved to your desktop as "DVD-Screenshot."

You can open this with Preview and crop it or print it from there.

There are many other functions available using this little utility, but I'll refer you to the O'Reilly article for them rather than just copying the article. (For Windows users and other operating systems, check out the Wikipedia entry for Screenshot.)

I don't currently (today) have access to an OS 9 machine that has a DVD player. If an enterprising reader could let me know if screen grabs using the usual Shift-Command-3 or 4 work in DVD movies, I'd appreciate it.

Jeff Adkins is a science teacher who isn't afraid to state his preferences in computing platforms. In his classroom he has everything from a beige All-in-One to a a G4 XServe, and they all work together nicely. He calls himself the "poster child for technology integration" in the classroom. He was the 2006 Outstanding Educator of the Year for the California Computer Using Educators (CUE) organization. He also maintains a site for astronomy teachers at www.AstronomyTeacher.com.

Recent Mac Lab Reports

Microsoft Word 2004 vs. iWork Pages 1.0 for writing a book, 2008.01.10. Microsoft Word is great for technical writing, powerful yet slow, while Pages lets you concentrate on just writing, making it great for novels.
iWeb a great tool for quickly creating an attractive website, 2007.09.11. Apple's iWeb software isn't just easy to use, it also integrates nicely with .mac and other programs in the iLife bundle.
Use your Bluetooth phone to control your Mac? Maybe, 2007.02.27. Salling Clicker software turns many Bluetooth phones into remote controls for Bluetooth-equipped Macs.
More in the Mac Lab Report index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Macintosh IIcx, introduced 1989.03.07. The first compact modular Mac, essentially a 3-slot Mac IIx, was a big hit.
February 9 in LEM history: 2000: Think choices - Promoting the Macintosh - 2001: Apple vs. Mac clones - 2005: Apple and the $100 laptop - Yojimbo - Core Duo vs. G5 - 2007: The story behind After Dark - Microsoft Office 2007
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Mac Lab Report copyright © 2000-08 by Jeff Adkins. Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The Apple Store
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
GainSaver
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay