Documentation:Snapshots

There are two ways to take snapshots (i.e., screenshots or frame grabs) with VLC:

1. Open the Video menu, and select the Snapshot menu item.
2. Press the snapshot hotkey
   • Linux / Unix: Ctrl-Alt-s
   • Windows (Qt interface): Shift-s
   • Mac OS X: Command-Alt-s

When a snapshot is taken, it will briefly preview as a thumbnail with its filename and then fade away.

To change the hotkey, go to Tools -> Preferences. If "Show settings" is set to Simple, click Hotkeys; if "Show settings" is set All, navigate to Interface -> Hotkeys settings. Set the hotkey for Take video snapshot.

Snapshot location, format and name

The snapshot location depends upon your operating system:

• Windows XP: My Documents\My Pictures\
• Windows Vista, 7, and 8: C:\Users\Username\Pictures\
• Linux / Unix: $(HOME)/.vlc/
• Mac OS X: Desktop/

The default format for snapshots is PNG, but this may be changed to JPEG. Also, the default name for snapshots is vlcsnap- followed by a timestamp that is not the time of the frame in the video you're viewing, but rather the current date and time--as in 2014-01-16-14h57m19s163.

The location, format and name of snapshots may be changed in the Preferences menu item in the Tools tab. Also, you may substitute other text for vlcsnap- in the Video snapshot file prefix and you may choose to have snapshots numbered sequentially (i.e., 000001, 000002, 000003, and so on) instead of with a timestamp.

As of version 0.9.0, you may even use variables in the text used for the filename. For example, $T (must be upper case) will insert the video's time code into the file name. If you were to change the prefix to Friends-$T- while watching a DVD of Friends, then the snapshot filenames would look something like this: Friends-00_05_21-2014-01-16-14h57m19s163.png. This indicates a snapshot taken at 5 minutes and 21 seconds into the video; and it was taken on this day at this time: 2014-01-16-14h57m19s163.

For a shorter file name, check the "Sequential numbering" option in the configuration box (below). Instead of numbers like 2014-01-16-14h57m19s163, VLC will simply insert the count of snapshots for that session--for example, 00004.

For a full list of variables, please see Documentation:Play HowTo/Format String.

Configuring snapshot options under Windows

This page is part of official VLC media player Documentation (User Guide • Streaming HowTo • Hacker Guide • Modules)
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