Have you ever wanted to re-record movies, music videos or other stuff playing on the web?

Well, the problem is that these players use video overlay. A video overlay is invisible to Windows capture programs because it is handled by a special video hardware. So, when you try to record you only see a solid black block. This is the overlay.

So, if you want to re-record what you see playing on the web or in Microsoft Media Player, RealMedia RealPlayer, Apple's Quick Time Player etc. you can use video screen capture software and temporarily turn off the overlay. Now, there are two ways to do it:

You can disable the graphics hardware acceleration globally for all applications,

or

You can disable the graphics hardware acceleration for a particular application.

We are going to concentrate on the second method.

And, it is very easy to do! If you want to learn the first method we will provide you a resource on how where to get the information on how to do this at the end of this article.

Apple Quick Time Player

From the menu select "Edit > Preferences > Quick Time Preferences". You will then in the "QuickTime Settings" window. Select "Video Settings" from the list menu at the top and then click "Safe Mode (GDI Only)". Then close "QuickTime Settings". And finally, close everything completely and re-start QuickTime Player.

Microsoft MediaPlayer

Select the Tools menu, then Options , click the Performance tab and slide the Video Performance - Hardware Acceleration tab down, all the way to None . Note that this does not work for DVD playback.

RealMedia RealPlayer

Select Tools > Preferences > Hardware and at the bottom you will see Video card compatibility' Move the slider over to Most Reliable'.

That is all there is to it!

If you want to learn how to disable the graphics hardware acceleration globally for all applications which is very easy to do, you can find where this information is available in the Resource Box.

P Ericsson and his team at Easy Screen Capture Video provide some great tips on how to create professional quality videos in real time easily without having to be a multi-media expert. Another benefit is that it does not involve a lot of time or money to do.