capture command

The capture command copies the contents of the frame buffer and stores it in the specified file. Digital-video devices recognize this command.

To send this command, call the mciSendString function with the lpszCommand parameter set as follows.

_stprintf_s(
  lpszCommand, 
  TEXT("capture %s %s %s"), 
  lpszDeviceID, 
  lpszCapture, 
  lpszFlags
); 

Parameters

lpszDeviceID

Identifier of an MCI device. This identifier or alias is assigned when the device is opened.

lpszCapture

One or more of the following flags:

Value Meaning
as pathname Specifies the destination path and filename for the captured image. This flag is required.
at rectangle Specifies the rectangular region within the frame buffer that the device crops and saves to disk. If omitted, the cropped region defaults to the rectangle specified or defaulted on a previous put "source" command for this device instance.

lpszFlags

Can be "wait", "notify", "test", or a combination of these. For more information about these flags, see The Wait, Notify, and Test Flags.

Return Value

Returns zero if successful or an error otherwise.

Remarks

This command might fail if the device is currently playing motion video or executing some other resource-intensive operation. If the frame buffer is being updated in real time, the updating momentarily pauses so that a complete image is captured. If the device pauses the updating, there might be a visual or audible effect. If the file format, compression algorithm, and quality levels have not been set, their defaults are used.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client
Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server
Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]

See also

MCI

MCI Command Strings

put