how to take screenshots!??
 

i want to take some screencaps of a video...
i've used about half a dozen programs(including the prnt scrn button)
the pic comes nicely on screen but when i save it in any format(jpg/gif/tif/png) and open it in a viewer...it comes highly dithered(with regular dotted noise)
any ideas on what i can do?
the problem only happens in the area of the video...rest of the screen comes out fine

I've seen this happen before, but usually when you paste the screenshot into an editor, it is already dithered, not after you save it. I'm not sure how to bypass it.

ive done this with snag-it, printed the screenshots too. it works.

nothing worked :(
i tried another half dozen programs

ultimatly VirtualDub worked coz it directly copies the video buffer to clipboard unline other programs

You're using WMP right? If so, under the performance tab under options, click on advance and uncheck use overlays. That should do the trick.