Here goes:
Go to the Tech Smith link you provided

http://techsmith.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/techsmith.cfg/php/enduser/std_a...

On the page go to item 7 Black or Blank Video Image Captures.  Click
on the link and follow these procedures which are posted on the Tech
Smith page:

 Black or blank video and image captures

  Question
  The videos or images captured in SnagIt or Camtasia Studio are blank
or black.

  Answer
  Cause

Usually hardware acceleration is at fault, either system-wide or
within the player (when trying to capture a DVD).  Windows Media
Player cannot be used as your DVD player if you wish to capture from
it.

Resolution

Step 1: Turn off hardware acceleration globally for all applications

Windows XP or 2000 Operating System

1. Right-click on the desktop and select Properties > Settings >
Advanced > Troubleshoot.

2. Set the Hardware Acceleration slider to none.

On other versions of Windows

1. Select Control Panel > System > Performance tab > Graphics >
Advanced settings.

2. Set the Hardware Acceleration slider to none.

Step 2: Disable the hardware acceleration on the program (for
recording DVD stills or videos)

Not every player can be covered, but here are a handful of the more
popular ones and their common steps:

WinDVD

1. In the WinDVD control window, click the Sub Panel arrow.  Click
here for image.

2. Click the Setup button to open the Setup option (it looks like a
wrench).  Click here for image.

3. Click on the Video tab.

4. Uncheck all of the hardware acceleration options except for the
color acceleration.  Within WinDVD 5, deselect only the Use Hardware
Decode Acceleration option.  Click here for image.

5. Click OK to save the settings changes.

PowerDVD

1. In the PowerDVD control windows, click the Configuration button to
open the configuration options.  Click here for an image.

2. Click on the Video tab  Click here for an image.

3. Uncheck all of the hardware acceleration options except for color
acceleration.  Within PowerDVD 5 and up, deselect the Enable hardware
acceleration option.  It should be disabled by default.

4. Click OK to accept the setting changes.

Windows Media Player (version 10)

- Select Tools > Options > Performance and slide the Hardware
Acceleration slider to none.

Windows Media Player (version 6.4 and earlier)

Select View > Options > Playback and slide the Hardware Acceleration
slider to none.

RealPlayer

1. From the Tools menu, select Preferences > Hardware

2. Set the Video Card Compatibility to Most reliable by moving the
slider all the way to the left.

RealPlayer G2

1. Select Options/Preferences from the RealPlayer menu.

2. Go to the Performance tab and disable (uncheck) the Use optimized
video display setting.

3. You may need to close and restart RealPlayer G2 to have this change
take effect.

Apple QuickTime

1. Select Edit > Preferences > Streaming Transport.

2. In the dropdown box, select Video Settings and uncheck all of the
DirectDraw options.

More Information

Windows Photo Gallery in Vista is an application that our software
cannot capture.  Running Vista under VMWare or Virtual PC can capture
the slideshow with all our tools.  If all that is needed is a
screenshot (instead of a recording), the PrtScn key seems to work.

For capturing a DVD image, PowerDVD seems to work more reliably than
WinDVD, if you have the option of using both programs.

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player cannot be used for a DVD capture because it does
not use a standard DirectX layer to display DVD video.

SnagIt still screen capture

Another solution is to use the DirectX capture feature in SnagIt.
However, this feature will only work for single frame image captures
and is not available for video capture.  To use DirectX capture:

1. Select the profile named A DirectX application (for example games)
from the profile list.

2. Go to the media player you are trying to capture and press the
Scroll Lock key on your keyboard (DirectX capture uses this as its own
unique hotkey).

  All I had to do was right click on my desktop,click  properties and
settings in dispaly properties.  Then I clicked advanced and then
troubleshoot.  I reduced by hardware acceleration to under 50% and it
worked fine.

I am a middle school teacher and I use Sketchup to teach an into to
architecture and design class.  I use the tutorials alot since the
kids can go back and watch them if them miss something in the
instructional part of my class.
Thanks again for your help.  Hope I can help someone else someday.

Dan

On Oct 26, 10:31 pm, TaffGoch wrote: