Audio & video captures¶

DOSBox Staging can capture screenshots, record audio, and record video directly from the emulator. By default, all captures are saved to the capture folder in the current working directory. You can change this with the capture_dir setting.

Screenshots¶

Screenshots can be saved in multiple formats: upscaled (sharp pixels, aspect-corrected), rendered (post-shader, exactly what you see on screen), or raw (the framebuffer’s contents with 1:1 pixel aspect ratio).

Use Ctrl+F5 / Cmd+F5 to take a screenshot using the default format(s) configured by the default_image_capture_formats setting. Keybindings for taking single screenshots in a specific format are also available.

Screenshots are captured in the background on separate threads, so taking one doesn’t pause emulation or cause audio glitches, even if you spam the screenshot hotkey or capture at 4K in rendered mode.

Aspect ratio correction¶

By default, screenshots are captured in the same aspect ratio you see on screen (the upscaled format), not the raw, non-corrected image. This matters because most 320×200 and similar low-resolution DOS games need aspect ratio correction to look right; only a small fraction of games actually want square pixels. DOSBox Staging performs aspect ratio correction out of the box, and aspect-ratio-correct screenshots follow the same logic, rather than reproducing the square-pixel captures common on emulators (and, as a result, across many DOS game videos and screenshots online).

In upscaled mode, the image is integer or bilinear-sharp upscaled to around 1200 pixels of vertical resolution. For example:

320×200 content is upscaled to 1600×1200
640×480 content is upscaled to 1920×1440
640×350 content is upscaled to 1400×1050 (3× vertical, 2.1875× horizontal scaling)

Upscaled captures are only about 30% larger than raw screenshots on average.

raw captures always contain the actual emulated DOS framebuffer image at its native resolution (e.g., 320×200 modes are captured as 320×200 PNG files), regardless of other settings. The one exception is composite CGA, PCjr, and Tandy modes, which are internally rendered width-doubled to leave enough horizontal resolution for composite artifacts; raw captures of these modes preserve that width-doubling (e.g., 640×200 composite CGA is captured as a 1280×200 PNG).

Video capture¶

Press Ctrl+F7 / Cmd+F7 to start and stop video recording. Video is captured as an AVI file using the lossless ZMBV codec. Like raw screenshots, video capture records the raw emulated framebuffer contents without any CRT shader applied, though deinterlacing is applied. Video capture uses the optimized zlib-ng library, which is several times faster than plain zlib, so you can capture at higher resolutions without dropped frames or glitches, even on older CPUs.

Warning

If your host CPU can’t keep up with recording in realtime, MIDI output may need to be timestretched a little, and other audio may need to be stretched too, to keep it in sync with the video. This can introduce audible artifacts. Enabling CPU throttling is one way to reduce this, but if it keeps happening, the real fix is a faster machine.

Audio capture¶

Press Ctrl+F6 / Cmd+F6 to start and stop audio recording. Raw MIDI and OPL output can also be captured for those who want to tinker with game music outside the emulator.

Shortcuts¶

Windows / Linux	macOS	Action
`Ctrl`+`F5`	`Cmd`+`F5`	Take screenshot (default format)
`Alt`+`F5`	`Alt`+`F5`	Take rendered screenshot
`Ctrl`+`F6`	`Cmd`+`F6`	Start/stop audio recording
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`F6`	`Cmd`+`Alt`+`F6`	Start/stop MIDI recording
`Ctrl`+`F7`	`Cmd`+`F7`	Start/stop video recording

See the Keyboard shortcuts appendix for the full list of shortcuts.

Configuration settings¶

Capture settings are to be configured in the [capture] section.

capture_dir¶

Directory where the various captures are saved, such as audio, video, MIDI, and screenshot captures (capture in the current working directory by default).

default_image_capture_formats¶

Set the capture format of the default screenshot action.

If multiple formats are specified separated by spaces, the default screenshot action will save multiple images in the specified formats. Keybindings for taking single screenshots in specific formats are also available.

Possible values:

upscaled default – The image is captured in the same aspect ratio you see on screen. It’s integer or bilinear-sharp upscaled to around 1200 pixels of vertical resolution, and always uses sharp pixels regardless of the shader in use.
rendered – The post-rendered, post-shader image is captured – an exact pixel-by-pixel replica of what you see on screen. Filenames end with -rendered.
raw – The contents of the raw framebuffer are captured (always results in square pixels). Filenames end with -raw.

Example, capturing both raw and upscaled images on every screenshot:

[capture]
default_image_capture_formats = upscaled raw