It is possible that NetMeeting is overlapping the video playback onto the display surface. (Not drawing it with GDI calls) I am confused as to what you are doing, but here are some things to think about; 1. If you are trying to read the video netmeeting is putting to the screen: If you try to get a bitmap of the video, by calling (BitBlt or something like that, you will get a big pink bitmap (or some other solid funky color). 2. If you want control of the screen to show your stuff, and not netmeeting, perhaps use the DirectDraw API to reset the video mode into your mode (or back to normal) somethings to think about anyway... Darin Rousseau http://www.rinlex.com/fssi/development/ darin@rinlex.com