No such luck:
jbriggs@jbriggs-media:~/Downloads/complete/Movies/Monsters.2010.720p.HDTV.DD5.1.x264-HDGiRL$ ll
total 4584188
-rw-r--r-- 1 jbriggs jbriggs 4694204183 2010-11-04 03:05 Monsters.2010.720p.HDTV.x264-HDGiRL.mkv
jbriggs@jbriggs-media:~/Downloads/complete/Movies/Monsters.2010.720p.HDTV.DD5.1.x264-HDGiRL$ cd ^C
jbriggs@jbriggs-media:~/Downloads/complete/Movies/Monsters.2010.720p.HDTV.DD5.1.x264-HDGiRL$ locate^C
jbriggs@jbriggs-media:~/Downloads/complete/Movies/Monsters.2010.720p.HDTV.DD5.1.x264-HDGiRL$ vlc --snapshot-prefix img --snapshot-format png --stop-time=10 --snapshot-path `pwd` --no-snapshot-preview Monsters.2010.720p.HDTV.x264-HDGiRL.mkv
VLC media player 1.0.6 Goldeneye
[0x9cb6db0] inhibit interface error: Failed to connect to the D-Bus session daemon: /bin/dbus-launch terminated abnormally with the following error: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed.
[0x9cb6db0] main interface error: no suitable interface module
[0x9c1e148] main libvlc error: interface "inhibit,none" initialization failed
[0x9cb1788] main interface error: no suitable interface module
[0x9c1e148] main libvlc error: interface "globalhotkeys,none" initialization failed
[0x9c1e148] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[0x9cb85b8] qt4 interface error: Could not connect to X server
[0x9cb85b8] skins2 interface error: Cannot open display
[0x9cb85b8] skins2 interface error: cannot initialize OSFactory
Remote control interface initialized. Type `help' for help.
m_el[mi_level] == NULL
arrrrrrrrrrrrrg Up cannot escape itself
[0x9ce67e0] a52 decoder: A/52 channels:6 samplerate:48000 bitrate:384000
[0x9d21068] pulse audio output: No. of Audio Channels: 6
[0x9d9e5d0] xvideo video output error: cannot open display
[0x9d9e5d0] x11 video output error: cannot open display
[0x9d9e5d0] fb video output error: cannot get terminal mode (Invalid argument)
[0x9e76b00] glx generic error: cannot open display
^C[0x9ccf510] signals interface error: Caught Interrupt signal, exiting...
status change: ( stop state: 0 )
status change: ( quit )
it plays the film in ASCII though
The commandline switches in that thread aren't in VLC anymore