diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/snapshot.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/snapshot.ts
index 116103e56..f88fcab76 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/snapshot.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/snapshot.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
+import { spawn } from "node:child_process";
 import { defineCommand } from "citty";
-import { existsSync, readFileSync, mkdirSync } from "node:fs";
+import { existsSync, mkdtempSync, readFileSync, mkdirSync, rmSync } from "node:fs";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
 import { resolve, join, dirname, relative, isAbsolute } from "node:path";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
 import { resolveProject } from "../utils/project.js";
@@ -9,6 +11,54 @@ import type { Example } from "./_examples.js";
 const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
 const __dirname = dirname(__filename);
 
+/**
+ * Extract a single frame from a video file at `timeSeconds` via FFmpeg.
+ * Used to work around Chrome-headless's inability to reliably seek
+ * <video> elements during snapshot capture.
+ */
+async function extractVideoFrameToBuffer(
+  videoPath: string,
+  timeSeconds: number,
+): Promise<Buffer | null> {
+  const tmp = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), "hf-snapshot-frame-"));
+  const outPath = join(tmp, "frame.png");
+  try {
+    const result = await new Promise<{ code: number | null; stderr: string }>((resolvePromise) => {
+      // `-ss` before `-i` performs a fast keyframe seek; adequate for snapshot accuracy
+      // (±1 frame) and orders of magnitude faster than the decode-and-scan alternative.
+      const ff = spawn("ffmpeg", [
+        "-hide_banner",
+        "-loglevel",
+        "error",
+        "-ss",
+        String(Math.max(0, timeSeconds)),
+        "-i",
+        videoPath,
+        "-frames:v",
+        "1",
+        "-q:v",
+        "2",
+        "-y",
+        outPath,
+      ]);
+      let stderr = "";
+      ff.stderr.on("data", (d: Buffer) => {
+        stderr += d.toString();
+      });
+      ff.on("close", (code) => resolvePromise({ code, stderr }));
+      ff.on("error", () => resolvePromise({ code: null, stderr: "ffmpeg spawn failed" }));
+    });
+    if (result.code !== 0 || !existsSync(outPath)) return null;
+    return readFileSync(outPath);
+  } finally {
+    try {
+      rmSync(tmp, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    } catch {
+      /* best-effort */
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 export const examples: Example[] = [
   ["Capture 5 key frames from a composition", "snapshot captures/stripe"],
   ["Capture 10 evenly-spaced frames", "snapshot captures/stripe --frames 10"],
@@ -172,6 +222,23 @@ async function captureSnapshots(
       const snapshotDir = join(projectDir, "snapshots");
       mkdirSync(snapshotDir, { recursive: true });
 
+      // Lazily load the engine's <img>-overlay injector. Chrome-headless cannot
+      // reliably advance <video>.currentTime mid-seek (the setter is accepted but
+      // the decoder ignores it without user activation), so the render pipeline
+      // already extracts each frame via FFmpeg and injects it as an <img> sibling
+      // over the <video>. We reuse that same primitive here so `snapshot` and
+      // `render` behave identically for timed <video data-start> elements.
+      let injectVideoFramesBatch:
+        | ((page: any, updates: Array<{ videoId: string; dataUri: string }>) => Promise<void>)
+        | null = null;
+      try {
+        const engine = await import("@hyperframes/engine");
+        injectVideoFramesBatch = engine.injectVideoFramesBatch as typeof injectVideoFramesBatch;
+      } catch {
+        // Engine unavailable in this install — snapshot will still run, and
+        // compositions without <video data-start> get exactly the old behaviour.
+      }
+
       // Seek and capture each frame
       for (let i = 0; i < positions.length; i++) {
         const time = positions[i]!;
@@ -200,6 +267,77 @@ async function captureSnapshots(
         );
         await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 200));
 
+        // ─── Inject real video frames over any active <video data-start> ───
+        // Without this, Chrome-headless renders them blank/first-frame because
+        // it silently drops programmatic `currentTime` writes during capture.
+        // No-op when the composition has no timed videos (basecamp, linear, etc.)
+        if (injectVideoFramesBatch) {
+          const active = await page.evaluate((t: number) => {
+            return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("video[data-start]"))
+              .map((el) => {
+                const v = el as HTMLVideoElement;
+                const start = parseFloat(v.dataset.start ?? "0") || 0;
+                const rawDuration = parseFloat(v.dataset.duration ?? "");
+                const srcDur = Number.isFinite(v.duration) && v.duration > 0 ? v.duration : 0;
+                const duration =
+                  Number.isFinite(rawDuration) && rawDuration > 0
+                    ? rawDuration
+                    : srcDur > 0
+                      ? srcDur
+                      : Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY;
+                const mediaStart =
+                  parseFloat(v.dataset.playbackStart ?? v.dataset.mediaStart ?? "0") || 0;
+                return {
+                  id: v.id,
+                  src: v.currentSrc || v.src,
+                  start,
+                  duration,
+                  mediaStart,
+                };
+              })
+              .filter(
+                (entry) =>
+                  entry.id && entry.src && t >= entry.start && t < entry.start + entry.duration,
+              );
+          }, time);
+
+          if (active.length > 0) {
+            const updates: Array<{ videoId: string; dataUri: string }> = [];
+            for (const v of active) {
+              // The page-served URL (http://127.0.0.1:PORT/relative/path.mp4)
+              // maps 1:1 to <projectDir>/relative/path.mp4. Reconstruct the
+              // filesystem path from the URL pathname.
+              let filePath: string | null = null;
+              try {
+                const url = new URL(v.src);
+                const candidate = resolve(projectDir, url.pathname.replace(/^\//, ""));
+                const rel = relative(projectDir, candidate);
+                if (!rel.startsWith("..") && !isAbsolute(rel) && existsSync(candidate)) {
+                  filePath = candidate;
+                }
+              } catch {
+                /* unresolvable src (e.g. blob:, data:) — skip */
+              }
+              if (!filePath) continue;
+              const relTime = Math.max(0, time - v.start + v.mediaStart);
+              const png = await extractVideoFrameToBuffer(filePath, relTime);
+              if (!png) continue;
+              updates.push({
+                videoId: v.id,
+                dataUri: `data:image/png;base64,${png.toString("base64")}`,
+              });
+            }
+            if (updates.length > 0) {
+              try {
+                await injectVideoFramesBatch(page, updates);
+              } catch {
+                // If injection fails, fall through to the plain screenshot — no worse
+                // than pre-fix behaviour.
+              }
+            }
+          }
+        }
+
         const timeLabel = opts.at?.length
           ? `${time.toFixed(1)}s`
           : `${Math.round((time / duration) * 100)}pct`;