Getting Started

IMPORTANT: MpegXtra® requires a MCI driver that can play MPEG files. It will not work if the driver installed is incompatible or not configured correctly. A quick way to determine if the driver is compatible is to open a MPEG file in the Media Player. If your system can play MPEG files from the Media Player it will probably work well with MpegXtra®, but some advanced features may not be entirely supported. The Xtra also requires the ActiveX® network extensions installed on the target machine, so please check the System Requirements on our web site at http://www.tbaiana.com for pointers to the appropriate installers and configuration troubleshooting.

MpegXtra® is a Sprite Xtra. Unlike XObjects or Lingo Xtras, Sprite Xtras can be manipulated using the score and cast windows, and their properties can be adjusted through Lingo, just like Director®'s built-in media types. 

Before starting, you should configure Director's authoring environment to properly display external palettes in 256 color mode. MpegXtra® needs to access the current palette when Director is running in 256 colors. This can be enabled by editing the DIRECTOR.INI file, which is located in the same directory of your Director application. You need to edit the palette section to look like:

[Palette]
Animation=0
; 1: allows director to take control of the palette for fast palette effects
;    and transitions.
; 0: prevents director from taking control of the palette so other apps,
;    wallpaper etc. look better but palette effects and transitions will
;    be slower.

You will need to include a copy of this modified DIRECTOR.INI file with your Projectors (read the instructions on the "Creating Projectors") section.
It is also a good idea to enable the "Animate in Background" option. This can be done by selecting the FILE->PREFERENCES->GENERAL menu in Director, and checking the "Animate in Background" option.

To create a MpegXtra® cast member, go to your INSERT menu, select TABULEIRO XTRAS->MpegXtra 3. The standard MpegXtra® Properties Dialog Box will appear. Select browse. Another Dialog Box will appear, prompting you to choose the video file associated with this cast member. You can select Mpeg, VOB and other types of Mpeg files, but the ability to play the files correctly will depend the Mpeg MCI driver installed on your system. Please note that all filenames will be converted to short format, since this is required by most MCI drivers. Select a file with the correct type and extension. Click OK. You will return to the Properties Dialog Box. The file information should be displayed correctly, indicating the duration, height and width of the Mpeg file. 
You can preview the file, mark cue points and set the playback options.
Leave the Playback options as they are, for now.  Finish by clicking OK.

A new cast member should have appeared in your Cast Window in Director. It has the MpegXtra® icon, and the name of your linked video file. Click on it and drag the cast member to the score. A new sprite will be created on your score window, and you can adjust the position and the size of the video directly in the score. 

You can use the "Wait for Cue Point"  option in the tempo channel to wait for the end of the playback, or you can use a:

on exitframe
  go the frame
end

script on the script channel to make Director loop on the frame while the video plays. That's it! 

Note: the "Wait for cue point"  option will not operate correctly if your MpegXtra® sprite is in the last frame of the score. The same behavior is true for built-in digital video and audio sprites.