Copyright: Visual Help Copyright® 1993 Firas Bushnaq


INTRODUCTION
The Video Machine

From Window Ware, Inc.

Introduction

The Video Machine is a video "juke box" that can queue your video files and play them in the background while you work.  You can choose to play them in the order that they were added to the queue, or in random order.  The queue can "loop" so that after a video file plays it is added to the bottom of the queue again, or it can be removed from the queue after playing.

 Video List

 Queue List

 Controls

 Configuring Video Playback


Video List

Click on the "Dir" button (or press ALT+D) to open a dialog box for choosing the video directory.  Select ANY video file (.avi) to change to that directory.  The Video List will then be filled with the names of the video files in that directory.  Note that you can ONLY change the video directory if video files are located there.

Press the "<" or the ">" buttons to "turn pages" in the Video List.

Click on a song in the Video List to add it to the queue.  You can add the same video several times if you like.

Click on the "Add All" button (or press ALT+A) to add all videos in the Video List to the queue.

The first video added to the Queue List may suddenly "disappear" as it is immediatley pulled from the queue and played.  Subsequent additions to the queue will "stack up" and appear in the Queue List.


Queue List

Videos that have been selected from the Video List appear in the Queue List.  Videos wait in the queue until it is their turn to play.  As they are played, the videos are either removed from the Queue List entirely, or they are added to the bottom of the list, depending on how the Loop option is set.

Video can be added to the Queue List or removed.

Videos can be played randomly or in the order in which they were added to the Queue List.

A video that is playing can be skipped, stopped, paused, or "stepped" forward or backward.

Videos will continue to play and be removed from the Queue List even when the program is minimized and you are running other applications. However, playing videos takes a heavy toll on system resources, and your ability to run other applications may be limited by your hardware.


Controls

The following details the purpose and use of each control.

Loop

Shortcut Keys: ALT+L
Checking this option will prevent videos from being being removed from the Queue List as they are played.  Instead, videos will be added to the bottom of the Queue List.

Random

Shortcut Keys: ALT+M
Checking this option will cause video to be played randomly from the Queue List, rather than in the order in which they were queued.

Add All

Shortcut Keys: ALT+A
This adds all video from the Video List to the Queue List. If no videos are in the queue, the first video added will be removed for playing, and the remainder of the Video List will be appear in the Queue List.

Remove All

Shortcut Keys: ALT+V
This button removes all videos from the Queue List.  It does not stop the currently playing song.

Remove

Shortcut Keys: ALT+R
Removes the currently selected video(s) from the Queue List.

Skip

Shortcut Keys: ALT+K
This stops the video that is currently playing and advances to the next video (if any) in the Queue List.

Help

Shortcut Keys: ALT+H
You're looking at it!

Exit

Shortcut Keys: ALT+X
Stops the video that is currently playing and exits the program.

Dir

Shortcut Keys: ALT+D
Open a dialog box to selects the video directory for the Video List. Select ANY video file (*.vid) to change to that directory.  Note that you can ONLY change the video directory if videoI files exist in that directory.

<  (Page Backward)

Shortcut Keys: ALT+SHIFT+<
Turns back one page in the Video List.  If the current page is the first page, it "rolls over" to the last page.

>  (Page Forward)

Shortcut Keys: ALT+SHIFT+>
Turns ahead one page in the Video List.  If the current page is the last page, it "rolls over" to the first page.


Configuring Video Playback

The Microsoft Video For Windows Runtime can be configured to playback videos full screen or in a window. It also controls whether the video is "zoomed" to twice its recorded size, as well as several other options.

To change your video configuration run Control Panel and open the DRIVERS applet. Select the [MCI] Microsoft Video For Windows driver and click on the SETUP button.  You will be presented with a dialog box that allows you to change the Video For Windows configuration.  When finished making the changes click on the "Set Default" button to save configuration.